实战口语情景对话 第509期:Is Education Useful? 教育有用吗

Todd: Hey, so Jeff, you have an MBA, or you're studying to get an MBA?
托德：嘿，杰夫，你有工商管理学硕士学位，还是你正在攻读工商管理学硕士学位？

Jeff: I'm studying to get an MBA.
杰夫：我正在攻读工商管理学硕士学位。

Todd: OK, why did you choose to get an MBA. You don't seem like the business type of guy. You're always talking about nature and travel and art.
托德：好，你为什么选择攻读工商管理学硕士？你看起来并不是那种商业型的人。你总是谈论自然、旅行和艺术的话题。

Jeff: Ah, this Master's of Business Administration in International Tourism, that's my focus, international tourism, is purely out of necessity, not really that I love to be a student or love studying but I think it's, in today's world, you need an edge to get a job, and I think this MBA will give me an edge to get a job in the future.
杰夫：哦，我的专业是工商管理国际旅游方向，我的专业是国际旅游，我选择这个专业是出于需要，不仅仅是因为我喜欢学习，而是我认为在当今这个世界，找工作时要有优势，我认为工商管理学硕士学位让我以后找工作时有一定的优势。

Todd: So are you learning a lot in your program? Is this a good MBA program that you're in?
托德：你的专业要学习的内容多吗？你学习的专业是优秀的工商管理项目吗？

Jeff: They say education is not burden, Max Lerner, I think said, "Education is not burden" but, and I do, the subject that I chose, international tourism is an interesting topic, and I enjoy it so, I am learning. I'm reading a lot, and I am learning a lot on the subject which is good.
杰夫：听说教育不是负担，我想马克斯·雷勒说过，“教育不是负担”，我选择的国际旅游专业是一个有意思的主题，我很喜欢，所以我努力学习。我会阅读大量材料，也会对这个优秀的项目展开大量研究。

Todd: I don't know, man, I'm actually getting a Master's and, I'm getting a Master's in Education, and I think it's a waste of time.
托德：我不清楚，我也有硕士学位，我是教育学的硕士，可是我觉得那是浪费时间。

Jeff: Well, I never think education is a waste of time, but I think it's the opportunity cost: What you could be doing instead of studying, and I think that's, you really weight out the options of the opportunity that you're giving up when you're spending all those hours reading and writing, and if you have nothing else better to do then I think, well, then yeah, studying something you're interested in is a good idea. It's better than watching TV or playing video games.
杰夫：我从来不认为教育是浪费时间，不过我认为是在浪费机会：想想除了学习你可能做的事情，你花数个小时的时间读写时就放弃了做其他事情的机会，不过如果你没有什么更好的事情要做，那学习一些感兴趣的东西是个不错的主意。这比看电视或玩视频游戏强多了。

Todd: True. True, but sadly I think most Master's programs, or most education systems are geared actually just to make money, and they have a system where they give the books, you read the books, you write the papers, but there's no real learning going on, and it's, in effect, I think it's a waste of time, but that's not the real way that people learn. They learn by actually doing things or having a challenge and trying to accomplish the challenge using any resource possible, and it seems to me that most Master's programs, MBA, Education, whatever, they don't really teach that.
托德：没错，没错，不过遗憾的是，我认为大部分硕士项目或者大部分教育体系的目的都是为了挣钱，他们会提供书籍，然后你阅读这些书并写论文，但其实这样并没有在真正的学习，其实我认为这就是浪费时间，这并不是人们学习的方式。要通过做事情或者接受挑战或者尝试用可用资源去完成挑战来学习，我认为包括工商管理和教育学等在内的大部分硕士学位实际上并没有传授这种方法。

Jeff: I agree with you. I think universities are now a business to make money and the bottom line, revenue is, this is what drives univerisity but I do think that there is active and passive learning like you said and I think there is room for both. (Sure) I think passive learning is good. I think active learning is better but I think it's harder to, it's harder to do. It's harder to get the, get the chance to do active learning, but I think passive learning's OK, as long as it's not all you do. (Sure) I think if you can couple them together, there's some passive learning, some active learning, I think there're good together.
杰夫：我同意你的观点。我认为大学现在就是挣钱的商业机构，推动大学的底线就是收入，我认为确实有你刚提到的主动学习和被动学习这两种学习方式，这两种方式有各自的优点。（没错）我认为被动学习很好，当然主动学习更好，不过很难做到主动学习。很难有机会去主动学习，所以被动学习也可以，只要你不是一直都采取这种方法。（没错）我想可以把两者结合在一起，既进行被动学习又进行主动学习，结合在一起效果更好。

Todd: Well, I think sadly passive learning, book learning, the reading and writing, it's cheaper to do so that's why univerisities tend to stress that.
托德：遗憾的是，像书本知识、读写这种被动学习的成本更低，所以大学才会强调这种方式。

Jeff: Yeah, but I'm, I think I agree with you. I think it is a little bit of a waste of time, but if you have nothing else to do that's any better, then I think yeah, education and studying and learning are a very good thing.
杰夫：没错，我同意你的观点。我认为这种学习方式是有些浪费时间，不过如果你没有更好的事情要做的话，教育、学习和研究是非常好的选择。