Campus English

To help the Tamkang community(1) integrate(2) English into ev-eryday life, here we will offer some English that is useful specifically for(3) life on a university campus. In this issue(4) we use an imaginary(5) conversation between an American student named Jason and a Taiwanese student named Alex in one of Tamkang's school cafeterias(6). The American, Jason, is in Tamkang studying Mandarin Chinese(7) for one year. He and Alex are doing a language exchange, and we are listening in(8) on their first English conversation.

Jason：So(9) Alex, what's your major(10)?

Alex：I'm an Information and Library Science(11) major. How about you?

Jason：Back at my home university in the US, I'm an Asian Studies(12) major. By the way, what year are you(13)?

Alex：I'm sorry. I'm not sure what you mean.

Jason：There are four years for a university undergraduate student(14), right? If you are studying in your first year, you are a freshman. If it's your second year, you're called a sophomore. Third year students are juniors and the fourth and final year is called senior year. So, for example, I can say things like: "My junior year in university was the most enjoyable year for me."

Alex：Thanks. That's useful to know.

Jason：It is. Probably the two most frequent(15) questions that are asked when university students meet each other for the first time are: "What year are you?" And "What's your major?"

Alex：By the way, to answer your original question, I'm a sophomore. And what year are you?

Jason：I'm a junior. So, you could say I am here in Taiwan for a junior year abroad.

1. community：社區；社團；團體。Tamkang community： 淡江大學校園社區。

2. integrate：v. 整合；融入。（名詞為integration, 形容詞為integrative）。

3. useful specifically for…：對…特別有用。

4. issue：（雜誌、期刊的）一期（這個字另外常用的重要含義為：議題、問題）。

5. imaginary：adj. 想像的（動詞為imagine, 名詞為imagination）。

6. cafeteria：n.（機關團體或學校裡附設的）餐廳；自助餐廳（一般的餐廳叫restaurant）。

7. Mandarin Chinese：中文（指國語，常簡稱為Mandarin）。

8. listen in：偷聽。

9. so：conj. 那麼…

10. major：n. 主修（這個字也是動詞，後面跟著介詞in: I major in Information and Library Science 我主修資訊與圖書館）；主修…的學生。

11. Information and Library Science： 資訊與圖書館（學）。

12. Asian Studies：亞洲研究。

13. What year are you? ：你是幾年級？

14. undergraduate stu-dent：大學部學生（研究生叫 graduate student）。under-graduate這個字常當名詞使用，意思就是大學部學生（你可以說：I am an undergraduate. 我是大學部學生）；這個字也可當形容詞，意思就是大學部的，如 undergraduate stu-dent 裡它就當形容詞用。undergraduate student這個詞跟註7的 Mandarin Chinese 的構詞是一樣的。

15. frequent：adj. 經常的（名詞叫frequency，經常；頻率）。