It was a Wednesday rainy night when the teacher rushed in the classroom only to find the computer in the classroom was unable to connect to the Internet. Students around tried to help repair it but in vain.
老師今天要講的是哈佛個案，不禁感嘆地說：「哈佛的教授們上課的教室富麗堂皇，有專人幫忙擦黑板，是用板擦擦完再用水擦一次。」又說：「教授去那裏備受尊榮，簡直就是大明星。」
The lecture today was about a Harvard business case. The teacher sighed and said, " Professors in Harvard teach in luxurious classrooms. There are even assistants that erase the black boards. They erase it by using the eraser and then water. Professors are treated like movie stars."
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| Picture with my Swedish teacher |
I won't deny that top researchers are movie stars to students. However, my teacher's words reminded me of what I saw in the classrooms of Uppsala. I remember that, in the first Swedish class, the teacher was using an old-fashioned projector to project words written on a transparent paper instead of simply using powerpoint. I haven't seen this kind of projector since I was eight. Also, the teacher asked us not to call him by his last name (ex. Professor X or Teacher X). Instead, he simply wanted us to call him by his name, just as how we call our friends. My teacher is named Stefan, and that is how we call him.
爾後上過很多課，有一門像是Uppsala的森多蓋，老師會帶大家到野外考察。我們是到波羅地海的海邊採集樣本，當時是由老師和兩個助教當司機開著九人座小巴士帶我們去的！台灣應該很難想像老師當司機開車帶我們去校外教學吧？沒錯，瑞典的人工很貴，不用想要請人來幫你擦黑板，司機都要自己當。上課的過程中，也不乏機器故障時，沒有工友，老師只能和隔壁教室老師求助，再來就是去問還有沒有空教室，真的最後不行就是自己去印講義。
Besides Swedish, I took many classes. In a class called 'The Baltic Sea Environment', we had one lecture that is taken near the shore of the Baltic Sea. We had to get some samples there. The teacher and two teaching assistants drove vans to bring us there. To Taiwanese, this seems unbelievable. We can't imagine a teacher being a driver and driving students for outdoor lectures! In Sweden, labor is expensive. A teacher cannot afford an assistant to erase the blackboard. He/She has to be a driver him/herself. One time in class, our powerpoint projector was broken, our teacher went to the neighboring class to ask for help. However, the problem wasn't solved, and there weren't any extra empty classrooms, so our teacher printed handouts instead.
或許大家會覺得：「天啊！這裡的老師也太沒尊嚴了吧？他們到底懂不懂得尊師重道？」但我想，優秀的學者需要的是良好的研究資源與教學環境。Uppsala有相當多的研究中心，而教學環境雖然稱不上富麗堂皇，但絕對是乾淨舒適又人性化。以洗手間為例，每個廁所都是像家裡那種廁所不分男女廁，不但有無障礙空間，在每間之中也都有洗手台和鏡子，紙杯和衛生紙從來沒有缺過。
Maybe you will think that the Swedes show so little respect to their teachers, which is totally different from us, who emphasize the social status of teachers so much. However, in my opinion, what top researchers need are sufficient research resources and nice teaching environment. There are many research centers in Uppsala. These centers are far from luxurious but are definitely clean, comfortable and humane. Take the toilets for example. Every toilet is like the ones we see in our homes, which don't have the separation of male and female. The toilets are barrier free, and in every toilet, there is a private mirror and sink. Paper cups and tissues are never in shortage.
當然，吸引優秀學者的原因還有千千百百種。例如瑞典社會普遍尊重多元文化，保障個人權益，因此在這裡可以充分享受學術自由。而不論你的膚色種族國籍，都不會成為研究或教學的重大障礙。我曾經旁聽一門課，老師就是上過TEDTalk的大師，由此可見，一個沒有把教授當明星的大學，一樣也能吸引優秀的學者。
There are tens of thousands of ways to attract top researchers. In the Swedish society, they respect every culture and protect individual rights. Therefore, you can fully enjoy research freedom. Your complex, race and nationality will not become a great obstacle of researching or teaching. I have listened to a class, in which the lecturer was a famous researcher that had went to TEDTalk. From this example we can see that a university that doesn't treat its professors as movie stars can also attract top researchers.
美國所展現的本來就和社會主義的瑞典是幾乎天差地遠的思維模式，沒有孰優孰劣，但當台灣人眼中看到的世界只有美國時，是否應該更全面的看見世界？
Compared to Harvard in the US, Uppsala in Sweden has a totally different way of operating a school. We can't evaluate which is better. What I want to say is the Taiwanese often only see what Americans do, but we should hold a more comprehensive view and see what other countries in the world would do.
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