Unit 1 College culture
Outside view
V/O
Harvard University in Cambridge is one of the best universities in the world. We spoke to Alex Jude, the university’s Head of Communications. He explained that Harvard looks for the best and most talented students from around the world.
Alex
Harvard actually seeks students from around the world, the best students that we can find, to study chemistry, or study literature, or study government, or business. Our business school is particularly well-known around the world, as is the medical school and law school, so, um, and, and the Kennedy School of government, for the John F. Kennedy School of Government, so, er, we do seek very, very talented students and we have open doors for them.
V/O
We asked five students at Harvard to tell us what kind of social life they have.
Ashley
Um, well relaxing is a little hard to do around here, but basically, I mean, I still, I, I live nearby anyway, so I see a lot of my friends, and … Um, there’s a good social life here if you l ook for it. I go to the gym, run. So that’s what I do.
Adam
It is whatever you want it to be. It’s good. If you wanna go out party, do anything you can. If you wanna sit in your room and study all night like my friend over here, you can also do that.
Brian
Socially, like you said, it’s, it’s a lot of what you make it. Um, we don’t have fraternities here, and so, you know, that’s, it’s obviously not as social. There’s not as many parties as there would be on another campus. Um, but on a Friday or Saturday night, there, there, there will be a party. Usually we end up studying until about 10 o’clock. And then we, and then we’ll go out and have fun maybe, or just watch a movie with friends, or, you know, whatever is going on for the night. Jodie
Not everyo ne would agree with me, obviously, but it’s, I think it’s a fun place to be.
Int.
Have you made a lot of friends?
Jodie
Oh, definitely.
Int. ：Mm.
Jodie
Many.
Int.
What, what do you do with your friends?
Jodie
Um, well, I like to go to concerts. I’m in three music groups, so I have lots of rehearsals during the week for that. Um, just do, you know, some fun things, on the weekend.
V/O
We asked the Harvard students if they use the
Internet.
Ashley
Um, I, I use it a fairly good amount. Um, our library system is online, so I use that a lot. And a lot of my classes, you know, have to do research papers. You can find a lot of information on there, so.
Int.
So how often do you use it, a week, a day?
Ashley
Um, I use it probably on more of a weekly basis. Maybe three or four times a week.
Brian
Oh yes, definitely. We live through the Internet actually. Well, I do a lot of research through the Internet, follow my stocks on the Internet. Um, well, even though e-mail is not officially Internet, we, that’s how we communicate a lot at college, so, through the e-mail.
John
Um, I use the internet mostly for, er, I’d say, sort of leisure purpos es. I mean, I play, um, I use it for a lot of, I don’t, we don’t have TV in my room, so I use it, uh, uh, go to the CNN website, keep up on current events, things like that. Uh, I also, uh, you know, there’s some little games to play over the Internet. Um, just um, I go to to see what’s happening, follow the Boston Red Sox, things like that. Um, I think a lot of courses use it to post things, but I, I don’t usually use it that much for research, or things. I tend to use the libraries for such things, so.
Listening in
Passage1
V/O
Hi, I’m Nick Carter, and this is SUR, your university radio station. This morning we went around campus to ask freshers –now half-way through their first year –the question, “How are you finding uni?” Here are some of the answers we got.
Speaker 1
It’s cool. It’s everything I hoped it would be. I’m very ambitious, I want to be a journalist and I want to get to the top of the profession. I’ve started writing for the university newspaper so I’ve got my foot on the ladder already.
Speaker 2
I’m working hard and the teaching is as good as I expected. And I’ve made some good friends. But I’m very homesick. I’m Nigerian and my family’s so far away. I went home at Christmas for a month –that really helped, but man, I miss my family so much.
Speaker 3
“How am I finding uni?” It’s great. It’s not perfect, nothing is, but, like, I’ve got a brilliant social life, just brilliant, and I’ve made lots of friends. For the first few months I just didn’t do, really enough work. But I –I talked about it with my parents and I’m working harder now and getting good grades.
Speaker 4
Actually, I’ve been quite lonely to be honest. I’m a bit shy … everyone else seemed to find it so easy to make friends straight away. But things have been better recently –yeah, they have. I’ve joined a couple of clubs and like, it really helps to get to know people when you have shared interests. So, yeah –I’m feeling a lot happier now.
Speaker 5
