演说者：Peter Salovey
演说题目：A Culture of Curiosity！
耶鲁大学校长Salovey为2023届耶鲁新生发表迎新演讲，Salovey强调了耶鲁注重对“好奇文化”的培养，并敦促新生：只有对未知心存敬畏、保持好奇、不断提问，才能获得自我的提升，而这，也是耶鲁之所以为耶鲁的原因。![]()
耶鲁学霸写的一套世界史！拓宽你的视野，丰富你的知识面
Good morning! To all Eli Whitney students, transfer students, visiting international students, and first-year Yale College students: Welcome to Yale! On behalf of my colleagues here on stage, I extend a warm greeting to the families here today and thank you all for joining us. Please remember these first moments of your loved one’s college career are very special, and I’m glad you can share them with us today.早上好！所有Eli Whitney项目的学生们、转校生们、来访的国际学生们以及大一新生们：欢迎来到耶鲁！在此，我谨代表各位同事，向在座的各位耶鲁家属表示热烈欢迎，感谢你们的到来。请与你们深爱着的新晋耶鲁学生一起尽情享受他们大学生活的最初的美好时光吧。Usually in an opening address, university presidents tell undergraduates that they are amazing individuals, selected from the…among the most talented high school students in the world today. This is, of course, true, but it is not the point I want to make. Instead, I want to encourage you to approach college unimpressed by how impressive you are; have more questions than answers; admit to being puzzled or confused; be willing to say, “I don’t know…but I want to find out.” And, most important, have the courage to say, “Perhaps I am wrong, and others are right.”通常，大学校长会在开学致辞中对本科生说，你们出类拔萃、万中挑一。当然，你们都是最优秀的，但这不是我想表达的重点。相比之下，我想鼓励你们在进入大学后不因自己的卓越而自命不凡；上下求索；承认和面对自己处于迷茫或困惑的状态；愿意说“我不知道……但我想要找到答案”。还有，最重要的是，要有勇气承认，“也许是我错了，其他人的观点才是对的。”This is how you will learn the most from your teachers and classmates. And this is why we have all come to this place. We are here to ask questions – questions about one another and about the world around us. We are here at Yale to nurture a culture of curiosity.怀揣着这样的态度，你才能从老师和同学那里收获最多的东西。这是为什么我们汇聚于此。我们到耶鲁是为了提问，提出关乎彼此，关乎世界的问题。我们在耶鲁，是要培养好奇心文化。This summer, I read a story about Isidor Isaac Rabi, one of this country’s most extraordinary scientists. He remembered an important question his mother asked him. Brought to this country as an infant, Rabi conducted research into particle beams that led to the development of the MRI and many other scientific advances. And he won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1944.今年夏天，我读了一个关于Isidor Isaac Rabi的故事，他是美国最杰出的科学家之一。Rabi出生后便被带到美国，他对粒子束的研究促进了核磁共振成像的发展和许多其它的科学进步。1944年，他获得了诺贝尔物理学奖。他一直记得母亲问他的一个重要问题。Rabi’s parents ran a small grocery store in Brooklyn. His mother had no formal education. The other moms, he remembered, asked their children every afternoon if they had learned anything in school. “Not my mother,” he recalled. “She always asked me a different question. ‘Izzy,’ she would say, ‘did you ask a good question today?’” He believed her reminder to ask good questions helped set him on a path to becoming a distinguished scientist.Rabi的父母在布鲁克林开了一家小杂货店，他的母亲没有受过正规的教育。当其他人的母亲每天下午问他们的孩子在学校学到了什么的时候，“我的母亲总是问我一个不同的问题。”Rabi回忆道，“‘Izzy（Rabi的小名），’她会说，‘你今天问了一个好问题吗?’”Rabi相信正是母亲对他“记得提好问题”的叮咛引领着他走上了成为一名杰出科学家的道路。So, to all the families here today, when you call your Yale students – when you ask them about their classes and their roommates and the food – remember also to ask them about their questions.所以，在场的所有家人们，当你们给你们的耶鲁学生打电话时，关注他们的同学、室友和餐食情况之余，请记得问问他们提出了怎样的问题。Imagine all the great discoveries that have come from asking a question – from Newton’s theory of gravity to the astonishing breakthroughs in quantum science – some of which are happening here at Yale. 想象一下，从牛顿的万有引力定律到量子科学的惊人突破，其中一些正在耶鲁大学发生，所有这些都始于提出了一个问题。When a musician experiments with a new melody, or a sociologist observes a social interaction, they ask “why” and “what would happen if…?” Their curiosity lights up our world and points us in new directions.当一位音乐家试奏了一曲新的旋律，亦或是一名社会学家观察到一段社交互动，他们会问“为什么”和“如果这样的话，会发生什么呢？”正是他们的好奇心点亮了我们的世界，为我们指明了新的方向。Self-discoveries come from asking questions, too. What do you learn when you ask yourself, “Why do I believe that?” … “Why do I believe that?” or “Why did I do that?”自我发现也来源于提问。当你问自己“我为什么相信这些?”或者“我为什么要那样做?”时，你从中学到了什么？I think of these lines from the poet Billy Collins: “the trouble with poetry is / that it encourages the writing of more poetry.”我想起了诗人Billy Collins的一句话:“诗歌的问题在于它鼓励更多的诗歌创作。”I would say the same of asking questions. One leads to another, which opens doors to still another. Sometimes our questions lead to a dead-end. We realize the question we asked wasn’t quite right, and a door closes. But along the way, we have learned something. Perhaps in the future, we will ask better questions.提问也是如此。一个问题引向另一个问题，就像一扇大门开启了另一扇大门。有时我们提出的问题会把我们引向死胡同。这时，我们意识到是我们的问题不太正确，于是一扇门关上了。但在这个过程中，我们仍然受益匪浅。也许未来我们会问更好的问题。In a well-known scene in the movie “The Pink Panther”, Inspector Clouseau checks into a hotel in Germany. He sees a dachshund in the lobby, and he asks the hotel owner, “Does your dog bite?” The owner replies, “No.” When Clouseau goes to pet the dog, it bites his hand – hard! Shocked, he tells the hotel owner, “I thought you said your dog doesn’t bite!” The owner replies, “That is not my dog.” Inspector Clouseau simply hadn’t asked the right question.在电影《粉红豹》中有一个著名的场景，Clouseau探长在德国入住一家酒店，他在大堂看到了一只腊肠犬，便问酒店老板：“你的狗咬人吗？”老板回答说：“不咬人。”于是Clouseau动手抚摸了那只狗，结果腊肠犬狠狠地咬了他一口。他震惊地对酒店老板说：“你不是说你的狗不咬人吗!”主人回答道：“可那不是我的狗。”显而易见，Clouseau没有问对问题。So, years ago, I taught an undergraduate seminar. And one of the questions on the application to the course was, “What is the most important thing you’ve changed your mind about?” We were surprised that quite a few students reported that they had not changed their minds about anything at all! So we decided to accept to the class only students who had changed their minds about something important.几年前，我联合教授本科生研讨课。这门课程在申请中的一个问题是，“你为哪件重要的事情改变过自己的想法？”令我们惊讶的是相当多的学生从未对任何事情改变过他们的想法！我们决定只招收曾对一些重要的事情做出过改变的学生。Be willing to change your mind. Ask questions and embrace Yale’s culture of curiosity. Be open to different viewpoints and experiences, see them as opportunities to learn – even if sometimes you get your hand bit.所以，乐于改变思维方式。勤提问，拥抱耶鲁的好奇心文化。对不同的观点和经历保持开放的心态，将其视作学习的机会，即使有时你会受挫。Now I am a social psychologist. Then as a graduate student at Yale, my curiosity was sparked by the study of emotions, and by a question my undergraduate advisor had asked me: “Peter, why do you think humans even have emotions? What do they do for us?” One of my major areas of research ever since has been emotional intelligence.我是一名社会心理学家。作为耶鲁大学的一名研究生，我的好奇心在研究情感和我的本科导师问我的第一个的问题时被激发出来：“必德，你认为人类为什么会有情感？情感对我们有什么影响？”从那时起，我的主要研究领域之一便确立为情商。In our earliest work, we described emotional intelligence as a set of skills that one can learn that helps you extract the information – the “data” – contained in emotions, either your own or somebody else’s. After a few years of research, it was obvious to me and my collaborators that we weren’t asking exactly the right question. We needed to be able to show that emotional intelligence predicted outcomes in life – the ability to form friendships, succeed in school, work as part of a team, and the like.在我们最早的研究中，我们把情商描述为一种技能，一个人可以通过学习这些技能帮助人解读自己或他人情绪中所隐藏的信息。经过几年的研究，我和我的合作者意识到：我们没有提出正确的问题。其实，我们需要展现的是生活中情商的效用，比如交友的能力，在学校取得成功的能力，团队合作的能力等等。Trouble was, how do you go about measuring the skills of emotional intelligence?We asked ourselves a series of questions starting with, well, “How are personal…how are personal characteristics typically measured by psychologists? The answer is by asking people to rate themselves – these are called “self-reports.” But this led to approaches that disappointed us: How would someone know if they were the kind of person who was especially good at identifying emotions, or understanding them, or managing them, or using emotions? Perhaps thinking that you had spectacular emotional intelligence was a sign of not having much of it at all!我们内部提出了一系列问题，第一个问题是“心理学家通常如何量化性格特质？”答案依靠人们给自己打分，即所谓的“自我评估”。但这个问题的答案让我们有些沮丧：一个人怎么知道自己是否是那种善于辨别、理解、管理和运用情绪的人呢？也许自以为拥有超乎寻常的情商正是没有太多情商的表现！So that door closed, we asked ourselves another question: If we wanted to know if someone possessed the skills of a great baseball player – hitting, throwing, catching the ball; running bases effectively – how confident would we be of self-report? The answer is – not very: All ball players think they are going to be the next A-Rod! 第一扇门关上了。于是我们又问了自己另一个问题：如果我们想了解一个人是否拥有成为伟大的棒球运动员的技能，比如击球、投掷、接球和高效地跑垒，那么，自我评估的可信度是多少呢？答案是不会很高：因为所有的球员都认为他们是下一个A-Rod！When I was a child, I thought I’d be the next Carl Yastrzemski on the Boston Red Sox, while my brother played in the backyard, but, in fact, I barely got out of Little League with my pride intact.当我还是孩子的时候，我和哥哥在后院玩耍，我也自认为是下一位Carl Yastrzemski（美国职业棒球运动员）。但实际上，我几乎从未在少年棒球联盟取得傲人的成绩。Why would emotional intelligence be any different than baseball? If we wanted to know whether someone had high E.I., we needed to assess these skills as abilities. And what would an ability measure of emotional intelligence even look like? So, asking ourselves these questions led to an answer that made more sense, and our ability-based measure of emotional intelligence has now been used in hundreds of studies. Knowing that we didn’t have all the answers and taking an inquisitive, curious attitude allowed us the opportunity to create something relatively new.为什么情商与棒球不同呢？如果我们想知道某人是否有高情商，我们需要将这些技能作为能力。那么衡量情商的能力是什么呢？这样的自我反问使我们更接近正确答案。现在，基于能力的情商测量方法已经被用于数百项研究之中。明确我们并非无所不知，并怀有一种好学、好奇的态度，才能使我们开辟出新天地。So, what questions will you ask? What will spark your curiosity?Not long ago, I received an email from a very proud Yale College parent. He told me about his son, who heard seventy-seven different speakers during his first year at Yale. Seventy-seven! He had learned from thinkers and leaders across the political spectrum; he attended events organized by a wide range of campus organizations. What a way to spend a first year! Could you do this and not change your mind about something important?那么，你将提出什么问题？又是什么会激发你的好奇心呢?不久前，我收到一封邮件，一位耶鲁本科学生家长非常自豪地跟我分享了他儿子的故事：他的儿子在耶鲁大学的第一年听了77位不同讲者的课。七十七位！他从不同政治观点的思想者和领导那里学到很多，并参加了校园社团组织的各类活动。这是一种多么好的方式来度过你的第一年啊！你能这样坚持一年却依然不想改变你对一些重要事情的想法吗？And it turns out this student is also very good at asking questions: He’s doing a project where in the past year, he has interviewed dozens of people – scholars and activists, and journalists, and entrepreneurs from many different sectors. Like so many students, faculty, and staff, he is nurturing a culture of curiosity at Yale.事实证明，这位学生也非常善于提问：在过去的一年里，他采访了几十个人，有学者、活动家、记者和来自不同领域的创业者。和许多学生、教职员工一样，他正在耶鲁培养一种好奇心的文化。Indeed, the Yalies who have come before you have asked a dazzling array of questions. I think of the pioneers of coeducation. Fifty years ago, in 1969, 588 women came to study in Yale College. They entered what had long been an all-male institution, and they asked questions that hadn’t been asked before. We will commemorate this milestone – along with the 150th anniversary of women entering Yale’s School of Art – throughout this year.往届的耶鲁人已经先于你提出了一系列的问题。我想起了提出男女同校教育的先驱们。五十年前的1969年，588名女性来到耶鲁本科学院学习。她们进入了一个长期以来都是男性的机构，问了一些此前从未被问过的问题。在女性入读耶鲁艺术学院150周年之际，我们全年都在纪念这一里程碑。I think of Margaret Warner, Class of 1971. An award-winning journalist, she knows how to ask brilliant questions, and has reported from warzones for decades, witnessing history firsthand, trying to understand our world.我想起了1971届的Margaret Warner。作为一名屡获殊荣的记者，她知道如何提出精彩的问题。她从事战区报道数十年，见证了历史并试图以此了解我们的世界。I think, too, of Alice Young, also Class of 1971. She looked around this campus and asked why there weren’t more students from public schools, so she became an ambassador for Yale back in her home state of Hawaii. And she was also one of the founders of the Asian American Students Alliance, which also celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.还有1971届的Alice Young。她曾环顾校园并提出为什么没有更多来自公立学校的学生，于是她回到家乡夏威夷州，成为耶鲁大学的大使。她也是亚裔美国学生联盟（Asian American Students Alliance）的创始人之一，今年是该联盟成立50周年。And we remember other important anniversaries and the curious students who were part of these changes. In 1969, thanks to student efforts, the Afro-American Cultural Center, known as “the House,” opened, and what is now the Department of African American Studies was created. That same year, students established the Yale chapter of MEChA. And I believe we owe a debt of gratitude…a debt of gratitude to all the courageous pioneers, throughout our history, who have made Yale what it is today.我们还记得其他重要的纪念日，以及参与这些变革的好奇的学生们。1969年，在学生们的努力下，被称为“The House”的非裔美国文化中心成立了，现在的非裔美国研究系也创立于当年。同年，学生们成立了提倡高等教育的学生组织Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan（MEChA）耶鲁分会。Remark：全部内容源自网络，一切权益归原作者所有！