Time: 6th, September, 2018

Source: News Center

Author: Wu Haizhi, Chu Tianshu

Photographers: Fu Yonggang/Li Yongxin

Fu Yonggang's former students always happily recall the lively lectures the scholar gave, his abundant knowledge and his cheerful personality. Fu is always faithful to his work, not only as a professor in the School of Translation Studies but also as a cross-cultural scholar. He teaches students in accordance with their aptitudes, leading them with patience and showing them the charm of translation.

(Fu Yonggang visiting the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire)

He used to take his class to Riyue Lake for outdoor discussions. When he was teaching at Southeast University, he once took his students to an exhibition hall to take the interpretation exam, in which students interpret simultaneously as the commentator introduces visitors to the items on exhibit.

These teaching methods are what I learned from Western countries, Fu said. Speaking of the difference between Chinese and American students, Fu smiled and said that what impressed him most is that American are less limited, maybe because that they have more elective courses and extracurricular activities. But of course, he said, all freedom is built on school discipline.

(Fu lecturing on Chinese culture to American students)

(Fu answering a student's question)

For students from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, Fu also adopts a teaching method to suit them specifically. He found that students from these regions are likely to be a bit weak on general knowledge, but more active and creative than mainland students. So he organizes them to do surveys, make videos, perform and play games to help them learn, and then asks them to report in class. Making use of what they are good at improves his teaching a lot, and students learn more, he said.

Speaking about the School of Translation Studies, Fu said, The first thing is that our students should do the translation work well -- show the world that we can make it more faithful to the original work, more accurate and closer to the essence. On the other hand, many students, as they are perfecting their translation skills, would spend their spare time taking a secondary major, like finance and law, to give themselves more options when staring their careers. It's also a way of improving our competitiveness.

(Fu giving an interview)

As a professor and graduate supervisor in the School of Translation Studies, Fu has focused on research on cross-cultural communication pragmatics and pragmatic translation. He lectures to undergraduates on Introduction to Linguistics and English Lexicology, and to graduate students on Pragmatics and Comparison and Translation Between English and Chinese. 

He was named Excellent Party Member of JNU in 2008 and, Ethics Model of JNU in 2010. He won an award given from the Saliai Education Fund of JNU in October 2017 for his extraordinary research contributions. In the last two decades Fu has published over 10 papers, among them Cross-Cultural Communication Context and Foreign Language Research, and he published several translation works and collections of papers. During this time he has also held many research events.