Universities

Campus halls are chock full of young people enriching themselves, and searching for a better future. But that’s not all that’s going on in these higher learning institutions, there’s personal growth far beyond what’s learned in the books. We are going back to school, baby! Grab your backpacks and pencils as we discover universities on this week’s episode of FYI!

Transcript

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campus halls are chock-full of young people enriching themselves and searching for a better future but that's not all that's going on in these higher learning institutions there's personal growth far beyond what's learned in the books we are going back to school baby grab your backpacks and pencils as we discover universities on this week's episode of f y i welcome to for your info english you got it[Music] hello hello hello and welcome to another exciting edition of f why i that's right folks we are back and we're going back to school and it reminds me of a movie right off the bat this little primer momento there's a movie called back to school and it's about an elderly guy it was played by comedian rodney dangerfield yeah i loved rodney dangerfield and he played like this grandpa who decided to go back to college go back to university and we're going to take a look at the difference between those two words but let's be clear the word college is not collegio that would be school both college and university are both considered higher learning category higher learning but let's take a look at our intro because it's chock full of vocabulary including the word chock full of i started off by saying campus halls and campus i think you recognize that word you say campus we say campus pronounce it with me remember anytime we come across a word on this show that sounds weird to you or you've never heard before that's a good time to pronounce it aloud or one of those words that looks the same like chaos or campus but they're pronounced very differently in spanish than in english so campus halls and the halls are los pasillos are chock full of atopede young people enriching themselves and obviously to enrich is enrique there and searching for a better future but that's not all that's going on in these higher learning institutions and remember i told you that one before higher learning anything after high school we call higher learning or higher education then i said there's personal growth and the word grow is crether but growth es cretimiento so there's personal growth far beyond mucho mas ayade what's learned in the books and i figured this would be a good time to explain book smarts versus street smarts if you have book smarts you're well read you're a person who reads a lot you know a lot about current events and what's happening in the world you know a little bit about everything everything that you can find in a book you've got book smarts and then street smarts is kind of like experience this would be somebody who knows when somebody is trying to scam them algin you need street smarts and what's more important there's that age-old argument street smarts or book smarts well i say you should have a little bit of both i think street smarts you would say like mundo logia experiencia quesades como van las cosas and it reminds me of another expression the school of hard knocks is and then i said we're going back to school baby yo universidad school is the category in general and this baby thing it's not like carino it's like amigos you know see it's like giving it extra emphasis it has nothing to do with a little baby and then we heard the bell and yes we have the expression to saved by the bell in fact i think we probably looked at that expression in our high school episode so if you haven't looked at that episode yet or given it a listen i should say now's a good time let's go in order first high school then college or university and let's review how to pronounce that word is it high school no is it high school high school high school so listen to that one if you haven't heard it i imagine you've heard it but if not you've got some other homework to do and speaking of the word homework be careful with that one we never say homeworks we say homework because it's uncountable and then i wrapped up the intro saying grab your backpacks and pencils and a pencil is and a pen is are you guys ready do you have all the stuff you need you got your notebooks are you ready to rock well let's hit the halls no no no i don't mean beggar in this case tahitis we're gonna hit the halls so what is the difference between a college and a university well let me explain firstly i went to a university but if i had enrolled a puntarme in bethar if i had enrolled the year before i would have gone to a college yeah my university was called montclair college and then they changed the name to montclair state university and what did that mean well that just means we get some more money from the state and more options for the students better facilities right in the end it's a win-win and here's a little trick we're going to talk a lot about the the tricks and you know the tricks of the trade as we say in american universities but i'll tell you more about that later and i'm gonna tell you about my university experience oh yeah well i'm gonna have to leave some details out because i don't want this to get an explicit rating but yeah it was as fun as it looks in the movies i can guarantee that so what's the difference well i'm gonna read it here see because google is my friend the same way it's your friend and i just googled what's the difference between college and university because i know both words i've heard them all my life but i've never stopped to ponder it pensado improv so here it is colleges are often smaller institutions that emphasize undergraduate education okay now undergraduate is it's not a master's degree or a phd we call it a bachelor's degree and we're going to look at some of the most common degrees and things like that a little bit later so a college smaller institution they emphasize undergraduate los primeros cuatro anos de carrera universities on the other hand are typically larger institutions that offer a variety of both undergraduate and graduate degree programs so they have stuff for people who want to specialize if you want to get your master's or even your doctorate so now that we've gotten that out of the way here's a little pop quiz what's the oldest university in the world the oldest still in operation hmm is it in the united states don't be silly impossible just because of the timeline well it's the university of bologna in italy it was founded in the year 1088 and it has never been out of operation giving it the title of the oldest university in the world that's incredible next on our list we've got oxford yeah when you think of old school institutions you think of oxford well oxford was established between 1096 and 1167. what well that's a huge window of time well the thing is the formation date of this university is a bit vague a little bit unclear because there's evidence that they were teaching as far back as 1096 which is why we started at 1096 and some say it was even earlier than that but really you could say that it was developed and established in 1167 officially so again there's the official word and then there's what people say and obviously everybody is going to root for their alma mater universidad and really does it matter when oxford was founded i mean it's a name that is synonymous with brilliance think about the people that graduated from oxford they might ring a bell sir stephen hawking remember that guy yeah that guy that genius he went there along with 28 uk prime ministers 20 archbishops 12 saints 27 nobel prize laureates 50 nobel prize winners and that's just oxford we're not even going to get into cambridge which together they call those two institutions oxbridge and that's a synonym for the highest level of education i was going to say in england but possibly in the world and of course salamanca made the list and a shout out to jose maria whose daughter is studying at this remarkable university which was established in 1134 which by the way i still haven't been to salamanca and it is high on my list very high on my list because i love college towns college towns are always bustling there are always cool restaurants and cafes and pizzerias at least in the united states but i'm not going to get ahead of myself i'll tell you about the college experience in the united states in the bonus episode and just a quick reminder everybody there's a bonus episode available every week where you can get another episode with so much more information fun facts expressions and so much more plus you can get pdf documents with all the vocabulary and expressions and in each episode or i should say in each topic which is two episodes there are over 400 idiomatic expressions and vocabulary words and also structures so you can get those pdfs and follow along with this podcast every week plus you can get access to weekly review classes where we review yeah that's right next week we're gonna review this episode and i'm really looking forward to it it's gonna be tons of fun plus you can get a monthly master class and so much more if you guys want more information go over to patreon.com slash alberto alonso and take a look at our curious community we'd love to welcome you and i'd like to send a shout out to all my patrons especially my super duper students javier roberto david jose maria mila alex patricio and edgar and don't forget about my interstellar students isa paco diego and carmen what a wonderful group of people guys keep up the great work and for those of you who want some more information or just a free sample let me know more information on patreon.com alberto alonso all right well let's get back to salamanca because i'm dying to go to salamanca now as many of you guys know as well as being one of the oldest learning institutions in the world it also has a place in history because this is the place where chris columbus you say cristobal colon we say christopher columbus well he made his case to get royal support for his expedition to the indies in the 15th century translation that's where he got permission to do his thing in the new world all right now it's time to hit the books to hit the books that's right we're gonna brush up on the key vocabulary you'll need to get by in an american university and to brush up on is repassat let's get our false friend out of the way we don't study a career we get a degree or we major in something i majored in psychology i didn't it's just an example and to minor in something i don't know if you have this as well so your major is your specialty you don't have to choose a minor but some people want to study a couple different things and they're indecisive so i know a guy for example he got a major in business so a major suttitulo principal and he minored in theater so he got another certificate another diploma another degree in theater a secondary obviously your major is your principal your main one and your minor is the one you you take fewer credits of and remember in american universities it's all about those credits you got to get enough credits to graduate so those are your bachelor's degrees but then you can get as we said your master's degree you can get a phd in general you can get your bachelor's degree in about four years again it depends on what that degree is in and it depends on how many credits you get per semester that also depends on the amount of money you have and we're going to talk about how expensive it is to attend universities in the united states i hope you guys are sitting down when i give you that information oh and let's clear something up right now you don't have to go to college you don't have to go to university in fact many people i know they finished at high school they never attended college but they attended a trade school and a trade school is where they teach you a trade they teach you a craft so instead of learning philosophy and general education requirements and drama and whatever you're learning how pipes work tuberia you're becoming a plumber an auto mechanic or an electrician and one thing i've noticed is these jobs now are in demand so don't rule out trade school no descartes i have a friend who went to a trade school to become a mechanic and now he owns his own garage and i think he's doing better than some of the people i know who studied engineering or psychology and i think this is a good segue una buena transition what are some of the most common degrees that people get well i don't know about spain but i looked it up in the united states and the most common degree overall and this is even over bachelor's degrees is your mba your master's in business administration and i think in spain that's one of the most popular ones as well and why because let's be honest whether you're an artist whether you're a banker whether you're an engineer it's good to know a little bit about business especially if you mean business si by sensario okay okay bad joke so yes business majors are among the most popular undergraduate degrees in the united states nearly one in five bachelor's degrees were for business that's about three hundred and ninety thousand six hundred casi cuatrocientos mil so that's a lot of people studying business another one that's extremely popular is nursing well the medical professions in general are very popular from doctors to x-ray technicians but nursing in the united states there's such a demand for nurses that you can study nursing and pretty much have job placement right when you get out of school and we know that isn't the case in many majors well also it's a question of supply and demand another popular one which of course this is up to the student to make it uh practical let's say and that's psychology sure you can study psychology and be a psychologist or you can also study psychology and work for an advertising department so that's another one too that you can branch out what is other popular ones biology engineering again these are practical ones and ones that i think can help you even understand our world our surroundings even better education is another popular one teachers we always need more teachers communication and journalism as many of you guys know i got a bfa and that's big for actor no it's bachelor in fine arts in bellas artes and with a concentration in theater interpretation so you've got really the gamut another popular one computer sciences oh man you say informatica we don't call it informatics and i remember when i was a kid as well everybody told you are you going to be a doctor or a lawyer and those were like your options and i was like neither one i don't want to be a doctor because i don't think i could stomach it and i don't want to be a lawyer because i don't like arguing with people and i don't like confrontation and surely enough they told everybody they pressured people you got to be a doctor you got to be a lawyer you got to be a doctor gotta be a lawyer then now my country is flooded with doctors and lawyers and as i said before there aren't enough plumbers and electricians all right the time has come it's time for you guys to sit down because i'm gonna tell you a little bit about tuition and tuition is the amount of money you need to pay to attend college and it's not easy even if you're rich it's not easy to get into a university or a college you have to have a high gpa gpa stands for grade point average and even if you have a high gpa they're looking for extracurricular activities i mean they want to see that you're the right profile and if it's a really reputable university like stanford or oxford well you might even have to donate a building or something and even then it's not guaranteed so i mean it's a racket some would say a racket i mean it's absolutely cut throat despiadado you can be rich you can have a famous family and that doesn't mean you're going to get into a reputable university in fact there's a documentary that's out now and uh what is it called i believe it's called operation varsity check it out and it'll blow your mind plus it's a great way to pick up some of this vocabulary oh and remember how i said i was going to give you some tips well it's a lot cheaper to go to a university a state university if you live in that state you get a big discount also there's something called community colleges which are colleges that are well kind of smaller than your average ones they aren't as reputable but let's say your grades aren't too good in high school well the good thing is you can go to community college for a year save some money take some of the necessary credits and then you get accepted to the university you wanted to go to so community college is another stepping stone for many people especially people who were goofing off in high school so are you sitting down i'm just gonna give you nyu which isn't the most expensive new york university well it's one i'm familiar with it's one i think everybody is familiar with how much do you think it is to attend new york university as i said before it's called the tuition it is 77 632 dollars the good thing that includes room and board room and borders but 77 let's round it up porque viva is in new york 80 000[Music] a year that is absolutely insane and the argument is it's an investment is and i get it but if you're paying back that investment 50 years later man that's a serious debt and we're going to talk about that in the bonus part we're going to talk about student debt student loans we'll look at some fun facts plus i'm going to share my university experience with you as well so one thing we can take from this first part over here is if you want to attend a university in the united states start saving up now it ain't cheap como de timos no es barato now remember this there are tons of scholarships beccas there are tons of grants subentionis so if you want to do it you can do it definitely there are so many options i've worked with the people from education usa hey have you ever thought about taking a course in the united states and especially now where you don't really have to go there you can do it online although as we'll see in the bonus part half of the fun of university and half of the growth comes from living on campus and we're going to talk all about that in the bonus episode of f y i[Music][Music][Applause] you