“希腊生活”席卷美国校园

对于大多数刚刚进入大学的美国学生来说，学习已暂不是生活的主旋律，此时必不可少的就是社团活动。每一届新生入学之际，校园里的兄弟会、姐妹会也纷纷登场。它们有一个共同的名字——“希腊生活”，是美国大学校园里特有的一种社团活动。社团作为大学生展示自我的舞台，已经成为一种独特的校园文化。然而，在风光的背后，这些大学社团是否毫无缺点？

By Amirah Ahmad

马玉芳注

College isn’t just about learning.

Contrary to popular belief, once you go to college academics is about the last thing on your mind. For me at least, I was scouting around the campus looking for valuable extracurricular that would aptly define me as a person. I wanted to be a part of everything imaginable. The merits of joining clubs were the friends I could have made as well as staying busy when my academic workload wasn’t as heavy. By the end of the first semester, however, many first-years felt like they lacked a small group of permanent friends they could always fall back on. Students felt like their support network was very limited, and many had difficulty coping with the fact that didn’t have the solid friend group they had in high school.

This is where Greek life comes into play.

For those of you who do not know, Greek life is a system of fraternities and sororities. Fraternities are all male and sororities are all female. These fraternities and sororities are essentially groups of girls or boys who partake in various philanthropic events. There are multiple fraternities and sororities and each fraternity or sorority has a name, which is usually a fusion of 3 Greek letters of the alphabet. An example would be Delta Delta Delta or Gamma Phi Beta. Apart from coordinating a volunteering event, fraternities and sororities are known to be strong brother or sisterhoods. Each fraternity or sorority has at least 20 members, but this number varies depending on the fraternity or sorority and the size of the school.

The catch is, however, not everyone gets to join these groups. Their selection process is about a week and takes place either in the beginning or in the middle of the school year.

Why does Greek life exist? Greek life offers students an opportunity to try something new. Greek life opens up potential friendships within the fraternity or the sorority. Greek organizations are also responsible for admirable charity events and fundraisers and can be the “life” of the school.

In my opinion, however, the system is flawed. The selection process is often based on superficial things like what people wear, what brands they’re displaying, and their looks. The process is structured in such a way that it encourages the superficiality of the entire system. Although the fraternity selection process isn’t as flawed, it still is based on “coolness” and the willingness to party with the fellow brothers.

After witnessing sorority rush, I am completely mortified.

For my university, girls “rush” sororities in the spring of their first semester. To “rush” a sorority essentially means to talk to the different sororities and hopefully join at the end of the rush week. The beginning of rush week seemed great. My friends thoroughly were enjoying their time going from one sorority house to another. Each sorority has a house in which many of the girls that are part of that sorority live in. The girls who rush visit each house and converse with a couple of the girls. Many enjoyed this part of the experience, since it was relatively casual and more laid back than the future days to come. As rush week went on, however, many girls started to drop. After a series of rankings and deliberation , the sororities begin to “drop” girls, which means the girls aren’t allowed to join the sorority. By the end of the week, girls were not being called back and so the tears ensued. Girls sobbed once they found out they weren’t allowed to join the sorority of their dreams, and many expressed frustration, wondering what exactly went wrong. Several girls voluntarily dropped from the entire rushing experience by the middle of the week, unsatisfied with the results. Many girls even conjured theories in which they believed that many sorority pre-picked the girls that would join, betraying the other girls attempting to join fair and square.

Although it started out like fun and games, it quickly turned into a mess.

Even prior to rush week, I sensed the system was incredibly superficial. Those who were planning on rushing received a power point presentation mapping out the outfits you were expected to wear. What’s worse, girls shopped relentlessly during winter break to buy the most expensive pieces of clothing to showoff certain brands sorority sisters often wear.

Greek life is present at many colleges in America, particularly in the Southern half of the nation. Although I appreciate the fundraisers and other philanthropic events Greek life participate in, the exclusive nature of the organizations is particularly disturbing to me.

College should be an open-opportunity experience. After going through the arduous selection process of actually entering college, it seems like the competition never seems to end. There’s competition in academics, sports, social life, extracurricular, even in volunteering. It seems like my peers will forever be my competitors. What I believe, however, is that the competitive atmosphere is detrimental to student’s college experience. The competition prohibits students from trying out new things that otherwise they would have been interested in pursuing. Students miss out on potential hobbies, passions, and even careers. For example, many clubs at college require students to apply. After sending in the application, students are often called in for an interview. Based on how the interview went and the students’ credentials listed on the application, the student is either rejected or accepted. Say, however, that club was a debating club. If the student is denied from joining, there is very little chance the student would have discovered his subconscious passion for debating which may had led to a career as a politician or a lawyer. If accepted to a credible university, I think it’s safe to assume that all students are well-rounded and qualify to enter a club. If the student fails to meet the standards of the club, the student must have the chance to improve and meet the standards for his own contentment.

Unfortunately, however, this competitive and exclusive system is rampant throughout many colleges in America, even across the world. As students receive rejections and denials, however, it’s important to maintain our self-esteem and realize our self-worth. No one can tell us otherwise.

Vocabulary

1. Greek: 此处指Greek life，意为“希腊生活”，是美国大学特有的一种社团活动，包括兄弟会、姐妹会等，通常以1—3个希腊字母为组织命名。这些社团注重公益事业和成员学业，组织成员去做义工，帮助那些需要帮助的人。

2. academics: （院校的）学术活动，学术知识。

3. scout around: 侦查，搜索；extracurricular: 课外（校外）活动；aptly: 适宜地，适当地。

4. workload: 工作量。

5. permanent: 永久的；fall back on: 求助于。

6. come into play: 开始起作用。

7. fraternity: （大学）男生联谊会，男生社团；sorority: （大学）女生联谊会，女子社团。

8. partake in: 参加；philanthropic: 博爱的，慈善的。

9. fusion: 融合；alphabet: 字母表。

10. catch: n. 隐藏的困难，意料不到的情况。

11. fundraiser: 募集资金的活动。

12. flawed: 有缺陷的。

13. superficial: 表面的，肤浅的。

14. party: v. 参加社交活动。

15. mortified: 受辱的，尴尬的。

16. laid back: 闲散的，放松的。

17. deliberation: 仔细的考虑。

18. ensue: 随即发生。

19. 有些女生一旦发现自己没有被理想中的社团录取就会开始哭泣，还有很多会感觉受挫，开始怀疑自己到底哪里做的不对。sob: 啜泣；frustration: 受挫，失望。

20. 甚至还有很多女生认为，许多女生社团早就提前选好了能加入社团的人选，而欺骗了那些试图光明正大加入社团的女生。conjure: 使如变魔术般凭空出现，提出；fair and square: 光明正大地，公正地。

21. prior to: 在……之前。

22. map out: 计划，安排；outfit: 一套服装，（尤指女式）全套服装。

23. relentlessly: 坚韧地，不懈地；winter break: 圣诞节假期，寒假。

24. exclusive: 独有的。

25. arduous: 艰难的。

26. be detrimental to: 对……不利。

27. credential: 证书。

28. say: 假设。

29. 如果这个学生无法加入这个社团，那么他几乎不再有可能发现自己对辩论的潜在热情，而这种热情原本可能让他成为政治家或律师。subconscious: 潜意识的。

30. well-rounded: 全面发展的。

31. rampant: 猖獗的，泛滥的。

32. self-esteem: 自尊。

（来源：英语学习杂志 编辑：丹妮）