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Another Question, this time from a young government employee:
"In one of my translation works, I came across this sentence: 我们部门今年招入4名大学本科生。至此，本部门大学本科生人数已达10人，研究生2人。I tried to put it this way: We recruited four more college students this year, thus bringing the number of college students in our department to 12, including two post-graduate students. But somehow, it felt strange. I wonder if I've translated "大学生" correctly. I myself am one of the college students recruited this year. Please help."
My comments:
You WERE a college student. You are nowadays a college graduate, a government employee with a college or bachelor degree.
The college student is to the person who does his studies while on campus. Once out of school, he's no longer a student, even though in colloquial Chinese, the two persons are not distinguished - the difference in meaning is inferred through context.
When we refer to an office holder as "a college student （大学生）", we really mean to say that they are a college graduate, or simply a graduate.
I think this is where the awkwardness is with your translation. What you wanted to say is "graduates" instead of "students".
A graduate, loosely speaking, may be anyone who completes a course at any level of school. For example, there are more graduates from English-language crash courses in China than any where in the world. (The fact that these graduates are not known for excellence in language skills after they go to work only serves to show that life in the job place requires more than passing exams and receiving a paper certificate - a diploma).
In most conversations, however, a graduate refers to one who successfully completes their studies in a college or university.
One of the world's most famous (or infamous) graduate is the hero of the hit movie The Graduate played by Dustin Hoffman. Benjamin, Hoffman's character in the 1967 movie adapted from a novel of the same title by Charles Webb, falls for the seductive charms of Mrs. Robinson (played by Anne Bancroft) before later finding himself falling in love with Mrs. Robinson's daughter.
After college, if one prefers further academic study in America, one goes to a graduate school for a master's or a doctorate degree (PHD). In British English, these students are known as postgraduates who go into the classroom for postgraduate studies.
In America, postgraduate studies refer to studies after one completes a PHD.
If this is all very confusing, it's probably due to too much school education in the first place. To my way of thinking, college is a must. After that, one must work. Further studies can be done after one gets a little first-hand experience in the real world. If one elects to go back to the ivory tower again, hopefully by then they'll have a better idea what they are looking for.
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