Chen Chen, 22, had her graduation farewell dinner weeks ago. But the law graduate of Shandong University still remembers the embarrassing moment when she proposed a toast to her professor and he couldn’t remember her name.
今年22岁的陈辰来自山东大学法学院，这个22岁的姑娘几周前刚和老师同学一起吃了散伙饭。但是，至今她还记得自己在饭桌上向导师敬酒时，导师却不记得她名字的尴尬时刻。
“I immediately blushed,” Chen says. “I wasn’t close to my professor, but I didn’t expect our relation to be so tenuous.”
她说：“我当时脸就红了，虽然我和导师不是很亲近，但没有想到大家竟陌生到如此地步。”
Different from teacher-student relations at high school, professor-student relations in college are not so close. According to a recent survey of 2,230 students and 270 professors by Beijing Normal University, 32 percent of students rarely communicate directly with their professors.
大学里的师生关系早已没有高中时那么亲密。在北京师范大学对2230名大学生和270位导师的调查中，有32%的学生几乎不与导师进行面对面的沟通交流。
Professors believe students should take the initiative in tackling this problem.
导师则认为，解决这一问题，学生应该更主动一些。

Emotional bond
情感交流
Zhang Tingting, 19, a Chinese language and literature major at Jinan University, is sitting in the staff office watching a Korean soap opera with her professor. They’ve been good friends since Zhang’s freshman year, when she went through a bad breakup.
来自暨南大学汉语言文学专业的19岁姑娘，张婷婷，正坐在导师的办公室里和导师一起看韩剧。自从张婷婷经历了大一那场痛苦的失恋之后，她就和导师成为了好朋友。
“I was alone in the classroom and crying when my professor saw me. She comforted me and straightening me out,” Zhang says. After that, they talked about their personal lives and discovered their shared interest in Korean dramas.
她说，“当时导师看到我一个人在教室里哭，她就过来安慰我，让我渐渐恢复平静，振作起来。”自此之后，她们就常常聊起私人生活，然后就发现两人都对韩剧情有独钟。
“That made her amicable and accessible to me,” Zhang says. She now visits her professor’s office on a monthly basis to discuss her academic problems and future plans. Zhang is glad that she had the opportunity to form a close relation with her professor.
张婷婷还说，“老师的安慰让我觉得她是一个平易近人又和蔼可亲的人。”现在，她平均每个月都会去导师的办公室一趟，向导师请教学术问题，制定未来的计划。能有机会和导师建立如此亲密的关系，让张婷婷倍感欣慰。
Pragmatic approach
功利目的
Approaching professors requires a proper reason and good manners. Li Hongyan, professor of communication at China Agricultural University, checks her phone for new messages after every class. One day, she received several WeChat messages, one of which said: “Professor Li, I want to study abroad. Could you please increase my score to meet the foreign university’s requirements?” Li sighed - this was the last message she wanted to receive.
接近导师同样需要目的合理、方法得当。李红艳是中国农业大学的老师，她每节课之后都会看看自己的手机。有一天，她收到好几条微信，其中一条写着“李老师，我很想出国留学，您能再给我加点分，让我的成绩达到外国大学的入学要求么？”李红艳叹了口气，这是她最不想收到的微信。
Li has been using WeChat to facilitate communication with her students. “Those who are afraid to talk face to face with professors can always find me on WeChat,” she says. In recent years, however, she has noticed that students are becoming increasingly pragmatic.
李老师使用微信，是为了更方便地与学生交流。她说：“这样，那些害怕和我面对面交流的同学，可以通过微信联系到我。”但是，这几年，她发现学生变得越来越功利。
It’s common for today’s young people to focus on their personal interests, according to Li. “But when students expect tangible benefits from us, there’s not much we can do,” she says.
她觉得现在的年轻人只关注自己的利益，而这已经成为一种普遍现象。她说，“当学生想要从我们这里获得实际的利益之时，我们往往都无能为力。”
Chen Yongmei, associate professor of Japanese at Beijing Forestry University, believes such students are not representative of the mainstream. Whether students approach professors largely depends on their personality.
陈咏梅是北京林业大学日语系的一名副教授，她觉得这样的学生并不能代表主流。她认为，学生能否和导师拉近关系，很大程度上取决于学生自身的性格。
“Some of them are very outgoing and more than willing to share their thoughts with us. But if they’re not, we don’t force them to,” she says.
她说，“一些学生性格比较开朗，更喜欢和我们交流他们的想法。但是，如果他们不愿意开口，我们也不会强迫他们。”
Another factor that affects professor-student relations is the professors’ way of teaching. Chen says she teaches both a compulsory and a selective course. In the selective course she tends to deliver classes in a more entertaining way, using cartoons and funny videos.
陈咏梅认为，另一个影响师生关系的因素则是导师的教学方法。她说，自己既教授必修课，也讲授选修课。在选修课上，她会使用漫画或是视频，课程也会增加更多的趣味性。
“Students in this course are more willing to communicate with me than students in the compulsory course,” she says.
她说，“于是，选修课上的学生会比必修课的学生更加活跃，愿意与我交流。”