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Sat 12 Mar, 2005 07:04 pm
A new school campus is to be set up in Fuzhou, the Chinese name of which is called "博一学院" (Bo Yi College); "博一" is the short form for the phrase"博通专一", which means students should be trained to be good at all subjects of study, but must be very good in one field, in other words graduates from this school are expected to be generalists (in many fields) and specialists (in one field). "博通专一"is chosen as the motto of this college.
I was asked by our vice president to think of an English version for this, and so I came up with "Be good in all, but best in one." The idea is there, but he said it appeared to be very plain English, and it does not read like a motto. So I suggested why not turn this English version into Latin, in the way "Citius, Altius, Fortius" were chosen for the Olympic motto, which means "faster, higher, stronger", equally very plain English.
I was trying to be humorous when I said "
sounds learned to people who do not know Latin." I did not mean to show off...
So if you can and will help me, well and good.
Thanks
Fansy