Name: 音樂之都美國的頂尖音樂教育！Shane McGuire帶你體驗範德堡大學！ (A World-Class Education in Music City, USA: The Vanderbilt Experience with Shane McGuire)
Uploaded: 2026-01-15T17:55:34.000Z
Duration: 19 min 39 s

Welcome to another episode of Breaking Boundaries, the world's premier podcast for international students.

歡迎來到 Breaking Boundaries 的最新一集，這是全球頂尖的國際學生 pod。

My name is John with the TOEFL program and I'm honored today to be joined by Shane McGuire of Vanderbilt University.

我是 TOEFL 節目的 John，今天很榮幸能邀請到 Vanderbilt University 的 Shane McGuire。

Shane, thanks so much for joining the pod today.

Shane，非常感謝你今天來上這個 pod。

I'm excited to be here and hopefully talk a little bit about life at Vanderbilt.

我很高興來到這裡，希望能聊聊在 Vanderbilt 的生活。

Vanderbilt is located in beautiful Nashville, Tennessee.

Vanderbilt 位於美麗的田納西州納許維爾。

But for prospective students who may not be familiar with Nashville, can you explain a little bit about where it is in the US and what Nashville's like?

不過對於可能不太熟悉納許維爾的潛在學生，你能稍微介紹一下它在美國的哪個位置，以及納許維爾是什麼樣的城市嗎？

I love talking about Nashville, particularly with international students.

我超愛聊納許維爾的，特別是跟國際學生分享。

I think a lot of times when they're looking at the United States, they're very familiar with east coast cities and sometimes west coast cities.

我覺得很多時候，他們在看美國時，對東岸的城市很熟悉，有時候也對西岸的城市很熟悉。

And they're like, I hear about this Nashville place border, but where is it?

然後他們就會想，我聽過這個納許維爾，但它到底在哪裡？

So we're in the southeast part of the United States.

所以我們就在美國的東南部分。

You know, if you were to fly over to the US you'd likely come in through perhaps New York or Boston.

你知道的，如果你飛到美國，你可能會從紐約或波士頓入境。

And it's about a two hour flight to sort of our part of the country.

然後飛到我們這區大概要兩小時。

It's a part of the country that's known for being very welcoming, very friendly.

這區的國家以非常熱情、非常友善聞名。

You also get a really nice mix of all four seasons.

你還可以體驗到四季分明的樂趣。

Even though it is technically sort of winter in the United States right Now, it is 60 degrees Fahrenheit out here today.

雖然現在美國算是冬天，但今天這裡有華氏 60 度。

So enjoying a little bit of that sort of spring weather in Nashville.

所以在納許維爾享受一點點春季天氣。

But Nashville is a city of about 2 million people, a little over 2 million people.

但納許維爾是一個大約兩百萬人口的城市，稍微多一點點。

And that's when I read the statistics, you know, a few days ago.

幾天前我看到統計數據的時候就是這樣。

Here is the fastest growing city in the United States.

這裡是在美國成長最快的城市。

So with that, there's a lot of excitement as there's like new people moving here from all across the country, all across the world.

所以，隨著這樣的情況，這裡充滿了興奮，因為有來自全國各地、全世界各地的新人們搬進來。

有許多令人興奮的新事物正在建立。

It very much has this sort of new city feel to it.

There's always new restaurants and things going up in the city that students can get out and enjoy.

城市裡一直有新的餐廳和其他東西蓋好，學生們可以出去享受。

And the Vanderbilt location is perfect because we are literally in the heart of Nashville.

Vanderbilt 的地理位置超棒，因為我們就在納許維爾的市中心。

You are a mile and a half or three kilometers from the center of downtown.

你離市中心只有一英里半或三公里。

So you're literally like just outside of the downtown proper, but

所以你就在市中心外面一點點，

the city is literally right there at your doorstep.

You have this beautiful contained campus, but

你們有一個美麗又獨立的校園，

then you can kind of walk right off into the city and kind of explore that.

然後你可以直接走出去到城市裡逛逛。

And students definitely Take advantage of that.

學生們絕對會好好利用這一點。

I was in Nashville for a wedding a couple years ago and my wife and I stayed in a hotel right by Vandy's campus.

幾年前我因為參加婚禮去了納許維爾，我和我太太就住在Vanderbilt校園旁邊的一間飯店。

And I almost got lost just sort of walking along.

So it has all the best of that traditional campus experience with the access to the city itself.

所以它兼具了傳統校園體驗的優點，又能方便地接觸到城市本身。

that's the part I always talk about the most is like, yes, you have this traditional college campus.

我最常講的就是這一點，就是說，沒錯，你們有一個傳統的校園。

Like when you walk around our campus, you could almost forget that you're in a city.

就像你們走在我們的校園裡，你會幾乎忘了你其實身處於一個城市。

我們其實是一個國家級的植物園。

One of our fun facts, in case you were curious, we talked about having a three to one squirrel to student ratio on campus.

一個有趣的冷知識，如果你們好奇的話，我們之前有提到過，校園裡的松鼠跟學生的比例是三比一。

So I always like talking about that because people are like, oh, what is that?

我很喜歡講這個，因為大家都會說：「喔，那是什麼？」

You usually talk about student to faculty ratio.

你們通常會講學生跟教授的比例。

I'm like, no, we're going to talk about our squirrels.

我說，不，我們要講我們的松鼠比例。

But then you have the access to a great city right there at your doorstep.

但同時，你家門口就有一個很棒的城市可以讓你去探索。

And you don't really have to like drive into the city or take public transportation is literally within walking distance.

而且你其實不用開車進城，或是搭大眾運輸，它就在走路可以到的距離內。

I did deep, deep research and I had written down that Vanderbilt has a 7 to 1 student to faculty ratio, which is astonishing.

我做了非常非常深入的研究，我寫下來 Vanderbilt 的學生跟教授比例是七比一，這真的很驚人。

Yeah, I mean, and I don't want to not highlight our faculty.

對啊，而且我也不想忽略我們的教職員。

I mean, 3 to 1 squirrels is still beating out that ratio just a little bit.

我的意思是，三比一的松鼠比例還是稍微贏過那個比例。

Also a testament to the presence of trees as you referenced.

這也證明瞭就像你說的，樹木很多。

And Shane, before we talk a little bit more about Vanderbilt, I brought a prop.

Shane，在我們多聊一點 Vanderbilt 之前，我帶來一個道具。

I happen to be reading a book on the history of country music called Don't get above youe Raisin.

我剛好在讀一本關於鄉村音樂歷史的書，叫做 Don't get above youe Raisin。

And Nashville is a central figure in this book because over the last century it's become this melting pot of bluegrass, rockabilly, rock and roll, country music.

這本書裡納許維爾是個核心角色，因為在過去一個世紀裡，它已經變成藍草、搖滾鄉村、搖滾樂、鄉村音樂的大熔爐。

And to me it sort of serves as a metaphor for how Vanderbilt's serves international students.

對我來說，這有點像 Vanderbilt 如何服務國際學生的隱喻。

You've got students from more than 70 countries, but

can you describe a little bit the Nashville music scene?

你可以稍微描述一下納許維爾的音樂場景嗎？

為什麼這在美國是獨一無二的？

yeah, so the stereotype about Nashville is that it's just country and technically it's the country music capital of the world.

對，所以關於納許維爾的刻板印象是它只有鄉村音樂，而且技術上來說，它是世界鄉村音樂之都。

But I like to use the title, like Music City USA because I think that better represents what you find here.

但我喜歡用「美國音樂之城」這個稱號，因為我覺得這更能代表你來這裡會發現的東西。

So I think what's unique about it is you have kind of the full range of music here from the live performances.

所以我覺得它獨特的地方在於，從現場表演開始，你這裡有各種各樣的音樂。

I mean, you literally have a concert in this city every single night.

我說的，你真的每晚在這個城市都有演唱會。

Sometimes I'm driving through my neighborhood and someone's just sitting on their front porch just like singing to whoever's around.

有時候我開車經過我的社區，有人就坐在他們家門廊上，對著周圍的人唱歌。

Like, it really, truly does ring true of having that music city sort of thing feel to it.

感覺上，這真的、真正地體現了這個「音樂之城」的感覺。

So you have the, the performing side, but then you also have.

所以你有表演的那一面，但接著你也有。

And it's not far from campus, you have what's called music row, which is where all these like recording studios are.

而且離校園不遠，有叫做 Music Row 的地方，那裡有所有的錄音室。

And some of them are like in the big buildings.

The first time I drove by it, I expected it to be like this huge corridor of like these huge buildings.

我第一次開車經過時，我以為它會像這樣一個巨大的走廊，裡面都是巨大的建築。

And it's actually just a bunch of like little houses that all have these like fancy recording studios.

結果其實只是一堆小房子，裡面都有這些很棒的錄音室。

Like, I, I almost missed it the first time I, like, I got to the end of it, I was like, did I miss it?

喔，我第一次開車經過時，差點錯過，我開到盡頭時，還想說，我錯過了什麼嗎？

And then you go back and you see all these tiny little signs and the recordings.

然後你再回去看，會看到很多小小的招牌和錄音室。

So you have the music production aspect of that happening in the city as well.

所以，音樂製作的部分也在這個城市裡發生。

So almost any place you go in the city, there's a lot of artists that have moved here to like, they're working some job in Nashville, but

所以，幾乎你在這個城市任何地方，都有很多藝術家搬到這裡，他們在納許維爾找份工作，但

part time, they're trying to like make it in their music career as well.

兼職，他們也試圖在他們的音樂事業上有所發展。

So just by living in the city, you'll probably learn about like the next up and coming artists before they like start to make it big.

所以，光是住在這個城市，你可能就會比那些新興的藝術家們，在他們開始成名之前，就認識他們了。

It doesn't just have to be country music.

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音樂之都美國的頂尖音樂教育！Shane McGuire帶你體驗範德堡大學！ (A World-Class Education in Music City, USA: The Vanderbilt Experience with Shane McGuire)

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