Talk:Hunan First Normal University

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Lost in translation

The transliteration here is clearly losing something in translation. If this is the "first normal university", English speakers will infer from this that all pre-existing universities at that time were considered abnormal. Is this nuance faithful to the native Chinese meaning of the name? If not, could someone familiar with the Chinese terminology in question please provide a more representative version of the name? Thanks. 49.195.144.171 (talk) 15:16, 12 May 2020 (UTC)

'Normal' translates 师范, which literally means 'teacher model', i.e. a college for training teachers or educators (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_school). I believe the terminology originated in France, where it is still used for example in the various 'écoles normales supérieures', which nowadays function as elite (albeit somewhat focused) higher education institutions. Many 'normal' universities in China (e.g. Shanghai Normal University) have broad curricula, and in that sense are like standard universities in the West, as opposed to institutions with a much narrower focus (e.g. 'Central University of Finance and Economics', 'Beijing University of Chemical Technology'), the creation of which I believe was based on a Soviet model and which doesn't really have a parallel in the western education system. 2607:FEA8:57E0:9C00:FDA8:14EA:1D9A:5BE7 (talk) 21:18, 1 May 2023 (UTC)