il Giardino Romantico

*This is a bilingual article. *本篇文章以雙語撰寫。

利物浦大學資深學者Michael Hoey教授日前因參加研討會來臺三日。停留期間表示希望抽空與校友會面。Michael Hoey除為利物浦資深語言學教授之外，也是利物浦大學的副校長（Executive Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Internationalism）。機會難得能與利大高層相見，但礙於Michael Hoey教授來臺時間短暫，只能於平日晚間時間於臺北與校友碰面，因而只能邀請在台北的校友們參與。

十一月三日晚間七點半相約於臺北市的NOX相約。Michael Hoey一進門便遞出印有繁體中文的名片給大家。本次校友聚會同時也邀請了British Council的Susan參與。Susan帶了紀念品送給參與的校友們。校友大使Sandy也將印有利物普大學字樣的原子筆贈送給校友。Michael Hoey則是帶了校友徽章送給出席的校友們。當然除了能夠取得各種紀念品外，此活動大家最大的收獲就是能夠認識各界校友。雖然本次聚會為小型聚會，但出席校友的畢業年份分散得很平均。有剛交出論文回國的應屆校友，校友大使Sandy為2008-2009年代表，另外也有兩位2007-2008校友代表出席。校友們領域也非常廣泛，有理工科、商學、語言學以及英國文學系畢業的校友們。

除寒暄問暖、閒話家常外，Michael Hoey教授表示他很開心能夠看到臺灣的校友們漸漸地建立起在臺的校友網絡。在聽到校友大使報告於2011年初所舉辦首次的校友聚會以及明年的聚會將於2012年初開始籌備後，Michael Hoey表示對於成立臺灣校友會的肯定並且表示未來會全力支持校友會後續之發展。但更重要的是，Michael Hoey教授聲明，校友會的成立，以及校方積極的鼓勵建立校友網絡的原因不在於希望未來能夠得到校友募款捐回給學校，反而是希望能夠朝向未來能夠成立針對弱勢或是清寒家境學生的獎學金基金會。對於Michael Hoey的理想，校友們表示肯定與支持，也希望未來能夠朝此方向進行，回饋社會。

當晚Michael Hoey教授以及校友們也交換了許多自己私藏的個人故事分享。到了晚間十點多（近十一點）大家才依依不捨的道別。本次聚會雖然參與人數不多，但原本就是規劃為小型的聚會。因此，可以說本次聚會舉辦的非常成功。

本次活動除感謝Michael Hoey教授以及各位校友抽空蒞臨外，特別感謝利物浦大學校友聯絡室的Andrew Morrison，British Council的Susan Shaio，Bristol大學歷史學博士Chihyun Chang幫忙安排場地，以及NOX的老闆及員工讓我們度過了愉快的夜晚。

利物浦大學校友大使台灣代表 Sandy, 臺北報導

Professor Michael Hoey, a senior academic from the University of Liverpool, was in Taiwan for three days attending an international conference. During his short stay, he kindly spared some time to meet some alumni. Other than being a senior academic in linguistics, Professor Michael Hoey is also the current Executive Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Internationalisation. It was a rare opportunity to meet such a high official from the University. Unfortunately, because of the short duration of his stay, we could only arrange to meet on a week night in Taipei. Therefore, only alumni in Taipei were able to attend.

On the night of 3 November, we all met up at NOX Taipei to meet Michael Hoey. The alumni were all in awe with the Chinese (Traditional) version of Professor Michael Hoey’s business card. Also invited to our alumni gathering was Susan from British Council, who was kind enough to bring some souvenirs for alumni who attended. The Alumni Ambassador also gave the alumni some University of Liverpool pens. Professor Hoey also had something for all – alumni badges. Other than the gifts, however, the most valuable prize was being able to get to know more alumni. Even though this had been a small gathering, the years from which the alumni graduated were quite evenly dispersed. We had two alumni who had just come back from Liverpool, having just handed in their dissertations in September. The alumni ambassador represents the 2008-2009 alumni, and there were also two from 2007-2008. Of these alumni, we have graduates from the science and engineering department, MBA, linguistics, and also English literature.

Other than informal chatting, Professor Michael Hoey also used this opportunity to share with us his anticipations. He was glad to see that the alumni network has progressed from the incipient stage to a more stable stage, and was also excited to hear about the alumni luncheon in March, 2011 and that we will soon be preparing for our next one in 2012. The most significant message Professor Hoey wanted to put through was that the reason for the University to encourage the development of alumni networks, was not to anticipate donations from alumni, but rather that in the future, these alumni networks can help fund students who have economic difficulties to study at the University of Liverpool. We all acknowledge the kindness of this aim and anticipation, and expressed our willingness in progressing towards that goal.

Afterwards, Professor Michael Hoey and alumni exchanged personal accounts, and not until well past 10pm or nearing 11pm, did everyone reluctantly bid each other adieu. Although this had been a very small gathering, since it was intended to be a small one, I would say, it had been a very successful event.

A great thanks to Professor Michael Hoey and all alumni who attended this event. But also special thanks to Andrew Morrison (Alumni Relations, University of Liverpool), Susan Shiao of British Council, and Chihyun Chang, PhD. in history, University of Bristol for his assistance in arranging the venue, and the owner and staff of NOX for such a wonderful evening.

- Article by Sandy, University of Liverpool Alumni Ambassador for Taiwan