在北京大学校长林建华在该校120周年校庆上念错了一个词的发音、招致网友批评之后，他于日前就此致歉。
The word should be pronounced "honghu", indicating birds that can fly high. The presidentpronounced it as "honghao", which has nomeaning.
“鸿鹄”一词应该念成“hong hu”，指飞得很高的鸟，但林校长却读成了“hong hao”。
It triggered heated debate online, with some netizens criticizing Lin for not knowing the wordand questioning whether he was qualified to be head of one of China's best universities.
这一错误在网上引发了热议，一些网民对林校长不知道这个词语进行了批评，并且质疑他是否有资格担当这所中国最好高校之一的校长。
Lin posted a letter of apology on Weiming BBS, the university's online bulletin board, lastSaturday. He admitted in the letter that "I was not familiar with the pronunciation andlearned it this time".
上周六，林校长在北大在线论坛“未名BBS”上发表了致歉信。他承认自己“真的不熟悉这个词的发音，这次应当是学会了。”
Some netizens applauded Lin's honest and brave apology, acclaiming him for being "able toface his shortcoming". But others did not accept his apology and said Lin should have been"prepared before reading the speech".
一些网民对林校长诚实和勇敢的道歉表示赞赏，并称赞他“能够直面自己的不足之处”。但是其他一些网友则不接受他的道歉，称林校长应该“在发表演讲之前做好准备”。
Lin, a chemist, said in the letter that despite being university president, he is "not good inliterature and may have disappointed students and friends".
林建华是一名化学家，他在信中表示，虽然是北大校长，但他的文字功底不好，让同学和朋友失望了。
He said he received a poor education in primary and middle school due to the "culturalrevolution" and spent his childhood and youth in a small farm in the Inner Mongoliaautonomous region.
他称自己由于“文化大革命”的原因，在小学和中学阶段都没有接受到好的教育，是在内蒙古自治区的一个小农场里度过自己的童年和青少年的。
He barely understood the difference between the subject and verb in a sentence before takingthe college entrance exam.
他在参加高考之前才勉强弄懂一个句子中主语和谓语的区别。
"I am not writing this letter to defend my ignorance and mistake, but I want you to know thereal me," he wrote. "Your president is not a flawless man. I have shortcomings anddeficiencies, and I make mistakes."
他写道：“我写这封信，告诉大家这些，并不是想为自己的无知或失误辩护，只是想让你们知道真实的我。你们的校长并不是一个完美的人，也有缺点和不足，也会犯错误。”
