Normal University=师范大学？

今天时代君的小伙伴时代小文秘君在整理文案时发现了一个问题哦，有一位同学来自华东师范大学，其成绩单抬头学校的翻译是：East China Normal University。为神马师范大学被翻译作Normal University, Normal怎么会有“师范”的意思呢，词典上都没有这个解释，大部分也瞬间蒙了。

于是上网查了，下面和更多滴小伙伴们分享一下哈

版本一（美国外教）
Actually- I have never known why they use normal university.It doesn’t make sense to me and i wonder the same thing.Let me know if you find out.
原来这位美国人也不知道Normal University是干什么的大学。

版本二（美国外教）It isn’t really a term that’s used in the US very much anymore, most of the institutions that used to use it now refer to themselves as teachers’ colleges or universities. The university where I did my master’s degree, Radford University, was originally *State Normal and Industrial School for Women at Radford.
这位外教还提供了一个文献：ttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_school
版本三（澳大利亚外教） Its merely an old fashioned name of schools/universities…. most people also have no idea why they are called ‘Normal”。
这位外教也给出了和上一个一样的维基百科上的normal school的解释。
版本四（加拿大外教）It was actually a few years that I have been in China that had learned that a university called a “Normal University” was actually a teachers university. In North America it is different. The way it works in North America is you go to university and get your 4 year degree from any university in any field. After your 4 year degree you need to go to teachers college for two years. But the teachers college is in the universities and so many universities offer teachers colleges programs.
版本五（美国外教）I don’t know. We never use normal to describe any kind of school.
版本六（美国外教）Normal” seems like an odd adjective for university, and also it seems slightly negative since we like to think of universities have ’special’ advantages, not ‘normal’ qualities.

版本七（英国外教）I am not one hundred percent sure but from a linguistic view I should think it means a university that does not specialize in one particular subject. interesting question! because in English we would not use this word in that way.
看来外教对师范大学的理解是停留在一种机械记忆的层面。
By the 1920s, the term “normal school” lost ground to the preferable term “teachers’ college.” At this time, most such educational institutions were also restructured into four year programs that granted degrees in teacher education.
从上面的解释来看，normal用作“师范”的意思的用法早已过时了，在西方国家早不用了，现在取而代之的表达应该是Teachers’ University。