實(shí)戰(zhàn)口語(yǔ)情景對(duì)話：Life in America 美國(guó)的生活

Todd: Now, Keiko, you said you lived in America.

托德：惠子，你說(shuō)過(guò)你曾在美國(guó)生活過(guò)。

Keiko: Yeah.

惠子：對(duì)。

Todd: How long did you live in America for?

托德：你在美國(guó)生活了多長(zhǎng)時(shí)間?

Keiko: I lived there for five years.

惠子：我在美國(guó)生活了五年。

Todd: Five. That's a long time. What was it like when you came back to Japan?

托德：五年。那是很長(zhǎng)一段時(shí)間啊。你回到日本以后感覺(jué)怎么樣?

Keiko: It was quite difficult because I look Japanese and obviously I am Japanese but I act a little bit different from other people and the way I wanted to mingle with my friends was a bit different from how the Japanese people mingle with their friends, for example there's no hugs between friends. Those little things in daily life kind of shocked me a little bit. Or, even in university, I've heard about this before, but in universities, you know people go to bathroom together, you know they always think about in a group, OK, what should we do, should we eat lunch, should we go to the bathroom, should we, you know, do this after school. It's kind of always in a group.

惠子：感覺(jué)非常不同，因?yàn)槲译m然是日本人，但是我和其他日本人的行為有些不同，我和朋友交流的方式也和日本人與朋友們交流的方式不同，舉例來(lái)說(shuō)，日本人朋友之間不會(huì)擁抱。這種日常生活中的小事會(huì)讓我有點(diǎn)驚訝。我以前聽(tīng)說(shuō)，在大學(xué)里面，人們會(huì)一起去浴室，下課后他們會(huì)經(jīng)常幾個(gè)人一起活動(dòng)，一起做些事情、一起去吃飯、一起去浴室等等。總是幾個(gè)人一起活動(dòng)。

Todd: That's in Japan or in the U.S.?

托德：這是日本的情況還是美國(guó)的情況?

Keiko: In Japan. (In Japan) Yeah, is what I felt.

惠子：日本。這就是我的感覺(jué)。

Todd: Wow, so it was hard because everybody was always together all the time, like you couldn't be an individual, or?

托德：哇，所有人一直都在一起，這很難，沒(méi)有單獨(dú)一個(gè)人的時(shí)間……

Keiko: It was hard because I think in The States you are expected to have your own opinions where as in Japan it's important to have harmony with other people and so you don't usually say, "OK, this is what I want to do? Do you guys want to come with me or not?" It doesn't work like that. You say, "OK, what do you want to do? You ask other people first and people ask each other, "OK, what do you want?" You sort of, they come up with one thing that we want to do which takes about maybe fifteen minutes or twenty minutes just to do one thing and I'm not criticizing, but it was just kind of a different culture coming back. And then, now I've kind of got used to that culture now and I think it's kind of one of the good things about Japanese cultures and Japanese people because they really do respect the other people's opinions, even with friends, they don't take each other for granted so I'm getting used to it, but when I just came back it was just little things.

惠子：這很難，因?yàn)槲艺J(rèn)為在美國(guó)要有自己的想法，而在日本重要的是同其他人和睦相處，所以你不會(huì)說(shuō)：這就是我想做的事情，你們想不想和我一起?一般不會(huì)說(shuō)這種話。而是會(huì)說(shuō)：好，你們想做什么?你會(huì)先問(wèn)其他人的想法，人們會(huì)互相詢問(wèn)：你想做什么?然后他們會(huì)想出一件想做的事情，通常這件事需要大概15分鐘或20分鐘，只做這一件事，我并不是在批評(píng)這種做法，只是我回到日本以后感受到了另一種不同的文化?，F(xiàn)在我已經(jīng)習(xí)慣這種文化了，我認(rèn)為這是日本文化和日本人的優(yōu)點(diǎn)，因?yàn)樗麄兎浅Ｗ鹬仄渌说囊庖?jiàn)，即使是朋友之間，日本人也不會(huì)忽視彼此，現(xiàn)在我已經(jīng)習(xí)慣這種文化了，不過(guò)剛回日本的時(shí)候這些小事讓我很不適應(yīng)。

Todd: Right. Did you find that you had to change? Like, how did you have to change when you came back? Were you still yourself or did you have to adjust and how so?

托德：好。你覺(jué)得你必須要改變嗎?你回來(lái)以后要改變自己?jiǎn)?你并沒(méi)有改變，或者說(shuō)你要適應(yīng)這里的生活，你是怎么做的?

Keiko: I tried not to say so much about, 'OK this is what I want to do?' or I tried not to stand out so much in the way, but after awhile I just thought, OK, when you try to be somebody you can't because that's who you are and there are a lot of friends in university, they ask me, "Do you think you're Japanese or do you think you're American?" because they felt that I'm quite different.

惠子：我盡量少說(shuō)一些“這是我想做的事情”這種話，我盡量不讓自己引人注目，不過(guò)一段時(shí)間以后，我認(rèn)為這是在試圖成為你不可能成為的人，因?yàn)榇髮W(xué)里有很多朋友會(huì)問(wèn)我：你認(rèn)為你是日本人還是美國(guó)人?因?yàn)樗麄冇X(jué)得我太與眾不同了。

Todd: Sure.

托德：當(dāng)然。

Keiko: And I used to say, "Well, I'm Japanese but I grew up in the States and I used to explain that but then at the end, I thought, OK, well, I can't be Japanese and I can't be American. I'm just myself, so that is a kind of attitude that I took I think from, yeah, in the later years in university and I just try not to really change or try to adapt.

惠子：以前我會(huì)回答：我是日本人，不過(guò)我在美國(guó)長(zhǎng)大，我會(huì)去解釋，不過(guò)現(xiàn)在我想我既不算日本人，也不算美國(guó)人，我只是我自己，所以在大學(xué)的最后幾年我一直持這種態(tài)度，盡量不去改變，而是去適應(yīng)。