美語情景對話 第1168期:Best Ages to Teach 最喜歡的學生年齡

Aimee: So your favorite age group is the junior high school age.

艾米：你最喜歡的學生年齡層是初中生。

Katie: Yeah.

凱蒂：對。

Aimee: Do you have much experience teaching younger children?

艾米：在教育小孩方面，你經驗豐富嗎？

Katie: Younger children like toddler age?

凱蒂：多大的小孩，幼兒嗎？

Aimee: Well, how about elementary school?

艾米：比如，小學生？

Katie: Yeah, elementary school. I've been teaching for about five years, five or six years. They're fine. You just have to be a bit silly with those kids.

凱蒂：我有教育小學生的經驗。我在小學任教了五六年的時間。學生們很好。和這些孩子相處時，你要頑皮一些。

Aimee: Yes.

艾米：好。

Katie: Have a good time. Can't really be too serious when you're teaching young kids because they're still kids.

凱蒂：要玩得開心。在教小孩時不能對他們太嚴厲，因爲他們還是孩子。

Aimee: That's true. So how about younger than that? How about the kindergarten age? How are they for you?

艾米：沒錯。那再小一些的孩子呢？比如幼兒園的孩子？你怎麼和他們相處？

Katie: They're probably my achilles heel. I'm not great with kindergarten students or younger than that because they don't respond to reason.

凱蒂：那可能是我的致命弱點。我不太擅長和幼兒園孩子或更小的孩子相處，因爲他們不會做出反應。

Aimee: Right.

艾米：對。

Katie: Yeah. So they – I mean, yeah. They're difficult for me to teach. I prefer teaching older students. How about you? What kind of age range do you like teaching?

凱蒂：嗯，就是這樣。對我來說，這麼小的孩子很難教。我更喜歡教大一些的學生。你呢？你喜歡教哪個年齡段的學生？

Aimee: I think I appreciate all parts of all age groups. Every group has its pros and cons. Recently, I've been teaching university students, and I think I'm remembering how much I enjoy it because, you know, they are adults and you can teach them like adults. And you can still have a bit of silly, fun with them, too.

艾米：我想我喜歡所有年齡段的學生。每個年齡段都有其優缺點。我最近在教大學生。我要記住我有多享受，因爲這些學生已經是成年人了，你可以像對待成年人一樣對待他們。你也可以和他們玩鬧。

Katie: Yeah.

凱蒂：對。

Aimee: So these days, I think I prefer teaching the older students, university age students. You can, you know, you can really go into topics quite deeply.

艾米：所以，最近我喜歡教大一些的學生，比如大學生。你知道，你可以和他們深入探討一些話題。

Katie: Yeah.

凱蒂：對。

Aimee: And you can get some interesting answers from some students. Other students, of course, you can't.

艾米：你可能會從有些學生那裏得到有意思的回答。當然，從其他學生那裏得不到。

Katie: Everyone is different, right?

凱蒂：每個人都是不同的，對吧？

Aimee: Yes. You just have to find a way of teasing, teasing their potential, of all of them, I think.

艾米：對。我認爲你要找到激發所有人潛能的方法。

Katie: Is there a group that you don't like teaching?

凱蒂：你有沒有不喜歡教的年齡層？

Aimee: I'm not used to junior high school children, junior high school students. I don't have any experience with them. So that would make me nervous, I think.

艾米：我不太習慣教初中生。我沒有教初中生的經驗。我認爲那會讓我很緊張。

Katie: How do you think they would be different to university students?

凱蒂：你認爲初中生和大學生有什麼不同？

Aimee: I think, from what I mentioned before, the teenagers, the hormones. I think that would be different. There's, you know, it's bubbling inside them, all of these changes of feelings and emotions. And they have so many things to deal with; pressure of growing up. And I think that can be more challenging. But I think it's important as a teacher to try to remember what it was like when you were that age.

艾米：我之前提到過，青少年荷爾蒙分泌旺盛。我認爲那就是不同點。他們體內在沸騰，這會改變他們的感受和情感。他們有很多事情要處理，還有成長的壓力。那更具挑戰性。不過我認爲對老師來說，重要的是要盡力回憶起自己在那個年齡時的樣子。

Katie: Yeah.

凱蒂：對。

Aimee: I think that's the biggest thing that will help you.

艾米：我認爲這最能幫助你。

Katie: Absolutely. So what do you think about teaching younger children like babies? How are you with that?

凱蒂：完全正確。那你怎麼看教育嬰兒？在這方面你做得怎麼樣？

Aimee: I do really enjoy that. Babies are awesome. They have their own set of needs. But usually, the very young classes come with, you know, the parents are there, too. So it's kind of a group-led situation, teacher-led group. And yeah, it's good fun for me. They're very cute and squishy. And very – not uncontrollable – what's the word?

艾米：我很享受。嬰兒非常棒。他們有自己的需求。通常來說，在給嬰兒班上課的時候，家長會在一旁陪同。那有點兒像教師主導的課堂。對我來說那很有趣。嬰兒很可愛。不是無法控制……那個詞是什麼來着？

Katie: Unpredictable?

凱蒂：無法預測？

Aimee: That's it. Completely unpredictable. You know, one day they can be in the best mood ever, and then the next day, they're just a nightmare.

艾米：沒錯。完全無法預測。你知道，前一天他們可能情緒很好，而第二天，他們可能就會成爲你的噩夢。

Katie: I think that's why I'm terrified of them, because they're so unpredictable. I don't like it.

凱蒂：我認爲那就是我害怕教嬰兒班的原因，因爲他們無法預測。我不喜歡這種感覺。

Aimee: Yeah. That's true. And the bodily functions too, you know.

艾米：對，沒錯。還有身體機能問題。

Katie: Yeah, no thanks.

凱蒂：對，我不喜歡。

Aimee: There's all of that.

艾米：有各種情況。

Katie: Yeah. I'm not prepared to deal with that. No, thank you. No, thank you. No bodily functions.

凱蒂：對。我沒有爲應對這種情況做好準備。謝謝，謝謝你，我不希望處理身體機能問題。

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重點講解：
1. Achilles heel 阿喀琉斯的腳踵；致命弱點；
例句：Horton's Achilles heel was that he could not delegate.
霍頓的軟肋在於他不懂得放權。
2. pros and cons 利弊；正反兩方面；優缺點；
例句：They sat for hours debating the pros and cons of setting up their own firm.
他們在一起坐了數小時，討論自己創辦公司的利弊。
3. be used to sth./doing sth. 習慣於；
例句：Lawyers are used to weighing the evidence of witnesses.
律師們習慣於權衡證人提供的證據。
4. be prepared to do sth. 願意（做…）的；
例句：He's prepared to have a bash at discussing it intelligently.
他已經準備好儘量巧妙地討論這個問題。