美語情景對話 第1051期:Slow Travel 慢旅行

Todd: So Dan we're talking about your travels and living overseas, and you have a concept you call slow travel. Can you explain what slow travel is?

託德：丹，我們來談談你在海外旅行和生活的經歷，你的觀念是“慢旅行”。你能解釋一下什麼是慢旅行嗎？

Dan: Yeah, I mean especially maybe because I'm a blogger, we're always seeking to define things in unique ways. And there's a lot of terms out there. There's expat; people that have left their native country. There's backpacker, which is someone who tries to keep their cost very low and they're continually moving from place to place. There's flash packer, which is a term that means you still have income from somewhere and you have more tech and toys, and you stay at maybe nicer hotels. But what I did was always a little bit different, which is I would go and get long term leases or medium term leases at apartments. So I would go and get a house or an apartment in a place for anywhere from one to six months, and enjoy what it feels like to actually live somewhere. And that to me is so exciting, you know. Although the sights and everything are cool, and hanging out with tourists can be fun, I much prefer to go down to the local café, open up my laptop, talk to the people that are working there, and really get a sense for what it's like to live in a city. And over the course of my career what that's looked like is you really develop a deep connection with the places that you live in. You might hire people there. You have really good friends there. One of the downsides of being a tourist is that you never really can develop friendships. And so what I found is that I go back to revisit a lot of the places that I once lived because I have lifelong friendships there. So that to me has really been the benefit of slow travel and I have a theory about friendship. I think, you know, really you can't go to place for just one month. People won't invest their time in you. So if at least you're going to stay in a place for three to four months, I think that's sort of the turning point with a lot of people and they'll say, "Hey, yeah, you know what, let's go try to be friends. Let's go out and do something together."

丹：我想可能是因爲我是一名博主，所以我總是試圖用獨特的方式去定義事情。其實有很多種說法。比如移居國外的人，就是那些離開自己祖國的人。還有揹包客，他們把自己的花費壓的很低，這樣就他們就能不斷地從一個地方去往另一個地方。新揹包客，這是指那些有收入來源、有科技設備而且住在較好酒店裏的人。而我的方式有一些不同，我會長期租賃或是較長時間租賃公寓。我會在一個地方找間房子或公寓，住一到六個月的時間，享受那裏的生活氛圍。對我來說這令我非常興奮。雖然四處觀光也很好，和遊客們一起四處遊玩可能有很多樂趣，可是我更喜歡找家當地的咖啡廳坐下來，打開我的筆記本電腦，和那裏的工作人員聊天，真正瞭解生活在那座城市的感受。在我的職業生涯中，我和我生活的地方建立了非常深的聯繫。我可以在那些地方僱傭工人。也可以交好朋友。做爲遊客來說，其中一個不利的方面是你永遠不能真正的發展友誼。我發現我會回到我曾經生活過的地方，因爲我有朋友在那裏。我認爲這是“慢旅行”的優點，我有我自己對友誼的看法。我認爲你不能只在一個地方待一個月的時間，因爲時間太短，別人不會把他們的時間投資在你身上。我認爲至少要在一個地方待上三到四個月的時間，這是一個轉折點，這段時間過後許多人會和你說：“嘿，我們試着做朋友吧。我們一起出去做點什麼吧。”

Todd: So Dan, you're talking about slow travel and you're saying that basically you go and just live in a place. And I think a lot of people would be really hesitant to do that. I mean, that sounds exciting but it's like a really big step. How would you convince somebody to do this type of lifestyle?

託德：丹，你剛剛介紹了慢旅行，你會在一個地方生活一段時間。我認爲有許多人會猶豫要不要這樣做。這聽起來的確令人興奮，但是那是很重要的一步。你要怎麼說服其他人接受這種生活方式？

Dan: Well, the first thing is to get connected on the blogosphere with a lot of other people who are doing it because I think that once you see other people doing it, the mystery comes away and you realize hey, this is something that I could do. This is achievable for me. So I call that like a precedent case analysis. If you can see some other guys doing it and you can relate with them, not such a big deal anymore. The next thing is like I always try to go somewhere where I have a project. I think it's a great way to really get engaged because it's so easy just to go to a place, get a short term apartment, and then go to Starbucks, and then that could just be your life. Whereas, you know, when we came here to Bali, we decided that we're going to set up a house and we're going to invite interns over. And we're going to meet entrepreneurs from all around the world and that's why we're going to Bali because Bali is the place that everybody wants to go. If you mention Bali to somebody, they're like, "I would love to go to Bali someday." And that's great for meeting people so that's why we came here. My last location in the Philippines, I went there with a project to hire people because I knew it was a great place to hire people. A place before that in Vietnam, I decided that I wanted to do investments in Vietnam. It's a great place to put capital. Of course, that was before the financial crisis so that didn't work out for so long. But I find it the idea of having a project gets you engaged. For me as a business person, I've never gone somewhere and not hire somebody there. And that act in and of itself helps me to get engaged. Now, if you're not a business person, a lot of people would come to a place like Bali and say, "I'm going to learn how to surf or I'm going to learn how to cook local Indonesian food or I'm going to learn the language." Those kinds of projects I think are really useful for the slow travel concept. And they're a unique opportunity because if you're a tourist, you don't have time to set up a business or to learn the language and that's the unique opportunity for the slow traveler.

丹：首先你要接觸很多采取這種做法的人聚集的博客圈，因爲一旦你看到其他人這樣做，那那種神祕感就會消失，你會意識到，其實我也可以這樣做。我也可以做到。我認爲那有點像案例分析。如果你看到其他人這樣做了，那你可以和他們聯繫，那不再是大不了的事情。其次，我一直嘗試去我有項目的地方。我認爲這是讓我參與其中的重要方式，去其他地方很方便，可以租個短期公寓，可以去星巴克，然後照常享受生活。我們來到巴厘島以後，決定成立個公司，而且打算招實習生。我們需要和世界各地的企業家舉行會談，所以我們纔會選擇巴厘島，因爲巴厘島是所有人都想來的地方。如果你和別人聊天時提到巴厘島，那他們會說“我也希望有一天能去巴厘島”。巴厘島很適合作爲同客戶見面的地方，所以我們纔會選擇這裏。我在來巴厘島之前在菲律賓待過一段時間，當時我在那裏有個項目，我需要員工，因爲我知道在菲律賓僱傭員工很方便。去菲律賓之前我在越南，當時我決定在越南投資。越南是適合投入資金的地方。當然，那是在金融危機之前，所以那並沒有持續很長時間。不過我發現做項目是讓你參與其中的好方法。我是商人，我有一些從來沒去過的地方，沒有在一些地方僱傭過工人。這本身就讓我想嘗試。如果你不是商人，那很多來到巴厘島的人的想法是，“我要學習如何衝浪或者我要學習如何烹飪印尼當地美食，或者我要學習當地的語言”。我認爲這類計劃有益於慢旅行這一概念。這是一種獨特的機會，因爲如果你是遊客，那你是沒時間建立企業或學習語言的，所以這對慢旅行者來說是獨特的機會。

Todd: I'm sold.

託德：你說服我了。

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重點講解：
1. hang out 閒逛，逗留；
例句：Dave is hanging out with his friends at a bar.
戴夫正和他的朋友在酒吧裏玩。
2. set up 創建；建立；安排；組建；
例句：We are planning to set up a publishing house.
我們正打算建立一家出版社。
3. would love to do sth. 樂於；很願意；
例句：I would love to invite her to the party next Sunday.
我想在下星期天邀請她來參加晚會。
4. work out (如期）發生；進展(順利)；
例句：Things will only work out if we all keep to the plan.
只有大家執行計劃，事情才能成功。