美語情景對話 第586期:Life in America 美國的生活

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

託德：惠子，你說過你曾在美國生活過。

Keiko: Yeah.

惠子：對。

Todd: How long did you live in America for?

託德：你在美國生活了多長時間？

Keiko: I lived there for five years.

惠子：我在美國生活了五年。

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

託德：五年。那是很長一段時間啊。你回到日本以後感覺怎麼樣？

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：感覺非常不同，因爲我雖然是日本人，但是我和其他日本人的行爲有些不同，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，舉例來說，日本人朋友之間不會擁抱。這種日常生活中的小事會讓我有點驚訝。我以前聽說，在大學裏面，人們會一起去浴室，下課後他們會經常幾個人一起活動，一起做些事情、一起去吃飯、一起去浴室等等。總是幾個人一起活動。

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

託德：這是日本的情況還是美國的情況？

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

惠子：日本。這就是我的感覺。

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

託德：哇，所有人一直都在一起，這很難，沒有單獨一個人的時間……

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，因爲我認爲在美國要有自己的想法，而在日本重要的是同其他人和睦相處，所以你不會說：這就是我想做的事情，你們想不想和我一起？一般不會說這種話。而是會說：好，你們想做什麼？你會先問其他人的想法，人們會互相詢問：你想做什麼？然後他們會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，我並不是在批評這種做法，只是我回到日本以後感受到了另一種不同的文化。現在我已經習慣這種文化了，我認爲這是日本文化和日本人的優點，因爲他們非常尊重其他人的意見，即使是朋友之間，日本人也不會忽視彼此，現在我已經習慣這種文化了，不過剛回日本的時候這些小事讓我很不適應。

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?

託德：好。你覺得你必須要改變嗎？你回來以後要改變自己嗎？你並沒有改變，或者說你要適應這裏的生活，你是怎麼做的？

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：我儘量少說一些“這是我想做的事情”這種話，我儘量不讓自己引人注目，不過一段時間以後，我認爲這是在試圖成爲你不可能成爲的人，因爲大學裏有很多朋友會問我：你認爲你是日本人還是美國人？因爲他們覺得我太與衆不同了。

Todd: Sure.

託德：當然。

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：以前我會回答：我是日本人，不過我在美國長大，我會去解釋，不過現在我想我既不算日本人，也不算美國人，我只是我自己，所以在大學的最後幾年我一直持這種態度，儘量不去改變，而是去適應。

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重點講解：
1. mingle with 應酬；交際；
例句：Go out of your way to mingle with others at the wedding.
去跟婚禮上的其他人聊聊。
2. come up with 想出，提出（計劃、想法等）；
例句：It took a lot of imagination to come up with such an ingenious plan.
設計出如此巧妙的方案需有極大的想像力。
3. get used to sth./doing sth. 開始習慣於；
例句：She soon get used to the hustle and bustle of city life.
她不久就習慣了城市生活的喧鬧繁忙。
4. take sb./sth. for granted （因視作理所當然而）不把…當回事，對…不予重視（或不知感激）；
例句：Don't take a mother's concern for granted.
別不懂得珍惜母親的關懷。
5. stand out 引人注目；顯眼；
例句：Her red hair made her quite stand out in the crowd.
她的紅頭髮使得她在人羣裏相當引人注目。