美語情景對話 第540期:Life in Togo 在多哥的生活

Todd: Now, Michael, you were in the Peace Corps?

託德：邁克爾，你曾在和平隊工作過？

Mike: Peace Corps, yeah.

邁克：和平隊，對。

Todd: Can you explain what the Peace Corps is and what you did?

託德：你能介紹一下和平隊還有你的工作嗎？

Mike: Well, it's an organization, U.S. Government organization that sends young people for the most part, college graduates, to different countries to work as volunteers in either construction or education. I was in education. I was a high school teacher.

邁克：和平隊是一個美國政府組織，這個組織會派遣志願者去其他國家參與建設和教育工作，當然這些志願者大多數都是年輕人和大學畢業生。當時我參與的是教育領域，我被派去當高中老師。

Todd: Where did you go? What country?

託德：你去了哪個國家？

Mike: I was in Togo.

邁克：我去的是多哥。

Todd: Togo?

託德：多哥？

Mike: It's a little country between Ghana and Dahomey, and the time Benin, Nigeria, West Africa.

邁克：多哥是一個非常小的西非國家，與加納、達荷美、貝寧和尼日利亞相鄰。

Todd: West Africa, yeah.

託德：西非國家。

Mike: And I was a high school teacher. I was an education major at the University of Michigan, and trained as a high school teacher there, but I had to get a complete different training, skills, to work in West African high schools. I mean for one thing, the classes were huge, like a hundred students in a class, and we didn't have textbooks. We just had a blackboard in front of the class and students had notebooks, so you had to really manage the class so that the students always had something to write down, or practive from their notebooks, and you know I had like four or five classes like that every day, and it was a very gruelling job, but very, very exciting work, I mean, I loved it. I just loved it. It was the best thing a college grad could do in my opinion.

邁克：我在那裏當高中老師。我在密歇根大學讀的是教育專業，接受過高中老師的訓練，但是爲了在西非的高中工作，我必須要完成不同的訓練、掌握一些技巧。因爲那裏的高中班級人數非常多，一個班大概有100名學生，而且沒有教材。通常每個班前面都有一塊黑板，學生們會準備筆記本，所以必須管理好課堂，保證學生們在本上記錄學習到的知識，每天我要上四五節課，那真是繁重的工作，不過也很刺激，我很喜歡。我真的很喜歡。我認爲這是大學畢業生能做的最好的工作。

Todd: What type of experiences do you remember about living in Togo?

託德：你還記得在多哥生活時的經歷嗎？

Mike: Ah, living in Togo, well, I was a foreigner, right, I was white, I am white, and everybody was African, black, so there was this feeling of always being an outsider and occasionally, not occasionally, often, you know kids would make fun of you for being different, and you know, so it was sort of hard to get used to that. That was one thing I remember. I mean, I remember the beauty of it all, and how in the tropical area, how things grow (right) like it would rain almost every day and then when the rain stopped and the sun came out you could just literally see flowers growing, plants blossoming, you know, that's one thing I really remember.

邁克：在多哥的生活……我是外國人，而且又是白人，而其他人都是非洲人和黑人，所以我一直有一種我是外人的感覺，偶爾……不是偶爾，其實是經常，孩子們經常取笑我和其他人不一樣，所以其實很難適應這種生活。這就是我記得的情況。我記得那裏的美景，記得熱帶地區的美和萬物的生長，那裏幾乎每天都下雨，雨過天晴後，你會看到花朵的生長、植物的繁榮，這就是我所記得的事情。

Todd: Man, it must have been really, really beautiful.

託德：天哪，那一定非常非常漂亮。

Mike: It is.

邁克：的確是。

Todd: Have you ever gone back?

託德：你有回去過嗎？

Mike: You know, I was just thinking about that the other day, that why, no I haven't gone back. I haven't gone back. I would love to. If I have the opportunity I will, or I have to make the opportunity to go back. It's a very volatile country, though, you know. It's not an easy country to go to just as a visitor. I think you need to have something to do there, (right) like I did, you know, I had a regular routine, and place to live. I don't think I would want to go there as a tourist, but I'd love to go back if I have an inviation to do something again.

邁克：那天我還在想這件事，我沒有回去過。我沒有再回去多哥。不過我很想回去。如果有機會，我會回去，我會找機會再去多哥看看。那是一個非常動盪的國家，要作爲遊客去那裏並不容易。我覺得最好是在那裏有事情做，這樣就有規律的生活，而且還有住的地方。我不想以遊客的身份去那裏，不過如果我受邀去那裏參與工作項目的話我很樂意回去看看。

Todd: Alright, thanks Mike.

託德：好，謝謝你，邁克。

Mike: Sure.

邁克：不客氣。

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重點講解：
1. write down
寫下；記下；
eg. He wrote down the outline of his lecture.
他寫下演講的提綱。
eg. Children write down the word, cover it up and then try to spell it from memory.
孩子們把這個詞寫下來矇住，然後試着憑記憶拼出來。
2. make fun of
取笑；戲弄；拿…開玩笑；
eg. He couldn't bear being made fun of like that.
大家這樣開他的玩笑他受不了。
eg. The naughty boy is always making fun of girls in Vera's class.
那頑皮的男孩總是喜歡戲弄維拉班上的女生。
3. get used to
開始習慣於；
eg. You'll get used to the climate soon.
你不久就會習慣這種氣候。
eg. I've got used to this kind of life.
這種生活我們已經習慣了。