美語情景對話 第517期:Two Cultures 兩種文化

Todd: So, Rina, now you are Lebanese (Mm-hm) and you grew up in a very small Canadian town.

託德：麗娜，你是黎巴嫩人（嗯），你是在加拿大一個小城鎮里長大的。

Rina: Oh, yes.

麗娜：對。

Todd: So you really have two cultures. What's it like growing up with two cultures?

託德：所以其實你體驗了兩種文化。在兩種文化中成長的感覺怎麼樣？

Rina: In the beginning it was very hard. My dad was very strict. I wasn't allowed to work. I had to fight to have my first job at 19.

麗娜：開始時非常糟糕。我爸爸非常嚴厲。他不讓我去打工。我不斷的爭取，然後我在19歲的時候有了第一份工作。

Todd: Wow. At 19.

託德：哇。19歲。

Rina: At 19. I wasn't allowed to have a boyfriend. I had to fight for that one too, and I had my first boyfriend at 18. Wasn't allowed to go out. First high school dance was grade 11. So, I hated it in the beginning. I was, but now I appreciate it and I know where my parents were coming from.

麗娜：對，19歲。他也不讓我交男朋友。當然這方面我也進行了爭取，我在18歲時交了第一個男友。可是我爸爸不允許我們外出約會。我在高中跳的第一支舞是在11年級。所以開始時我非常討厭這種限制。不過現在我很感激，因爲我瞭解了我父母的背景。

Todd: So, it this the standard Lebanese family type culture where daughters are not allowed to work?

託德：那標準的黎巴嫩家庭就是不允許女兒外出打工嗎？

Rina: Ah, yeah, my dad had basically believed that if I went out and worked I would, you know, be hit on by guys. It just wasn't a place for his daughter, and typically before, yeah, women don't work. They stay home. They took care of the kids. They, you know, it was a typical patriarchal society and my dad was very, very strict, and I spent a lot of my childhood pushing away my culture because of that.

麗娜：對，我爸爸一直認爲，我外出打工會被男孩欺負。那不是他的女兒應該去的地方，而且以前女性是不出去工作的。以前女性都呆在家裏照顧孩子。以前是典型的父權社會，我爸爸很嚴厲，就因爲如此，所以我大部分童年時光都在擺脫這種文化。

Todd: And how do you feel about your culture now?

託德：那你現在怎麼看待這種文化？

Rina: I'm very, very proud of it. I love it. It's nice to be different and I'm glad I get that chance to do that. Um, the only thing, when I was in Lebanon, it was hard as well because people didn't see me as Canadian, and they didn't see me as Lebanese You know I was, a lot of people didn't talk to me because of it. I went there and a lot of people shunned me basically, so.

麗娜：現在我以這種文化感到自豪。我喜歡這種文化。與衆不同感覺很好，而且我很高興我有機會體驗這種文化。我在黎巴嫩的時候，唯一一件讓我覺得艱難的事情是，人們既不把我當作加拿大人看，也不把我當黎巴嫩人看，因此有很多人不和我說話。基本上那裏的人都會避開我。

Todd: So even though you had no language barrier at all cause you speak Lebanese?

託德：你會說黎巴嫩語，即使你完全沒有語言障礙他們也這樣嗎？

Rina: Yep, yep, no, they basically, you know they were mad at me because I was too Canadian, or they were mad at me that I wasn't enough Canadian, and like, it was just, you know, insane.

麗娜：對，他們生我的氣，因爲我也是加拿大人，可是他們生我氣是因爲我不是完全的加拿大人，你知道，很瘋狂。

Todd: That's pretty tough.

託德：那真是非常艱難。

Rina: Yeah, well, they have their, they have their image of what you know, what Western society is like from movies and, you know, because you know I have my tattoos, they thought I was just basically Satan's spawn, and because I wasn't running around like a tramp, they thought well, "What is she is doing? What is she supposed to?" it was just the worst of both world's really.

麗娜：對，他們有從電影中看到的西方社會的樣貌，因爲我有紋身，他們就認爲我是撒旦之子，因爲我不像遊民一樣四處行走，他們會想：“她在做什麼？她想做什麼”這是兩種文化中最糟糕的。

Todd: Ah, that's terrible.

託德：是啊，真糟糕。

Rina: Yeah, so because, they do, they have, and actually I have to specify this: I was in a village. Like, both of my parents are from villages.

麗娜：因爲……我要明確一下，當時我住在村莊裏，我的父母都來自村莊。

Todd: Oh, I see.

託德：哦，我明白了。

Rina: In Beirut, it's different, but when I was in the villages, where I stayed the majority of the time, it was like that, but I got, I made my little older ladies love me, but they were talking to me at the end, having coffee with me while I smoked my cigarettes, yep, yep.

麗娜：在貝魯特的話情況就會不同，可是因爲我住在村莊，我大部分時間都生活在村莊，不過我還是讓年齡大些的女士喜歡上了我，後來他們都會和我說話，我們會一邊抽菸一邊享用咖啡。

Todd: Oh, that's good to hear.

託德：聽起來不錯。

譯文屬僅供學習交流使用，未經許可請勿轉載

重點講解：
1. go out
外出交際；外出娛樂；
eg. Come and see me then. We'll go out somewhere.
那你來看我吧，我們一起到外面什麼地方玩玩。
eg. Don't be so bitchy. We'll go out and have fun later.
不要如此暴躁。我們等一下就出去玩。
2. push away
推開，排除；
eg. And, if you rant and rave and complain to everyone you'll only push away those people who may best be able to help you.
同樣，如果你成天只知道在那抱怨和咒罵你只會把那些有可能幫助你的人拒之門外。
eg. Beautiful language can really twist your mind in a way that helps to push away the cares of the day.
美麗的語言確實能夠使你拋開生活中的那些煩惱。
3. be proud of
驕傲的；自豪的；得意的；
eg. He is proud of his great success in scientific researches.
他爲自己在科研方面所取得的巨大成就而自豪。
eg. Our company is proud of its reputation for fair dealing.
我們公司以享有經營作風正派的美譽而感到自豪。
4. be mad at sb.
憤怒的；異常惱火的；
eg. I was so mad at getting this kind of bum rap.
受這樣的冤枉氣真讓我非常生氣。
eg. Whether he says sorry or not, I am not mad at him anymore.
無論他說不說對不起，我都不再生他的氣。