你学会游泳了吗?

Rob Pace is excited to go swimming with his two kids on their upcoming vacation in Palm Beach, Fla. One problem: The 39-year-old never learned to swim.
罗布•佩斯(Rob Pace)家住纽约州东梅多(East Meadow)，在一家房地产公司担任审计员。最近他要带着两个孩子到佛罗里达州的棕榈滩(Palm Beach)度假，他很期待能跟孩子在那里游泳嬉戏，唯一的问题是：现年39岁的佩斯还从没学过游泳。

So twice a week before work, Mr. Pace sneaks out of the house for adult swim lessons at a pool in Manhattan's Financial District. After three weeks, he can now hold his breath under water and glide while kicking for about a lap. He is waiting until his vacation to surprise his kids with his new skills.
所以，不久前佩斯开始每周两次，利用上班前的时间悄悄前往曼哈顿金融区的一家游泳馆参加成人游泳课程。三周下来，他现在已经能在水下屏住呼吸、蹬着腿向前滑几步了。他想等到度假时再展示这项新本领，好给孩子们一个惊喜。

'They're going to be absolutely stunned,' says Mr. Pace, who lives in East Meadow, N.Y., and is a controller at a real-estate company.
佩斯说，“他们肯定会大吃一惊的。”

An estimated 37% of U.S. adults can't swim 24 yards, the length of a typical recreation-center pool, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Adults -- including those who are able to swim -- make up more than 70% of drowning deaths in the U.S. each year, according to the CDC.
据美国疾病控制与预防中心(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention，简称CDC)估计，大约有37%的成年美国人游不了24码远。24码是美国休闲中心游泳池的普遍长度。CDC的数据还显示，美国每年的溺亡者中有70%以上是成年人（包括会游泳的成年人）。

Adults may miss out on learning to swim if they come from a culture where swimming isn't widely popular, or they grow up in metropolitan areas without easy pool access. Others are simply afraid -- a fear sometimes fostered by overanxious parents or a terrifying incident early in life. Teaching late learners tends to take longer and requires different techniques than those used with children.
成年人不会游泳的原因有很多，可能是因为生长的环境不鼓励学习游泳，也可能是从小生活在游泳池较少的大都市。有些人则是纯粹出于恐惧，这种恐惧可能源于父母的溺爱，也可能是源于早年遭遇重大事故留下的阴影。与教小孩学游泳相比，教成年人学习游泳需要花费更长的时间，教授方法也有所不同。

A growing number of swim clinics are specializing in adult lessons, partlybecause learning to swim later in life can be a little embarrassing.
于是，专门针对成年人的游泳培训班应运而生，部分原因是成年人学游泳多少会有些尴尬。

Beth Davis, who operates her own swim clinic in Boulder, Colo., says the number of adults in her practice has nearly doubled in recent years, from 34 adult students in 2009 to 67 currently. Lori Pailet, a founder and director of AquaSkills, the Manhattan facility, says her adult clientele typically increases by 15% to 25% each year. Lessons there cost $100 to register and $1,200 for 10 private lessons.
贝丝•戴维斯(Beth Davis)在科罗拉多州博尔德(Boulder)开设了一个游泳培训班。戴维斯表示，到她这里参加游泳培训的成年人的人数近几年增长了将近一倍，2009年她只有34个成年学员，现在已经达到67个。曼哈顿游泳学校AquaSkills的创始人兼校长洛瑞•帕里特(Lori Pailet)称，在她这里，成年学员每年一般会递增15%-25%。参加AquaSkills的游泳培训需要支付注册费100美元，选择10节私教课程的费用是1200美元。

Mr. Pace, who is taking lessons at AquaSkills, says his parents never knew how to swim and raised him in New York City, where he didn't have easy access to a pool. 'Most of my friends at the time didn't know how to swim, so it didn't seem like a big deal,' he says.
佩斯就在AquaSkills学游泳。他表示，他的父母一直不会游泳，他是在纽约市长大的，那里很难找到一家游泳馆。而且，他说，“那时候，我身边大多数朋友都不会游泳，因此不会游泳好像也无所谓。”

Joseph Riggio, who lives in Brooklyn, also signed up for swim lessons at AquaSkills, where his biggest hurdle has been overcoming an intense fear of the water. He says his father believed the best way to protect his son was to make him afraid of the water. Mr. Riggio recalls a trip to Coney Island when he was about 7 years old in which his father pushed him under the water repeatedly.
家住布鲁克林的约瑟夫•里焦(Joseph Riggio)在曼哈顿经营着一家名为“New York Pizza Suprema”的餐馆，他也报名参加了AquaSkills的游泳课，而他面对的最大挑战是要克服自己对水的强烈恐惧。里焦说他这么怕水是因为在他小时候，他父亲觉得让他怕水是保护他的最好方式。里焦还记得自己七岁到康尼岛(Coney Island)旅游时，父亲曾不停地将他按到水里。

'After he threw me into the water the third time, I stayed down, and then he pulled me up. I was choking and coughing up water,' says Mr. Riggio, owner of New York Pizza Suprema, a restaurant in Manhattan.
里焦回忆道，“他第三次把我扔进水里后，我开始下沉，然后他又把我拽上来。我差点窒息，还呛到了水。”

From then on, learning to swim became a problem for Mr. Riggio. He tried taking lessons as both a child and adult but couldn't overcome his phobia.
从那以后，学游泳就成了里焦的一个难题。他小时候和长大后都试着参加过游泳培训，但总是无法克服对水的恐惧。

To ease Mr. Riggio's fear, Ms. Pailet spent the first few lessons simply talking and walking through the water with him.
为了帮助里焦克服紧张情绪，帕里特在头几次上课时主要带里焦绕着游泳池，边散步边聊天。

'She asked about my family and children and teased me about my pizza business as we did exercises,' he says.
里焦说，“在游泳训练时，帕里特会问问我的家庭和孩子的情况，还会拿我的匹萨店生意开开玩笑。”