实战口语情景对话 第586期:Life in America 美国的生活

Todd: Now, Keiko, you said you lived in America.
托德：惠子，你说过你曾在美国生活过。

Keiko: Yeah.
惠子：对。

Todd: How long did you live in America for?
托德：你在美国生活了多长时间？

Keiko: I lived there for five years.
惠子：我在美国生活了五年。

Todd: Five. That's a long time. What was it like when you came back to Japan?
托德：五年。那是很长一段时间啊。你回到日本以后感觉怎么样？

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：感觉非常不同，因为我虽然是日本人，但是我和其他日本人的行为有些不同，我和朋友交流的方式也和日本人与朋友们交流的方式不同，举例来说，日本人朋友之间不会拥抱。这种日常生活中的小事会让我有点惊讶。我以前听说，在大学里面，人们会一起去浴室，下课后他们会经常几个人一起活动，一起做些事情、一起去吃饭、一起去浴室等等。总是几个人一起活动。

Todd: That's in Japan or in the U.S.?
托德：这是日本的情况还是美国的情况？

Keiko: In Japan. (In Japan) Yeah, is what I felt.
惠子：日本。这就是我的感觉。

Todd: Wow, so it was hard because everybody was always together all the time, like you couldn't be an individual, or?
托德：哇，所有人一直都在一起，这很难，没有单独一个人的时间……

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：这很难，因为我认为在美国要有自己的想法，而在日本重要的是同其他人和睦相处，所以你不会说：这就是我想做的事情，你们想不想和我一起？一般不会说这种话。而是会说：好，你们想做什么？你会先问其他人的想法，人们会互相询问：你想做什么？然后他们会想出一件想做的事情，通常这件事需要大概15分钟或20分钟，只做这一件事，我并不是在批评这种做法，只是我回到日本以后感受到了另一种不同的文化。现在我已经习惯这种文化了，我认为这是日本文化和日本人的优点，因为他们非常尊重其他人的意见，即使是朋友之间，日本人也不会忽视彼此，现在我已经习惯这种文化了，不过刚回日本的时候这些小事让我很不适应。

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?
托德：好。你觉得你必须要改变吗？你回来以后要改变自己吗？你并没有改变，或者说你要适应这里的生活，你是怎么做的？

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：我尽量少说一些“这是我想做的事情”这种话，我尽量不让自己引人注目，不过一段时间以后，我认为这是在试图成为你不可能成为的人，因为大学里有很多朋友会问我：你认为你是日本人还是美国人？因为他们觉得我太与众不同了。

Todd: Sure.
托德：当然。

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：以前我会回答：我是日本人，不过我在美国长大，我会去解释，不过现在我想我既不算日本人，也不算美国人，我只是我自己，所以在大学的最后几年我一直持这种态度，尽量不去改变，而是去适应。