实战口语情景对话 第693期:Big Family 大家庭

Kara: So, Lupe, you have an extremely large family compared to family sizes here in the United States. How was that? How was that growing up in a large family?
卡拉：卢佩，与美国的家庭规模相比，你有一个非常大的家庭。在一个大家庭里长大感觉怎么样？

Lupe: Yeah, coming here to the Unites States it was really strange for me to see how small families were, and me coming from such a big family where there's — I have five brothers and six sisters, so five boys, seven girls. There's twelve of us and we all have the same mom and dad and you know at times it can be a little rough because growing up, you know, at one point we did all live together. Now it is not as hard because there is a big age difference between the oldest and the youngest. I am the youngest girl and I have a younger brother. My oldest brother now is forty, married, lives in his own house and most of my older brothers and sisters are all married and have their kids and have also moved out. It's not as tough anymore. What I love about having such a big family is that now they all have babies so there's twenty-three nephews and nieces so when we have get-togethers, it's really an amazing party because there's so many people there just with our immediate family. The kids are running around playing. All the women are you know, hanging out, talking and the guys are also doing there thing, and there's also a lot of birthday parties as you can imagine. There's so many birthdays throughout the year, so there's always a party. There's always someone to talk to. There's always someone to go to. Although it can really hurt your pocket around Christmas time because you know there's twenty-three nieces and nephews to buy presents for and there's also eleven siblings to buy, you know, presents and the family's only getting larger because also got to think about them getting married, so now I have sister-in-laws. I have brother-in-laws, and there's still a few of us that are not married so the family's only gonna get bigger, for sure.
卢佩：我到美国以后，对美国的小型家庭感到很奇怪，我来自一个非常大的家庭，我有五个兄弟和六个姐妹，所以我家一共有五个男孩和七个女孩。我们家一共有12个孩子，我们是一个妈妈生的，有时会有些艰难，因为在成长过程中，有一个阶段我们是住在一起的。不过现在不会那么艰难了，因为最大的孩子和最小的孩子差了好几岁。我是女孩中最小的，我下面还有一个弟弟。我们的大哥今年40岁，已婚，住在他自己的房子里，基本上我的哥哥和姐姐都结婚有孩子了，而且他们都已经搬出去单住了。所以现在的情况不太那么艰难。我喜欢大家庭的地方在于，现在我的哥哥姐姐们都有了孩子，我有23个侄子和侄女，我们所有人聚在一起的时候就像一个大派对一样，光直系亲属就有好多人。孩子们会到处跑来跑去地玩耍。女性会闲逛、聊天，男性们则在做各种事，你可以想象的到，家里会举行很多生日派对。一年到头有很多生日，每个生日都会举办一场派对。总会有人聊天，总会有人陪。不过在圣诞节的时候，这也会让你的钱包大出血，因为要买23个侄子和侄女的礼物，还要给11个兄弟姐妹买礼物，而且由于兄弟姐妹已经结婚了，所以家庭在不断壮大中，还有嫂子和和姐夫，因为只有几个人没有结婚，所以家庭当然在不断的壮大中。

Kara: What was the hardest part about growing up in a family that large?
卡拉：在一个这么大的家庭中长大最难的地方是什么？

Lupe: I think the hardest part about it when I was little was I think my parents didn't have the resources to raise all of us in maybe the way they wished they could have. There wasn't always enough money to make sure that everybody was well-dressed, or even that there was enough food. As the older siblings started, you know, growing up and being old enough that they could work, they became a central part of the family and started helping with the income, the family income and that made it a lot easier for us younger ones growing up. They had it a little tougher than we did because they had to work a lot and they were really young to make sure that the rest of us had everything we needed. That was definitely the hardest part.
卢佩：我觉得最难的地方是，我小的时候我的父母没有办法用他们希望的那种方法抚养我们所有的人。他们没有足够的钱确保所有孩子都穿着讲究，而且食物也不够。年长的孩子渐渐长大到可以工作的年龄时，他们就会成为家庭的支柱，赚钱帮忙贴补家庭收入，因为他们的帮助我们小一些孩子的成长就没有那么困难。他们比我们更辛苦，因为他们要做许多事，虽然他们也还很小，但是他们要确保满足弟弟妹妹的需求。这无疑是最难的地方。