实战口语情景对话 第708期:Two Languages at Home 在家说双语

Kara: So, Lupe, in your family setting, when you guys are having family get-togethers, you have a large family, do you normally speak English or Spanish or is it a mix, or how does it all work out at a party?
卡拉：卢佩，你拥有一个大家庭，你的家庭成员在聚会时，通常是说英语还是说西班牙语，或者说是两种语言都有，你们在聚会时是怎样的情况？

Lupe: It's definitely a big mix, and as some people call it, Spanglish, because I do have some siblings that speak English, that were raised here and speak it well, and sometimes we feel more comfortable speaking in English, so we'll speak in English, but there are a lot of my family members who moved here when they were older, and never had the opportunity to learn to speak English, therefore I speak Spanish to them, and there's also times when I'm talking to a certain person and we will be speaking in English and I'll suddenly forget a word or it pops up into my head faster in Spanish so I'll go from English to Spanish and then right back to English and that's when we call it Spanglish, just because it's a little mixture of both. Sometimes I'm speaking in Spanish and I won't remember how to say something and I'll think of it in English. Therefore I'll say it in English, but I can only do that with the ones that speak both English and Spanish.
卢佩：当然是两种语言都说，有些人称之为西班牙式英语，我有些兄弟姐妹说英语，他们是在这里长大的，所以英语说的很好，有时我们感觉用英语交谈更舒服，所以我们就会说英语，不过也有很多家庭成员是年长以后搬来这里生活的，他们没有机会学习英语，所以我和他们说话时会用西班牙语，有时我在和家人用英语交谈时会突然忘了有的词要怎么说，然后我脑海中就会马上出现这个词的西班牙语说法，所以我就会改用西班牙语说出这个词，然后再换回英语，我们称之为西班牙式英语，就是两种语言混合使用。有时我用西班牙语交谈时，会忘了该如何表达一些事，这时我就会想用英语要怎么说。然后我就会用英语表达出来，不过我只能在和我交谈的那个人既懂英语又懂西班牙语的情况下这么做。

Kara: And what about your nephews and neices. I know as far you and your sibling, you guys were all born in Mexico. Your nephews and nieces, a lot of them were born here in the United States. How is there Spanish, and how do you communicate with them?
卡拉：那你的侄子和侄女呢？我知道你和你的兄弟姐妹都出生在墨西哥。你的侄子和侄女中有许多人出生在美国。他们的西班牙语说的怎么样，你和他们怎么交流？

Lupe: Well, that was actually something that we talked about with our whole family because we decided them being born here, we wanted to make sure that they didn't lose that part of, you know, their heritage and their culture. We wanted them to still be able to speak Spanish, so we decided we'll all talk to them in Spanish, especially for the first five years of their life because once they started school we know it was going to be a little bit tougher once they started learning English. It was going to be easier for them to try to speak English, which most of them do. They come home and they suddenly just speak English and don't want to speak Spanish anymore, so we try really hard to speak only Spanish around them because we know all their English, they're practicing at school, so they really need to keep up with the Spanish at home.
卢佩：实际上我们全家讨论过这个问题，我们决定让他们在这里出生，但是我们想确保他们不会丢失传统和文化。我们想让他们学会西班牙语，所以我们决定和他们用西班牙语交谈，尤其是在他们5岁以前，因为我们知道，他们上学开始学习英语以后，这么做会有点难。让他们说英语则会相对容易些，他们中有大部分人都是这种情况。他们从学校回来以后突然只说英语，不想再说西班牙语，所以我们就非常努力地只和他们说西班牙语，因为我们知道他们可以在学校练习英语，而他们在家就要练习西班牙语。

Kara: And do you feel like that is something you're losing, you're family's losing by being here in the United States, part of your language with the younger generation?
卡拉：你来到美国以后，有没有觉得你失去了什么，或者说你的家庭失去了什么，年轻一代是否失去了母语？

Lupe: I think it's definitely a choice. I know other people who prefer that their children don't speak Spanish. They have the opportunity to teach them and decide not to. Maybe they feel that if their kids only speak English, they won't feel left out at school, or you know, that sometimes what I've heard from other people. They want them to be and feel just like the other kids, so they don't want them speaking Spanish, but I think that is a choice that you make and you make it when they are young and for us, we decided we don't want them to lose that, and I think that we have a big say in that and there's a lot we can do about it and so we're all working really hard to make sure that they don't lose that and so far, you know, out of all my nephews and nieces, you know, maybe a couple are really forgetting their Spanish, but for the most part, all of them are doing really good and speaking both English and Spanish
卢佩：我认为这是一种选择。我知道有的人希望他们的孩子不要说西班牙语。他们有机会教他们西班牙语，可是他们却选择不这么做。可能他们觉得如果他们的孩子只说英语，那他们在学校就不会被排挤，我听说有些人是这样的。他们想让自己的孩子和其他孩子一样自由，所以他们不想让孩子说西班牙语，我认为这是一种选择，是在孩子小时你为他们做出的选择，可是对我们来说，我们不想让孩子们失去母语，我认为我们在这方面拥有决定权，我们在这方面能做的也很多，所以我们非常努力地去保证孩子们没有失去母语，目前，我所有的侄子和侄女中，可能只有一两个完全忘了西班牙语，不过多数人都既会说英语也会说西班牙语。