实战口语情景对话 第1045期:First Memories of Canada 对加拿大的第一印象

Jeremy: So Abidemi, you were born in Nigeria, but you moved to Canada and did most of your schooling in Canada.
杰里米：阿比德米，你出生在尼日利亚，后来搬到加拿大去生活，你大部分学业是在加拿大完成的。

Abidemi: That's right.
阿比德米：没错。

Jeremy: Can you tell me a little bit about what the transition was like coming from Nigeria to Canada and doing a Canadian education system?
杰里米：你尼日利亚去加拿大并融入加拿大教育体系，你能说说你对这种过渡的感受吗？

Abidemi: Sure. For me, it was an interesting experience. Both great and at the same time—hmm, I don't want to say traumatic, but very different in terms of lifestyle. Since I was very young, I'd loved traveling. I wanted to travel. So when my family decided to make the move to Canada, I was really excited. But I have to say, I wasn't really prepared. I had no idea where is Canada, America, England—they're all the same to me at that age. So when we moved and my dad had initially made the move. He went ahead of us. He got a job. He found a place for us to live. And then, I arrived with my mom and my other sisters. There were five girls and we arrived at the airport. And my first memory is looking out, mid-December in Montreal—we arrived at Montreal airport—, looking out, and seeing this white thing covering the ground and thinking, "What is that? Why is it so white?" And I remember saying to my dad as he drove up to drive us home, "Let's play in that. I want to play in that. What is that?" So that was my first memory of Canada of the snow. And it was fun. It was great arriving in December but at the same time, it was very cold. Personally, I'm not somebody that likes the cold too much, but having the warmth of my family in the midst of that cold made it worth it. It was awesome. And then at school, making the transition was a little harder. At that time, the school we went to, there were not a lot of minorities. So, I think some of the teachers and some of the students weren't sure how to get accustomed to us, and we weren't sure what to expect either. But everyone tried their best and we flourished. And I went on to high school and then to university. And one of the things was having my teachers—like we were talking about before, recognized the potential in me and my sisters and really encouraging us, and being with my classmates and making friends and having fun with them. And during that time, it was the late '90s, and there were a lot of transitions going on in other parts of the world. So people from different countries, like I remember we had a lot of people from Bosnia because of the war coming to my high school, and from other parts of the world, from Asia, so it was a really multicultural school—high school that I went to. So learning about other cultures through my friends, too, made it really worth it. So I'm certainly glad that my family made the move. It's opened up amazing opportunities for me as well. And being able to come now to Japan and teach English, that was because of that. So yeah, although it was hard in ways that I hadn't imagined, but it was so worth it. And I'be grown and I'be had so many awesome experiences that yeah, I'm really thankful for it.
阿比德米：当然可以。对我来说那是一次很有趣的经历。那个经历很棒，但是又……我不想用痛苦来形容，不过那是两种完全不同的生活方式。我小的时候非常喜欢旅行。我想到处去旅行。所以，当我的家人决定搬到加拿大生活时，我非常兴奋。不过我也承认，当时我并没有完全准备好。我当时不知道加拿大、美国和英国在哪里，那个时候这些国家对我来说是一样的。我们搬家时，我爸爸先搬去了加拿大。他比我们早过去，他在加拿大找了份工作。他为我们找了住的地方。然后我和我妈妈还有其他姐妹一起搬了过去。我们五个女生抵达机场时……我们在12月中旬抵达了蒙特利尔机场，当时我四处张望，我看到地上被白色的东西覆盖了，我还在想“那是什么？地上为什么这么白？”我记得我爸爸开车来机场接我们时，我对他说：“我们在那儿玩吧。我想在那里玩。那是什么？”雪是我对加拿大的第一印象。非常好玩。在12月抵达加拿大感觉太棒了，但是特别冷。个人来说，我不太喜欢那种寒冷，不过在寒冷中感受到家庭的温暖还是值得的。那种感觉很棒。至于上学，完成过渡有些艰难。当时，我们上的那所学校没有很多少数族裔。所以，一些老师和学生不知道如何让我们适应新生活，当然我们也不知道应该怎样做。不过所有人都竭尽全力，而且我们表现得很好。然后，我在加拿大上了高中和大学。我们之前谈到过，我们让老师认可了我和我姐姐们的潜力，这让我们受到了鼓舞，可以和同学和睦相处，而且交到了朋友，一起度过了快乐时光。那是上世纪90年代末，世界其他地方也在经历着过渡期。我们学校招收了很多来自不同国家的学生，我记得有很多波斯尼亚人因为躲避战争来到我念的高中，当然学校也招收了一些来自亚洲等其他地方的学生，所以我上的高中是一所多元文化的学校。我通过朋友们学到了其他国家的文化，我认为这非常值得。我很高兴我们家搬到了加拿大。那为我打开了不可思议的机会之门。我现在能来到日本教英语，也是受益于此。虽然经历了一些我没有想到的艰难，不过我认为那很值得。这段经历让我更成熟，而且我还体验了如此精彩的生活，我非常感激。