美语情景对话 第517期:Two Cultures 两种文化

Todd: So, Rina, now you are Lebanese (Mm-hm) and you grew up in a very small Canadian town.

托德：丽娜，你是黎巴嫩人（嗯），你是在加拿大一个小城镇里长大的。

Rina: Oh, yes.

丽娜：对。

Todd: So you really have two cultures. What's it like growing up with two cultures?

托德：所以其实你体验了两种文化。在两种文化中成长的感觉怎么样？

Rina: In the beginning it was very hard. My dad was very strict. I wasn't allowed to work. I had to fight to have my first job at 19.

丽娜：开始时非常糟糕。我爸爸非常严厉。他不让我去打工。我不断的争取，然后我在19岁的时候有了第一份工作。

Todd: Wow. At 19.

托德：哇。19岁。

Rina: At 19. I wasn't allowed to have a boyfriend. I had to fight for that one too, and I had my first boyfriend at 18. Wasn't allowed to go out. First high school dance was grade 11. So, I hated it in the beginning. I was, but now I appreciate it and I know where my parents were coming from.

丽娜：对，19岁。他也不让我交男朋友。当然这方面我也进行了争取，我在18岁时交了第一个男友。可是我爸爸不允许我们外出约会。我在高中跳的第一支舞是在11年级。所以开始时我非常讨厌这种限制。不过现在我很感激，因为我了解了我父母的背景。

Todd: So, it this the standard Lebanese family type culture where daughters are not allowed to work?

托德：那标准的黎巴嫩家庭就是不允许女儿外出打工吗？

Rina: Ah, yeah, my dad had basically believed that if I went out and worked I would, you know, be hit on by guys. It just wasn't a place for his daughter, and typically before, yeah, women don't work. They stay home. They took care of the kids. They, you know, it was a typical patriarchal society and my dad was very, very strict, and I spent a lot of my childhood pushing away my culture because of that.

丽娜：对，我爸爸一直认为，我外出打工会被男孩欺负。那不是他的女儿应该去的地方，而且以前女性是不出去工作的。以前女性都呆在家里照顾孩子。以前是典型的父权社会，我爸爸很严厉，就因为如此，所以我大部分童年时光都在摆脱这种文化。

Todd: And how do you feel about your culture now?

托德：那你现在怎么看待这种文化？

Rina: I'm very, very proud of it. I love it. It's nice to be different and I'm glad I get that chance to do that. Um, the only thing, when I was in Lebanon, it was hard as well because people didn't see me as Canadian, and they didn't see me as Lebanese You know I was, a lot of people didn't talk to me because of it. I went there and a lot of people shunned me basically, so.

丽娜：现在我以这种文化感到自豪。我喜欢这种文化。与众不同感觉很好，而且我很高兴我有机会体验这种文化。我在黎巴嫩的时候，唯一一件让我觉得艰难的事情是，人们既不把我当作加拿大人看，也不把我当黎巴嫩人看，因此有很多人不和我说话。基本上那里的人都会避开我。

Todd: So even though you had no language barrier at all cause you speak Lebanese?

托德：你会说黎巴嫩语，即使你完全没有语言障碍他们也这样吗？

Rina: Yep, yep, no, they basically, you know they were mad at me because I was too Canadian, or they were mad at me that I wasn't enough Canadian, and like, it was just, you know, insane.

丽娜：对，他们生我的气，因为我也是加拿大人，可是他们生我气是因为我不是完全的加拿大人，你知道，很疯狂。

Todd: That's pretty tough.

托德：那真是非常艰难。

Rina: Yeah, well, they have their, they have their image of what you know, what Western society is like from movies and, you know, because you know I have my tattoos, they thought I was just basically Satan's spawn, and because I wasn't running around like a tramp, they thought well, "What is she is doing? What is she supposed to?" it was just the worst of both world's really.

丽娜：对，他们有从电影中看到的西方社会的样貌，因为我有纹身，他们就认为我是撒旦之子，因为我不像游民一样四处行走，他们会想：“她在做什么？她想做什么”这是两种文化中最糟糕的。

Todd: Ah, that's terrible.

托德：是啊，真糟糕。

Rina: Yeah, so because, they do, they have, and actually I have to specify this: I was in a village. Like, both of my parents are from villages.

丽娜：因为……我要明确一下，当时我住在村庄里，我的父母都来自村庄。

Todd: Oh, I see.

托德：哦，我明白了。

Rina: In Beirut, it's different, but when I was in the villages, where I stayed the majority of the time, it was like that, but I got, I made my little older ladies love me, but they were talking to me at the end, having coffee with me while I smoked my cigarettes, yep, yep.

丽娜：在贝鲁特的话情况就会不同，可是因为我住在村庄，我大部分时间都生活在村庄，不过我还是让年龄大些的女士喜欢上了我，后来他们都会和我说话，我们会一边抽烟一边享用咖啡。

Todd: Oh, that's good to hear.

托德：听起来不错。

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重点讲解：
1. go out
外出交际；外出娱乐；
eg. Come and see me then. We'll go out somewhere.
那你来看我吧，我们一起到外面什么地方玩玩。
eg. Don't be so bitchy. We'll go out and have fun later.
不要如此暴躁。我们等一下就出去玩。
2. push away
推开，排除；
eg. And, if you rant and rave and complain to everyone you'll only push away those people who may best be able to help you.
同样，如果你成天只知道在那抱怨和咒骂你只会把那些有可能帮助你的人拒之门外。
eg. Beautiful language can really twist your mind in a way that helps to push away the cares of the day.
美丽的语言确实能够使你抛开生活中的那些烦恼。
3. be proud of
骄傲的；自豪的；得意的；
eg. He is proud of his great success in scientific researches.
他为自己在科研方面所取得的巨大成就而自豪。
eg. Our company is proud of its reputation for fair dealing.
我们公司以享有经营作风正派的美誉而感到自豪。
4. be mad at sb.
愤怒的；异常恼火的；
eg. I was so mad at getting this kind of bum rap.
受这样的冤枉气真让我非常生气。
eg. Whether he says sorry or not, I am not mad at him anymore.
无论他说不说对不起，我都不再生他的气。