Uriel Yak尤里专线 (1)

 

 

Uriel Yak¹尤里专线 (1)

 

Uriel: Hello, this is Uriel. Welcome to Uriel Yak! I have with me in the studio Philip Short. Philip is a British man living in China. He's going to tell us about his experiences here. Philip, what made you want to go to China?

Phillip: Well, I think it's because of my grandmother. She used to live near the University of York, and many times she used to have foreign people to live with her for maybe five months at a time. We used to have Chinese people for, sort of, a few months, and Japanese people, French people.... It was quite an international house sometimes. And we used to go out to them with part ... to parties, and we used to go to the University and they used to show me around. And I was ... I was sixteen at this time. And the last people were, the last two was a man and a woman, and they were I think about thirty, and they ... they used to talk to me about China, hours and hours at night when they used to stay at my grandmother's house.

U: When you started teaching² -- it was in Tianjin --you suddenly had a class of students. You'd never taught before, had you?

P: Never. No, never.

U: How many students did you have in your classes?

P: The first classes I had sixty-two, I think it was.

U: Sixty-two in one class?

P: Yes.

U: About eighteen years old?

P: Well, eighteen to nineteen, yeah. So that was quite ... that was, well ... hard to say the least -- controlling the back, the back ....

U: The back rows.

P: Yes, they were the worst ones. But slowly I began to pull them towards the front and the situation got better. I used to try and get them to think about China, and not take things for granted³. And why China may be unique, and maybe why it's so different to England. So in a way I tried to make them understand differences about themselves. But, but ... for the best reasons.

U: What ideas did you come away with? Can you give us some specific pointers? Any particular themes that you were addressing with these Chinese students?

P: Yes, well, one of the main themes was young people.

U: Young people?

P: Yeah, and obviously⁴ they were teenagers, so the .... I think it's quite a major issue ... issue to them.

U: What about boyfriends and girlfriends? How are the Chinese different from the British people -- say, in your university, when ... when you were studying?

P: I think that maybe Chinese students are a lot more romantic. They have quite a romanticized vision⁵ of boyfriend and girlfriends.

U: You mean, if a boyfriend-girlfriend get together typically they'll expect to eventually get married or be together for life?

P: Yes, in a way I think that in England a boyfriend/girlfriend is just something quite transitional -- it's just something that's going to move on and you don't think about it.

U: You know it's temporary, right?

P: That's it, yeah, but in China I think there's more a tendency to look towards a future, a major future with that person.

U: Is that just -- you know, about Western people being transitional and relationships being temporary -- is that just an idea that people have in ... about Western relationships, or is that something that's true in your own experience, say with .... If you think about your friends, are they in relationships that they figure are probably going to last only a short time?

P: Yeah, I think so. I think that it's a lot easier to move around between different partners. And it's ... it's not seen as .... There's not a stigma⁶ attached to doing that. I think that in China if you do that you're seen ... you're labeled easier. And it's ... it's something that people try and stay away from. Especially ... especially girls. Maybe .... I'm not saying that in England girls constantly have different boyfriends every week, but I think it's not as much of an issue.

U: Say like .... Before marriage, in England, it wouldn't be unusual for a girl to have maybe what, three, four, five boyfriends?

P: Yeah. Yeah, and that's seen as quite, quite acceptable⁷. Maybe not by her family as much but by ... socially ....

U: Her peers⁸.

P: Her peers, yeah. It's ... it's quite fine. I suppose that in that sense it's quite a major difference.

U: What other significant⁹ points of difference are there between the Chinese and the Western people in your experience?

P: Well, I'll say food.

U: Yeah?

P: But that's partly cultural. And I think...

U: Food ...? In what way? Would you like to ....

P: Well the food thing .... For example I .... Before I came to China I think food was the major issue. People would say to me, oh you .... Some of the things you'll have to eat .... You'll eat snake, monkey, which is quite .... I mean, I .... Obviously it's not possible to eat monkey but this was .... I think people in England have got a strange idea of ... of food in ... in China. Which is partly true.

U: But in England you ... you .... You have Chinese food restaurants everywhere, don't you?

P: We do but it's a special type of English Chinese, which has been tainted¹⁰ to suit the taste buds¹¹ ....

U: The Western palate.

P: Yes.

U: Well how about all the .... What about all the Chinese people living in England? What do they eat -- in restaurants?

P: Well I don't think they go to Chinese restaurants. I .... Unless it's a ... a... quite a spectacular¹² one, where they maybe know that the people who ... who ... who work there .... They would mostly keep away from the Chinese restaurants.

U: Well, where'd the Chinese people eat -- the Italian restaurants?

P: I think so, yeah. Pizza Huts.

U: Philip, thank you very much for joining us here at Uriel Yak, it's been a pleasure talking to you! And please tune¹³ in next time for our Uriel Yak show!

 

1 yak   

n.牦牛

参考例句：

• The most common materials Tibetan jewelry are Yak bone.藏饰最常见的材料当属牦牛骨。
• We can sell yak skin,meat and wool.我们可以卖牦牛的皮、肉和毛。

2 teaching   

n.教学，执教，任教，讲授；(复数)教诲

参考例句：

• We all agree in adopting the new teaching method. 我们一致同意采取新的教学方法。
• He created a new system of teaching foreign languages.他创造了一种新的外语教学体系。

3 granted   

conj.假定，就算v.（退一步）承认( grant的过去式和过去分词 )；（尤指正式地或法律上）同意；准许；让渡

参考例句：

• The president granted a general amnesty for all political prisoners. 总统大赦了所有的政治犯。
• She feared she would not be granted re-entry into Britain. 她担心不会获准再次踏足英伦。

4 obviously   

adv.显然；明白地

参考例句：

• Obviously they were putting him to a severe test.显然他们是在给他以严峻的考验。
• Obviously he was lying.显然他是在撒谎。

5 vision   

n.视觉，先见之明，光景，视力，眼力，幻想，影像；vt.幻想

参考例句：

• The wall cuts across our line of vision.那面墙挡住了我们的视线。
• Much reading has impaired his vision.大量读书损害了他的视力。

6 stigma   

n.耻辱，污名；(花的)柱头

参考例句：

• Being an unmarried mother used to carry a social stigma.做未婚母亲在社会上曾是不光彩的事。
• The stigma of losing weighed heavily on the team.失败的耻辱让整个队伍压力沉重。

7 acceptable   

adj.可接受的，合意的，受欢迎的

参考例句：

• The terms of the contract are acceptable to us.我们认为这个合同的条件可以接受。
• Air pollution in the city had reached four times the acceptable levels.这座城市的空气污染程度曾高达可接受标准的四倍。

8 peers   

n.同等的人，贵族vi.凝视，窥视vt.与…同等，封为贵族v.凝视( peer的第三人称单数 )；盯着看；同等；比得上

参考例句：

• She enjoys the respect of her peers. 她受到同侪的尊敬。
• She peers into my eyes. 她盯着我的眼睛。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 significant   

adj.相当数量的；意义重大的；意味深长的

参考例句：

• Your success today may be significant for your whole future.你今天的成功对你的整个未来可能是重要的。
• She cast him a significant smile.她向他投去意味深长的一笑。

10 tainted   

adj.腐坏的；污染的；沾污的；感染的v.使变质( taint的过去式和过去分词 )；使污染；败坏；被污染，腐坏，败坏

参考例句：

• The administration was tainted with scandal. 丑闻使得政府声名狼藉。
• He was considered tainted by association with the corrupt regime. 他因与腐败政府有牵连而名誉受损。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 buds   

芽( bud的名词复数 )； 苞； 半开的花； 未长大的叶

参考例句：

• the first buds appearing in spring 春天的初芽
• Willow trees breaking out into buds foretell the coming of spring. 柳枝绽青报春来。

12 spectacular   

adj.引人注目的，出色的，与众不同的

参考例句：

• This is a spectacular film.这是一部场面壮观的电影。
• This is the most spectacular financial crash of the decade.这是10年里最引人注目的金融破产事件。

13 tune   

n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整

参考例句：

• He'd written a tune,and played it to us on the piano.他写了一段曲子，并在钢琴上弹给我们听。
• The boy beat out a tune on a tin can.那男孩在易拉罐上敲出一首曲子。