【英语趣味课堂】生活史-Life History

Todd: Miki, where did you go to university?

 

Miki: I went to university in California, at a school called the University of California at Berkeley.

 

Todd: And where is that in California?

 

Miki: It's in the Bay Area, which is in the northern half of California, right across the bay from San Francisco.

 

Todd: OK, and what did you study?

 

Miki: I studied many things, but I majored in Japanese

 

Todd: Oh, really!

 

Miki: I did.

 

Todd: Oh, wow. Now you are of Japanese ancestry¹.

 

Miki: My mother is. My father is from Kansas.

 

Todd: Oh, really.

 

Miki: His family is from the South, Kansas, Arkansas, Texas. My mother is from Japan. She grew up in Nagasaki and moved to Yokohama when she was young so most of my family is there, Yokohama and the South.

 

Todd: Oh, wow! What a combo.

 

Miki: Yeah, I guess so.

 

Todd: Now were you already fluent in Japanese before you started university?

 

Miki: I was but it wasn't a standard Japanese. It was very familial. It was Japanese that was spoken within the family, between parent and child, and so it was very casual, and conversational².

 

Todd: OK. Is it difficult for you to comprehend³ people sometimes in Japan or is it just like home?

 

Miki: Oh, it's absolutely difficult because there, well first of all, they're dialects and then of course there are different levels of politeness and conversationalist, I guess, and especially once I get into a classroom with other professors, and other students, colleagues my age, it's quite difficult to follow the language, but if it's street talk it's much easier. 

 

Todd: Oh, really! OK, so at university, did you study just to learn Japanese as a language or did you study literature?

 

Miki: I'll be honest. I studied to get an easy degree, and frankly⁴ it was quite easy, but then I had a very good professor in classical Japanese and that's when my interest in literature and history actually was born and I ended up becoming a researcher in medieval⁵ history, medieval literature.

 

Todd: Wow, that must be really difficult though cause that's old, old style of language, it's an

old text. (Yes) Like Shakespeare is difficult for me.

 

Miki: That's actual, well, that's actually an interesting comparison cause Shakespeare is actually just a little bit easier for us modern Americans to comprehend than classical Japanese is for a modern Japanese person to comprehend because the language, actually, Shakespearean English is actually much closer to modern English than classical Japanese is to modern Japanese, but

it's not spoken, so if one has a dictionary, then one can do research.

 

Todd: Alright! Well, thanks a lot Miki.

 

Miki: You're welcome.

1 ancestry   

n.祖先，家世

参考例句：

• Their ancestry settled the land in 1856.他们的祖辈1856年在这块土地上定居下来。
• He is an American of French ancestry.他是法国血统的美国人。

2 conversational   

adj.对话的，会话的

参考例句：

• The article is written in a conversational style.该文是以对话的形式写成的。
• She values herself on her conversational powers.她常夸耀自己的能言善辩。

3 comprehend   

vt.了解，理解，领会

参考例句：

• I did not comprehend his meaning.我不理解他的意思。
• If you can use a word correctly and effectively,you comprehend it.你如果能正确和有效地使用一个字，你就了解它了。

4 frankly   

adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说

参考例句：

• To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说，我一点也不赞成这个主意。
• Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说，我不反对改革。

5 medieval   

adj.中世纪的，中古（时代）的

参考例句：

• This is a medieval story.这是一个中世纪的故事。
• The museum has a fine collection of medieval ivories.该博物馆收藏着一批精美的中世纪象牙制品。