【英语趣味课堂】多文化国家-Multicultural Country

Todd: So CleAnn, you’re from Trinidad and Tobago and you were saying that your country has a very diverse multicultural¹ mix?

CleAnn: Yes.

 

Todd: Can you talk about that?

 

CleAnn: Oh sure. Trinidad and Tobago mostly were made up of people from Africa (African descent) who came as slaves and Indians who came from India...mostly, I think we may also have some from parts of Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, but they came as indentured² laborers⁴ closer to when slavery was being abolished.

 

These two groups actually make up the two largest ethnic⁵ groups in Trinidad. However, there is a lot of mixing. It’s very difficult to find someone in Trinidad and Tobago who is extremely, purely⁶ of one ethnic group because everyone is sort of mixed.

 

We have also a lot of whites or caucasians who are native to Trinidad and Tobago who speak exactly like me with my Caribbean accent and many people who find it very strange because they will walk around in Trinidad and think that they are tourists but realize that they are actually native Trinidadians. And many also come from Europe to settle in Trinidad after retirement⁷ and have their families here so this is how they came to stay here.

 

We have a very large Chinese population and its growing because now the government is encouraging immigrants from China to come in to help us with our development, to build our capital city so we have a lot of Chinese.

 

We have a lot of Colombians, Venezuelans, people coming from South and Central America migrating to Trinidad because Spanish is now being promoted as a second language for Trinidad so street signs in our capital city are in English and Spanish.

 

So with all of this mixing of different people it’s very, as I said, very difficult to find a person who is of just one ethnic group and it’s reflected in our food, it’s reflected in the kind of music we listen to, sometimes in the way we dress.

 

For me, for example, I’m mostly of African descent but my dad is mixed with people from South American ethnicity and Chinese. So, as I said, although I’m mostly African, everybody still has a little bit of something in them.

 

 重点词汇：

 

Learn Vocabulary from the Lesson

descent

 

I’m mostly of African descent.

 

Descent is the background or original place where someone’s family is from.

 

She looks Asian, but she is actually of Hispanic descent.

In Trinidad and Tobago, almost everyone has descendants from different ethnicities.

indentured laborers

 

We also have some from parts of Bangladesh, but they came as indentured laborers.

 

Indentured means to be under a contract or an agreement. A laborer³ is a worker. In many British colonies, indentured laborers were people who agreed to work for a land owner in exchange for transportation to the colony. Another word for an indentured laborer is an indentured servant.

 

Many Indians became indentured laborers after the end of slavery.

Indentured servants also worked in exchange for food, housing, and other needs.

slavery

 

Trinidad and Tobago mostly were made up of people from Africa who came as slaves.

 

Slavery is when a land or business owner forces people to work without giving them money. The slaves are not paid for their services and if they refuse to work, then they are often severely⁸ punished.

 

Slavery is illegal worldwide, but there are still millions who live in conditions similar to slavery.

The US prohibited the importation of slaves in 1808.

abolished

 

They came as indentured laborers closer to when slavery was being abolished.

 

Abolish means to officially stop doing something. Usually, this means that a new law has been created to end a particular action.

 

Slavery was abolished in Mauritania in 1981.

One of the first countries to abolish the death penalty was Venezuela.

retirement

 

Many also come from Europe to settle in Trinidad after retirement.

 

Retirement is when a person stops working and does not plan to return to work. When an athlete stops playing a sport, it is also called retirement.

 

A lot of people work really hard so they have enough money to retire early.

I save a small percentage of my paycheck every month for retirement.

1 multicultural   

adj.融合多种文化的，多种文化的

参考例句：

• Children growing up in a multicultural society.在多元文化社会中长大的孩子们。
• The school has been attempting to bring a multicultural perspective to its curriculum.这所学校已经在尝试将一种多元文化视角引入其课程。

2 indentured   

v.以契约束缚（学徒）( indenture的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The Africans became indentured servants, trading labor for shelter and eventual freedom. 非洲人成为契约上的仆人，以劳力交换庇护及最终的自由。 来自互联网
• They are descendants of indentured importees. 他们是契约外来工的后代。 来自互联网

3 laborer   

n.劳动者，劳工

参考例句：

• Her husband had been a farm laborer.她丈夫以前是个农场雇工。
• He worked as a casual laborer and did not earn much.他当临时工，没有赚多少钱。

4 laborers   

n.体力劳动者，工人( laborer的名词复数 )；（熟练工人的）辅助工

参考例句：

• Laborers were trained to handle 50-ton compactors and giant cranes. 工人们接受操作五十吨压土机和巨型起重机的训练。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Wage-labour rests exclusively on competition between the laborers. 雇佣劳动完全是建立在工人的自相竞争之上的。 来自英汉非文学 - 共产党宣言

5 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

6 purely   

adv.纯粹地，完全地

参考例句：

• I helped him purely and simply out of friendship.我帮他纯粹是出于友情。
• This disproves the theory that children are purely imitative.这证明认为儿童只会单纯地模仿的理论是站不住脚的。

7 retirement   

n.退休，退职

参考例句：

• She wanted to enjoy her retirement without being beset by financial worries.她想享受退休生活而不必为金钱担忧。
• I have to put everything away for my retirement.我必须把一切都积蓄起来以便退休后用。

8 severely   

adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地

参考例句：

• He was severely criticized and removed from his post.他受到了严厉的批评并且被撤了职。
• He is severely put down for his careless work.他因工作上的粗心大意而受到了严厉的批评。