英文原版对话1000个:635 Samoa Life

Joel: I'm sorry Patricia, I'm completely ignorant about any history in Samoa. You said there's an American and then the Western side? And who was that originally --was that a colony of another country?

Patricia: The American Samoan territory is an American territory itself, even until now it's still under the States (the United States) but Western Samoa, which in 1997 has recently changed the name, to Samoa alone, they were under the British colony, German colony as well. And then in 1919 they became a New Zealand mandate¹.

Joel: What does that mean?

Patricia: It means that they were under --like you are aware that New Zealand is under the British rule? But they have their own independent state itself. It's like that whereby² Samoa is a British country --colony but it's being mandated³, or taken care of, by New Zealand which that anything -- we don't have a, for example, we don't have an army. We use the New Zealand army to take care of us. Any political decisions that we need to make it has to be done by the New Zealand...

Joel: And so the same is true of the American side?

Patricia: I don't think so. I believe they are very different. They are more under-- OK, to a certain degree but the American Samoan individuals are more Americanized.

Joel: I see.

Patricia: Like, from our side, the Samoan side, we're more on traditionally-based rules. Even though we listen and even though we need a decision made by the British and the New Zealand mandates⁴ but we're more on a local-- we have a "matai" system which means that we have leaders from each village which counsels⁵ us. These are the only individuals who are allowed to decide. But after our decision we give it to the New Zealand and British mandate. For the American Samoan people, the who system is governed by America.

Joel: So have you lived in England or the United States before?

Patricia: No. Not at all. I haven't been there yet?

Joel: And what about just the popular culture? Like, do you watch American TV shows?

Patricia: Yes.

Joel: Or British? Or New Zealand?

Patricia: With Samoan families we have some people on our island like for example I have a friend who is in the university now. Her father is from the other island, the American Samoa, her family is more based on the American system side where they watch American movies and so on. And then you have people who are more on a New Zealand basic, like, view. And Australian lifestyle.

Joel: You know in the United States, we never see New Zealand TV or Australian TV or British TV and I always think that people from other countries, they see American movies and American television but Americans don't see any of that from countries outside the US so we have kind of a bit of a closed culture but you watch also British and New Zealand, so you know all of it.

Patricia: That's basically the interesting thing about living on an island. You don't get to decide which country you are supposed to be, who you are supposed to be on the same side with. Basically what you do is, when you are born into a certain family, they have certain rules, they have a certain sort of way of living, which means that if you are from a family that has British lines or American lines, basically you will have both the lifestyles of a British and American normal Somoan family.

Joel: So you are much more multicultural⁶.

Patricia: Probably.
 

1 mandate   

n.托管地；命令，指示

参考例句：

• The President had a clear mandate to end the war.总统得到明确的授权结束那场战争。
• The General Election gave him no such mandate.大选并未授予他这种权力。

2 whereby   

adv.靠什么，靠那个

参考例句：

• Whereby shall we know her?我们靠什么认出她呢？
• Whereby I saw that he was angry.由那一点我看出他生气了。

3 mandated   

adj. 委托统治的

参考例句：

• Mandated desegregation of public schools. 命令解除公立学校中的种族隔离
• Britain was mandated to govern the former colony of German East Africa. 英国受权代管德国在东非的前殖民地。

4 mandates   

托管（mandate的第三人称单数形式）

参考例句：

• Individual mandates would require all people to purchase health insurance. 个人托管要求所有人都要购买健康保险。
• While I agree with those benefits, I'm not a supporter of mandates. 我同意上述好处，我不是授权软件的支持者。

5 counsels   

忠告( counsel的名词复数 )； 劝告； 辩护律师； 商议

参考例句：

• Divided counsels seethed round Badoglio. 在巴多格利奥的周围，各种分歧意见争吵不休。
• For a time, Wilson rebuffed these counsels. 有一个时期，威尔逊断然拒绝这些意见。

6 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。