英文原版对话1000个:646 Life in America

Todd: Now, Keiko, you said you lived in America.

Keiko: Yeah.

Todd: How long did you live in America for?

Keiko: I lived there for five years.

Todd: Five. That's a long time. What was it like when you came back to Japan?

Keiko: It was quite difficult because I look Japanese and obviously¹ I am Japanese but I act a little bit different from other people and the way I wanted to mingle² with my friends was a bit different from how the Japanese people mingle with their friends, for example there's no hugs between friends. Those little things in daily life kind of shocked me a little bit.

Keiko: Or, even in university, I've heard about this before, but in universities, you know people go to bathroom together, you know they always think about in a group, OK, what should we do, should we eat lunch, should we go to the bathroom, should we, you know, do this after school. It's kind of always in a group.

Todd: That's in Japan or in the U.S.?

Keiko: In Japan. (In Japan) Yeah, is what I felt.

Todd: Wow, so it was hard because everybody was always together all the time, like you couldn't be an individual, or?

Keiko: It was hard because I think in The States you are expected to have your own opinions where as in Japan it's important to have harmony³ with other people and so you don't usually say, "OK, this is what I want to do? Do you guys want to come with me or not?" It doesn't work like that. You say, "OK, what do you want to do? You ask other people first and people ask each other, "OK, what do you want?" You sort of, they come up with one thing that we want to do which takes about maybe fifteen minutes or twenty minutes just to do one thing and I'm not criticizing⁴ but it was just kind of a different culture coming back.

Keiko: And then, now I've kind of got used to that culture now and I think it's kind of one of the good things about Japanese cultures and Japanese people because they really do respect the other people's opinions, even with friends, they don't take each other for granted⁵ so I'm getting used to it, but when I just came back it was just little things.

Todd: Right. Did you find that you had to change? Like, how did you have to change when you came back? Were you still yourself or did you have to adjust⁶ and how so?

Keiko: I tried not to say so much about, 'OK this is what I want to do?' or I tried not to stand out so much in the way, but after awhile I just thought, OK, when you try to be somebody you can't because that's who you are and there are a lot of friends in university, they ask me, "Do you think you're Japanese or do you think you're American?" because they felt that I'm quite different.

Todd: Sure.

Keiko: And I used to say, "Well, I'm Japanese but I grew up in the States and I used to explain that but then at the end, I thought, OK, well, I can't be Japanese and I can't be American. I'm just myself, so that is a kind of attitude that I took I think from, yeah, in the later years in university and I just try not to really change or try to adapt.

 

1 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。

2 mingle   

vt.使混合，使相混；vi.混合起来；相交往

参考例句：

• If we mingle with the crowd,we should not be noticed.如果我们混在人群中，就不会被注意到。
• Oil will not mingle with water.油和水不相融。

3 harmony   

n.调合，协调；和睦，和平相处；(音乐)和声

参考例句：

• The couple lives in perfect harmony.这对夫妇和睦地生活着。
• His ideas were no longer in harmony with ours.他同我们的想法不再一致了。

4 criticizing   

v.评论，批评( criticize的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• He committed the cardinal sin of criticizing his teammates. 他犯了指责队友的大错。
• She's always criticizing her husband for being sloppy. 她总是指责她的丈夫做事马虎。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 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。

6 adjust   

vt.调整，使适应于，校准；vi.调整，适应于，校准

参考例句：

• Foreigners take some time to adjust to our way of life.外国人要花一些时间才能适应我们的生活方式。
• It is difficult to adjust one's habits to someone else.一个人很难使自己的习惯适于他人。