2007年VOA标准英语-Vietnamese Continue Traditions in Senegal

By Phuong Tran
Dakar
09 July 2007

The West African country of Senegal shares a common French colonial¹ past with Vietnam. Some Senegalese soldiers serving with the French army in Vietnam in the 1930's had children with Vietnamese women. Many of these children, now in their seventies, moved to Senegal, and some 50 years later, still practice Vietnamese traditions. Phuong Tran speaks with one of them in Dakar, and has this report for VOA.

A group of friends gather at a table over steaming cast iron pots to make the Vietnamese dish lau. They take turns dipping seafood² into the bubbling³ broth⁴, waiting for it to cook before spooning it out into small bowls of rice.

They share laughter, most weekend meals, and a common family trait⁵: they each have a Senegalese father and a Vietnamese mother.

Seventy-four year old Jean Gomis, speaking in Vietnamese, says he is mixed, with red blood and black skin, but that his heart is gold, referring to one of the colors on Vietnam's national flag. He says he loves Vietnam as much as people who live there, because that is where he was born.

Gomis says a happy childhood filled with songs and close friendships make him want to hold on to his past even though he moved away from Vietnam at age 14.

Gomis says his Senegalese father was often away fighting in the war between the French and Vietnamese independence fighters, which lasted until 1954. He says he spent most of his childhood helping⁶ his mother in the countryside. He says that is probably why he loves to cook so much now.

Gomis says he cooks a Vietnamese meal every day for himself and his Senegalese wife. He is recognized as the unofficial leader of the Senegalese Vietnamese community in Dakar because he is the oldest male in the group born to parents from both countries. He and others estimate⁷ there may be about three hundred Senegalese Vietnamese in the country.

Gomis says there are about a dozen like him who were born in Vietnam and still speak Vietnamese. He says fewer than five Vietnamese women who moved to Senegal with their husbands in the 1940's are still alive.

One of those women is Madame Wone. At 87 years old, she has decided⁸ to learn Vietnamese grammar. Wone says when she grew up in Vietnam in the 1920's, she was not allowed to go to school.

She says even though her memory is not so good anymore, her will is strong and she wants to speak more fluently, even though most her friends she used to talk to have died.

Wone says she wants to visit Vietnam one more time. There, she says, she can practice her Vietnamese.

Jean Gomis says within 10 years, he expects the Vietnamese language to no longer be spoken in Senegal because the younger Senegalese-Vietnamese do not know how to speak it.

Gomis says it makes him sad a part of Vietnam's culture will die in Senegal when his and Madame Wone's generations die, but that is how life is, he concludes.

1 colonial   

adj.殖民地的，关于殖民的；n.殖民地，居民

参考例句：

• The natives were unwilling to be bent by colonial power.土著居民不愿受殖民势力的摆布。
• The people of Africa have successfully fought against colonial rule.非洲人民成功地反抗了殖民统治。

2 seafood   

n.海产食品，海味，海鲜

参考例句：

• There's an excellent seafood restaurant near here.离这儿不远有家非常不错的海鲜馆。
• Shrimps are a popular type of seafood.小虾是比较普遍的一种海味。

3 bubbling   

adj. 冒泡的，气泡形成的 动词bubble的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• The water was bubbling and boiling away. 水在咕嘟咕嘟地沸腾着。
• She was bubbling over with happiness and enthusiasm. 她洋溢着喜悦和兴奋。

4 broth   

n.原(汁)汤(鱼汤、肉汤、菜汤等)

参考例句：

• Every cook praises his own broth.厨子总是称赞自己做的汤。
• Just a bit of a mouse's dropping will spoil a whole saucepan of broth.一粒老鼠屎败坏一锅汤。

5 trait   

n.显著特点，特性

参考例句：

• Creativity is a human trait.创造力是人类的一种特性。
• Repose of manner is an estimable trait in a horse.神情镇定是一匹马可贵的特质。

6 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

7 estimate   

n.估计，估量；评价，看法；vt.估计，估量

参考例句：

• We estimate the cost to be five thousand dollars.我们估计费用为5000美元。
• The lowest estimate would put the worth of the jewel at ＄200.按最低的评估这块宝石也值200美元。

8 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。