【话匣子英语】跨文化交流

米兰妮从小转学过几次，在跨文化交流里，她是否适应这样的生活呢。

Melanie: Well, I was born and raised in Lindsay, Ontario a few hours north of

Toronto.

Maura: So how did you end up in Montreal then?

Melanie: Well after finishing high school in Lindsay, I moved out west to Kelowna,

British Columbia where I did a college diploma in aviation¹ and I taught

flying around British Columbia for a few years before heading back to Ontario

to Ottawa to do a degree in language, French and English literature. That

took me to France on an exchange with the University of Ottawa, where I

met my partner Christophe. Living in France was an excellent experience, a

great way learn about the culture and practice the language but tough to get

visas sometimes so I had to come back to Canada. Christophe and I decided²

to both come to Montreal where we can both work and live in our first

languages.

Maura: OK, cool. So what were you doing in France?

Melanie: I went originally on an exchange with the university. So I took classes at one

of the universities in Lyon, France. There I studied with native speakers in

the literature classes there and I also at the same time taught English in a

high school.

Maura: Oh, that’s pretty cool. So how did you learn French? Just at university?

Melanie: No, in Lindsay, where I’m from. It’s funny, it’s a small town, no native French

speakers, and yet there’s a French immersion³ program. It started the year

before I went into school, luckily, so when I started kindergarten at the age of

5, I started in French immersion, where I spoke⁴ only French from the first day

of school. So we were all native English speakers but learning French

together.

Maura: That’s pretty cool. I’m always jealous of people who have that experience

because for me growing up, I was surrounding by people speaking English

and I went to English school and I took some French classes because no

matter, really, where you are in English-speaking Canada you have to take

French classes but it’s not an immersion program so I didn’t really learn as

much.

Melanie: Yeah, it was a really great program. We learned French from native French

speakers that came to the town to teach. We learned a lot about the

language and the French culture as well, which is really great ‘cause the

small town wasn’t very diverse. We spoke only French from kindergarten all

the way up until grade 4, was the first time we learned English. We had

about 45 minutes a day in English and then it progressed. Every year we

added a little bit more English until high school we had about 3 classes in

French, 3 classes in English.

1 aviation   

n.航空，航空学，飞机制造业

参考例句：

• Ten years ago,they began to develop the aviation. 十年前，他们开始发展航空工业。
• Pilots of large aircraft are masters of aviation.大型飞行器的驾驶员是航空学方面的专家。

2 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。

3 immersion   

n.沉浸；专心

参考例句：

• The dirt on the bottom of the bath didn't encourage total immersion.浴缸底有污垢，不宜全身浸泡于其中。
• The wood had become swollen from prolonged immersion.因长时间浸泡，木头发胀了。

4 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。