VOA标准英语2010年-US Military Sees Surge in Asian-Americ

Education opportunities, increased visibility lure¹ new generation

Lonny Shavelson | Richmond, California 14 July 2010

The rising visibility of Asian-Americans already in the service may make a military career more acceptable to young Asian-Americans.

The all-volunteer U.S. army - like the United States itself - is an ethnic² mix. But Asian-Americans have typically volunteered less than other ethnic groups. Recently, though, they have been enlisting³ at a remarkable⁴ rate.

Asian-Americans make up just 10 percent of New York City's population, but they comprise 14 percent of army recruits. The numbers are even more striking in California cities. In the San Francisco Bay area, 42 percent of recruits so far this year have been Asian-American - way over their local population.

New reasons for signing up

At the Bay Area's Richmond Hilltop Mall recruiting station, army officers teach incoming soldiers to march. The 15 recruits, still in high school, will start basic training after they graduate. Seven of them are Asian: Chinese, Vietnamese, Pacific-Islander and Filipino.

Recruits Albert and Barry Huang are 18-year-old twins who speak Cantonese at home, and English outside the home. They tend to finish each other's sentences.

"My parents always pushed the idea of 'go to college, go to college,'" says Albert. "And so this is a start of how we're going to..."

Barry jumps in with "…do what our parents want us to do. We're just going to go to college and get an education."

This is the twins' route to college. "Now that the economy has gone down and the tuition's gone up - the army, they can pay for my college, so might as well do it," says Barry.

Asian-American parents' traditional emphasis on education has run into the stumbling U.S. economy and skyrocketing college costs. So the military's education benefits have become particularly appealing. That's one reason Asian-Americans are increasingly joining the army.

But that's not the whole story.

In the San Francisco Bay area, 42 percent of military recruits so far this year have been Asian-American.

Facing new enemies

"In the present war, they're not fighting against Asians like in World War II or Vietnam," says Ken⁵ Mochizuki, co-author of a book about Asians in the military. He points out that U.S. soldiers, before this generation, were fighting Asians - Japanese in World War II, then Koreans and Vietnamese. Today's young soldiers, he says, were born after those wars, and are less apprehensive⁶ about the military.

And, he adds, today's generation of American Southeast Asians, born to parents who spent time in refugee camps before emigrating, "want to prove their loyalty⁷ to this country and that they're as American as anybody else."

Support roles

Yet increased recruitment of Asian-Americans doesn't mean that more are on the front lines.

According to Dr. Betty Maxfield, the army's chief of personnel data, Asian-Americans are more commonly found in non-combat jobs then as front-line fighters.

"The majority are in combat service support, technical support, computer support, medical," says Maxfield, adding that soldiers who focus on the military's education benefits train in jobs that translate to civilian⁸ life - such as technology or medicine rather than rifles or sharp shooting.

The Huang twins say that, for them, finding non-combat roles is also a cultural and religious choice. Their mother is Buddhist⁹.

"It affected¹⁰ me," Barry says. "When I decided¹¹ to join the military, I was like, 'I'm not going to kill anybody, I do not want to kill anybody. I do not want to have a person's death on my conscience.'"

The rising visibility of Asian-Americans already in the service may make a military career more acceptable to Asian-Americans.

Retired¹² four-star general Eric Shinseki, a Japanese-American, now heads the Department of Veterans Affairs. Antonio Taguba, a Filipino-American major general, led the Abu Ghraib investigation¹³.

The most potent¹⁴ reason that Asian-Americans are increasingly joining the army may just be because they now see top-level officers who look like them.

 

1 lure   

n.吸引人的东西，诱惑物；vt.引诱，吸引

参考例句：

• Life in big cities is a lure for many country boys.大城市的生活吸引着许多乡下小伙子。
• He couldn't resist the lure of money.他不能抵制金钱的诱惑。

2 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。

3 enlisting   

v.（使）入伍， （使）参军( enlist的现在分词 )；获得（帮助或支持）

参考例句：

• He thought about enlisting-about the Spanish legion-about a profession. 他想去打仗，想参加西班牙军团，想找个职业。 来自辞典例句
• They are not enlisting men over thirty-five. 他们不召超过35岁的人入伍。 来自辞典例句

4 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

5 ken   

n.视野，知识领域

参考例句：

• Such things are beyond my ken.我可不懂这些事。
• Abstract words are beyond the ken of children.抽象的言辞超出小孩所理解的范围.

6 apprehensive   

adj.担心的，恐惧的，善于领会的

参考例句：

• She was deeply apprehensive about her future.她对未来感到非常担心。
• He was rather apprehensive of failure.他相当害怕失败。

7 loyalty   

n.忠诚，忠心

参考例句：

• She told him the truth from a sense of loyalty.她告诉他真相是出于忠诚。
• His loyalty to his friends was never in doubt.他对朋友的一片忠心从来没受到怀疑。

8 civilian   

adj.平民的，民用的，民众的

参考例句：

• There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
• He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。

9 Buddhist   

adj./n.佛教的，佛教徒

参考例句：

• The old lady fell down in adoration before Buddhist images.那老太太在佛像面前顶礼膜拜。
• In the eye of the Buddhist,every worldly affair is vain.在佛教徒的眼里，人世上一切事情都是空的。

10 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

11 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。

12 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

13 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

14 potent   

adj.强有力的，有权势的；有效力的

参考例句：

• The medicine had a potent effect on your disease.这药物对你的病疗效很大。
• We must account of his potent influence.我们必须考虑他的强有力的影响。