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Kids Astride Two Cultures 徘徊于两个文化间的孩子

 

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课文讲解

 

繁體中文譯本

 

The challenges of growing up in diverse environments  在多元环境中成长所遭遇的挑战

 

When 15-year-old Tara Kola talks about life in her new home, she sounds like an exile. Two years after the pull of global economic opportunities lured her family from California to Bangalore, India, the teen feels trapped in a foreign land. To take one example, her school requires students to address instructors as “Sir” or “Miss,” wear uniforms with ties (even the girls) – and a nametag.

当十五岁的塔拉．寇勒谈到新家的生活时，她听起来简直就像一个被流放的人。两年前全球经济商机的有利条件，将她们全家从加州吸引到印度的邦加罗尔，现在这位少女觉得自己被困在外国的土地上。举个例子来说，她的学校要求学生要称呼老师为「先生」「女士」，学生要穿着打领带的制服（连女生也一样），还要戴名牌。

 

Scores of young people like Tara find their lives upended by the global careers of their parents. As a result, they are trying to cope with new school social orders and vastly different cultures in countries like India and China, where profound poverty is often found just outside the walls of their comfortable expatriate subdivisions.

许多像塔拉这样的年轻人，发现自己的生活被父母的全球性职涯整个颠覆了，因此他们在印度和中国等国家中，必须努力面对新学校的社会规范及回然不同的文化，在这些国家中，极度贫穷和来自海外人士的舒适住宅区，只有一墙之隔。

 

Parents and others believe the experience is sure to create a new generation of global citizens who seamlessly move between East and West. “China and India will play on the world’s center stage in 20, 30 years,” said Tara’s mother, Vani Kola, a successful Silicon Valley entrepreneur turned venture capitalist. “Yet the cultures of China and India are very different from the United States.”

家长与其他人相信，这样的经验一定能创造出一个自在地穿梭于东西方之间的全球公民新世代。「中国和印度在二十、三十年后，将会跃上世界舞台的正中央，」塔拉的母亲菲妮．寇勒说道，她从成功的硅谷企业家转而成为创投家，「然而中国和印度的文化，却与美国文化截然不同。」

 

Good or bad for kids?  对孩子是好是坏？

 

How this experience will affect these young people is unclear. But many speak favorably of their time in India, despite a few rebellious moments. Even Tara. “I’m glad I’m getting this global exposure. It has already changed me,” she admitted.

这种经验对这些年轻人会有什么影响，尚不得而知。即使其中也有一些叛逆时刻，但很多人谈起住在印度时光，却充满正面的响应。连塔拉也是如此，她承认，「我很高兴能接触到这种全球化的环境，它已经改变我了。」

 

Not everyone is convinced that moving young people across the global is best for them, particularly when they are elementary-school age. Sowmyanarayanan Sadagopan, founding director of the prestigious Indian Institute of Information Technology, has visited with young people at international schools in India and found some to be culturally unmoored. “In some cases, they turn out to be confused kids,” Sadagopan said.

但也不是所有人都相信，把年轻人迁移到地球的另一端对他们最好，尤其是在他们还是小学年纪时。索米尼拉亚南．沙达戈潘是声誉卓著的「印度资讯工程学院」创始董事，他在几所印度国际学校和年轻学子聊天，发现有些人在文化上失根无依。索米尼拉亚南表示，「在有些情况中，他们变得困惑混乱。」

 

 

单词发音

 

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astride [əˋstraɪd] v. 跨（马等）

exile [ˋɛksaɪl] n. 被流放者；流亡者；离乡背井者

pull [pʊl] n. 有利条件 Slang a means of gaining special advantage; influence

lure [lʊr] v. 引诱，诱惑

trap [træp] v. 使落入圈套（或困境）[（+into）]

address [əˋdrɛs] v. 称呼[（+as）]

expatriate [ɛksˋpetrɪ͵et] adj. 移居国外的; 外派雇员的,  n. 侨民; 外派雇员 referring to someone who does not live in his or her own country

subdivision [sʌbdəˋvɪʒən] n.【美】供出卖而分成的小块土地 an area of real estate composed of subdivided lots, usually near a town, containing many homes built at about the same time

sure [ʃʊr] adj. 一定的，必定的[Z][F][+to-v]

venture capitalist 风险投资人

favorably [ˋfevərəblɪ] adv. 正面地

prestigious [prɛsˋtɪdʒɪəs] adj. 有名望的

unmoor [ʌnˋmʊr] v. 起锚，解缆(此处引申为失根无依); 脱钩

 

 

 

课文朗读

 

課文講解

 

No one knows how many teens and preteens find themselves straddling two worlds. In India, the National Association of Software Service Companies, or NASSCOM, estimates that at least 20,000 returnees – known here as nonresident Indians – and their children have come back to the South Asian country. A large number of them are in the tech industry and from Silicon Valley, said Rajdeep Sahrawat, NASSCOM vice president. He and others expect the number of California expatriates to rapidly increase in India as economic opportunities grow.

没人知道，有多少青少年和九到十二岁左右的孩子发现自己横跨两个世界。印度「国家软件服务协会」（简称NASSCOM）估计，至少有两万名自国外回流的印裔海外人士──此地称之为印度侨民──和他们的孩子一起回到这个南亚国家。NASSCOM副主席拉吉．色拉瓦指出，他们之中有很多都来自硅谷，从事科技产业。色拉瓦和其他人预期，随着经济商机持续成长，来到印度的加州旅外人士数目将会迅速增加。

 

For nonresident Indians, it is a way to introduce their children to Indian culture and multigenerational families. “They get to see how I grew up,” said Sridevi Koneru. The Cisco Systems executive recently brought her two children to India from California.

对印度侨民来说，这是让孩子认识印度文化和多世代家庭的方法。丝理迪薇．康那鲁表示，「他们可以看到我是如何长大的。」康那鲁是「思科系统」公司主管，最近带着两个孩子从加州搬到印度。

 

“Coming here breaks through your mental block of American being everything,” said 15-year-old Krishna Sucharita, a former resident of San Jose, California, who has lived in Bangalore for more than four years. “You realize there is so much more in the world going on. It’s been a wonderful experience.”

十五岁的克里娜．苏嘉莉达指出，「来到这里，打破了美国就是一切的心智迷思。」她之前住在加州圣荷西，目前在邦加罗尔已住了四年多，克里娜说，「你会体认到，原来这个世界上还有更多事物，这是很棒的经验。」

 

Adapting to change  适应改变

 

It’s easy to see, though, how students like Tara have some issues with their adopted home. Students at her school must “stand up any time an adult enters the classroom,” Principal Mathew Sullivan explained.

不过，要理解像塔拉这样的学生为什么会对新家有意见，也并不难。她的学校规定「任何时候有成人进入教室时，学生都必须起立，」校长马修．苏利文解释道。

 

When they first arrive, he gives each a talk – particularly the Americans – about how they aren’t in California anymore. Sullivan, an American himself, believes their ability to adapt to his school’s rigid rules, as well as to the rest of India, will set them on a course for their own global careers.

当来自海外的学生刚抵校时，校长会和每个人谈话──尤其是美国人──他会告诉他们，必须了解自己已经不是在加州了。苏利文自己也是美国人，他相信，对学校的严格规定以及印度其他地方的适应能力，能让学生步上正轨，好为他们日后的全球化生涯做预备。

 

“I am almost certain that every student in this school will have an international career,” he said. “They will have no fear of the unknown. They will know how to adjust.”

「我几乎可以确定，这个学校的每一个学生都将有个国际化的生涯，」他表示。「他们对未知将无所惧怕，也会清楚该如何调适。」

 

 

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preteen [ˋpriˋtin] n.【美】十三岁以下的孩子 a preteen or a preteenage is a person under the age of 12

returnee [rɪ͵tɝˋni] n.【主美】（在国外工作后）回国者

multigenerational 数代同堂的; 多世代的; 与几代有关的 referring to several generations of family members

 

 

 

课文朗读

 

课文讲解

 

Growing up biculturally, added Sridhar Mitta, a leading tech figure in Bangalore, enables one to “be open to more things than I was” and avoid the “cultural shocks” many adults experience in global business.

邦加罗尔科技界领袖斯利达．米塔补充说，在双文化中成长，能让人「比我从前对更多事情采取开放态度」，而且能避免许多成年人从事全球化商业时所感受到的「文化冲击」。

 

That said, U.S. culture is at once ubiquitous and distant in India. At school, Tara is teased by her Indian friends about her American accent. At home, she goes online to chat with her friends in the United States. During the summer, she and her sister return to Silicon Valley for summer school and other activities. And, like most of the other expat kids, Tara will return to the United States for college.

话虽如此，美国文化在印度却很矛盾地既普遍存在也遥不可及。在学校里，塔拉被印度友人嘲笑她的美国腔；回到家，她上网和美国的朋友聊天。夏天时，她和妹妹会回硅谷去上暑期学校、参加各种活动。就和其他旅居外国的孩子一样，塔拉会回美国念大学。

 

Though she bucks against the strict school order, the teen enjoys other cultural aspects of India. A much more community-oriented life exists in Bangalore than in the United States, she and others say. The made-for-expat subdivisions provide a safe and close-knit neighborhood where children spent time socializing. There are no high school proms, and group activities replace dating. Peer pressure, parents say, is far less prevalent. “Kids grow up slower here,” Tara said.

虽然塔拉反对严格的学校纪律，这位青少年却很喜欢印度其他文化层面，她和其他人都说，邦加罗尔的生活中以小区为导向的程度，比美国更甚，专供从海外移居此地人士居住的住宅区，提供了安全紧密的邻里环境，让孩子有时间发展人际关系，这里没有中学毕业舞会，团体活动取代了约会。家长们表示，同侪压力少了许多，「这里的孩子成长速度比较慢，」塔拉说道。

 

A lesson in giving  施予的启示

 

To be sure, the young people live an elevated standard of life, but they also witness a side of life their peers in California don’t. As torrential rains swamped Bangalore, Wim Elfrink, Cisco executive vice president, reminded his children of the vast number of homeless families just a few kilometers away from their home.

当然，这些年轻人过的是高水平的生活，但是他们同时也目睹加州同侪无缘见到的生活层面。当暴雨把邦加罗尔淹成水乡泽国，「思科」执行副总裁威姆．艾弗林克提醒他的孩子，就在离他们家几公里的地方，有许许多多家庭变得无家可归。

 

For his last two birthdays, 12-year-old Max Elfrink asked his friends to take the money they would spend on presents and instead give it to charity. “In the U.S., you don’t see so much poverty,” he said.

十二岁的麦克斯．艾弗林克前年的生日，都请求他的朋友把原来要花在礼物上的钱，捐给慈善机构。麦克斯表示，「在美国，你看不到这么严重的贫穷问题。」

 

Still, the family’s old home in California doesn’t seem that far from Bangalore.”Your old life doesn’t go away,” Max said. “You just grow an extra one.”

然而，艾弗林克一家人的加州老家，距离邦加罗尔似乎也并非那么遥远。麦克斯说，「你从前的生活不会消失，只是又多了一种生活罢了。」

 

−by John Boudreau

 

 

单词发音

 

More Information

bicultural [baɪˋkʌltʃərəl] adj. 两种不同文化混合的 referring to two cultures

cultural shock 文化冲击(课文的cultural shock 是俗称的用法，正式的用法为culture shock) a feeling of confusion felt by someone visiting a place that they do not know

at once 同时

tease [tiz] v. 取笑；欺负

expat [ ˈɛksˈpet ] n. (colloq) expatriate

buck [bʌk] v.【美】【口】强烈反抗，反对[（+at/against）]

prom [prɑm] n.【美】【口】（学校的）班级舞会

swamp [swɑmp] v. 使沉没；淹没

 

 

 

单词发音

 

Vocabulary Focus

upend [ʌpˋɛnd] v. 倒置；（使）混乱 to cause an upset by changing something completely

cope with 巧妙处理; 设法解决 to deal successfully with a difficult situation

seamlessly [ˋsimlɪslɪ] adv. 无缝地; 衔接完美地 in a smooth and continuous manner

unmoored [ʌnˋmʊrd] adj. 脱钩的 having no secure connection to a certain place

straddle [ˋstræd!] v. 横跨，跨越(不同时期、群体或活动领域等) to be on opposite sides of something at the same time

mental block 思想障碍; 心理障碍 a state of mind causing one to be unable to understand something

set on course 让…步上正轨 to move in the right direction

ubiquitous [juˋbɪkwətəs] adj. 普遍存在的，无所不在的 seeming to be in all places

buck against【美】【口】强烈反抗，反对 to oppose or refuse to go along with something

close-knit [ˋklosˋnɪt] adj. 紧密结合着的 describes a group of people in which everyone helps and supports each other

torrential [tɔˋrɛnʃəl] adj. 奔流的; 猛烈的；汹涌的 referring to very heavy rain

 

 

The Story of Me - An Expat 5 Year Old in Bangalore India