双语文章—老外在中国.doc

双语文章—老外在中国 In the late summer of 2004, days before I was to move to Lianyungang, China, to teach English for a year, I spoke to an acquaintance who had spent a few years in the country. 2004年夏末，也就是在去中国连云港任教一年英语的几天前，我向一位在中国呆过几年的朋友了解情况。 Holidays are hard, he said. But oddly, not so much Christmas. Christmas isnt that bad. Its Thanksgiving thats hard. 他说：“那里假期很难熬，不过奇怪的是，圣诞节倒也还行，糟糕的是感恩节。” At the time, surviving the holidays was the least of my worries. I was moving to a country where I didnt speak the language, understand the culture, or know the history, in order to do a job that I had never done and didnt know how to do. And not only that, I was going to a city—Lianyungang—that I hadnt even heard of, and could find no information about online. 当时，假期并不是最令我担心的事情。我就要去中国了，可我根本不会讲汉语，也不了解中国文化或历史，而且我以前从没教过英语，压根儿不知道该怎么做；不仅如此，我要去的那个叫连云港的城市，连听都没听过，网上也查不到相关信息！ Other than that, I was completely prepared. 除此之外，我算是准备就绪了。 Lianyungang, 300 miles or so north of Shanghai, is a port city of around 750,000 people and is famous in China for being the birthplace of the Monkey King, a literary hero from the 16th century novel Journey to the West. But in 2004, it looked like any other city in the country: full of tall, gray skyscrapers, neon signs, and belching taxis. 连云港位于上海北面300英里左右，是一座拥有75万人口的港口城市，作为16世纪小说《西游记》中“美猴王”的故乡而名扬中国。但是，2004年的连云港看上去却截然不同：到处都充斥着灰蒙蒙的高楼、闪烁的霓虹灯和喧闹的出租车。 Foreign residents in Lianyungang were few and far between. I was told that the first English teacher arrived in 2000 and when she—a middle-aged New Zealander with white hair—walked around, bicyclists sometimes slammed into parked cars. By the time I arrived four years later, there were about ten Western teachers in the city, but we still caused a minor frenzy when we ventured into a crowd of people. 在连云港老外并不多见。我听说这里直到2000年才有外教——那个满头银发的中年新西兰女教师无论走到哪儿，都能招来不少注目。4年后我到连云港，发现这里统共有10个外教，而且我们走在人群里也会引起小小的骚动。 Usually, there were the hellos: Young Chinese people would shout the word, accompanied by peals of laughter, as I walked