美語情景對話 第1082期:Baby on Board 嬰兒坐飛機

Abidemi: So Jeremy, you mentioned earlier that you've been back to Canada with your baby. How was that experience?

阿比德米：傑里米，你之前說過你帶着你的寶寶回了加拿大。那個經歷怎麼樣？

Jeremy: Well, I mean, until you fly with a toddler, you really never get to appreciate all of those times that you flew across the ocean, you know, watching movies or reading magazines or just sleeping on the flight because those days are over.

傑里米：嗯，在和蹣跚學步的孩子一起坐過飛機以後，你纔會珍惜那些看電影或看雜誌或睡覺度過的飛行時光，因爲那些日子已經結束了。

Abidemi: Wow.

阿比德米：哇哦。

Jeremy: I mean, it's not that bad but when you're on the plane, you say, "Never again." I remember about halfway into a 10-hour trans-Pacific flight, I thought, "Well, I can maybe do this every three years but not more than once a year for sure."I mean, first of all, our boy was bigger than most children for his age. So he was about one year old. And, you know, they have these bassinets that you're allowed to put your child in and, you know, the baby will hopefully sleep for a while. So the stewardess sets up the bassinet, we're all ready to put him in there and then she says, "How old is he?" And he was 12 kilos, and this was for 11.5 maximum.

傑里米：雖然情況沒有那麼糟糕，不過就帶孩子坐飛機來說，我想說“永遠不想再來一次”。我們回加拿大要坐飛機飛越太平洋，要飛行10個小時，我記得飛行途中，我想“我也許可以每三年帶孩子回一趟加拿大，一年絕對不能超過一次”。我的意思是，首先，我兒子比同齡孩子的個子高。他大概一歲。飛機上有嬰兒搖籃，可以把孩子放在裏面，希望孩子能在裏面睡一會兒。空姐會把搖籃安裝好，我們已經準備把孩子放在裏面了，這時空姐說，“他多大了？”他已經12公斤了，搖籃最大承重是11.5公斤。

Abidemi: Oh no.

阿比德米：哦不。

Jeremy: And they wouldn't let us put him in there, so they had to take the whole thing apart and basically, we had to find some way to have him sleep on our laps for the next nine hours.

傑里米：所以他們不讓我們把孩子放在裏面，然後他們把搖籃拆掉了，所以剩下的九個小時，我們只能想辦法讓他在我們的腿上睡覺。

Abidemi: Oh, wow.

阿比德米：哇哦。

Jeremy: I mean, you know, one-year old like to crawl around. They like to scream, they like to cry. Other people on the flight don't like that so much. So, you know, it's basically every minute of silence you just savor and just pray that this will keep going, and it never does. But, you know, once he falls asleep and the plane is quiet and they turn off the lights then, you know, it's okay. But it's too long. It's too long for a one-year old. So I can maybe manage it once a year but that's about it.

傑里米：你知道，一歲左右的孩子喜歡到處爬。他們喜歡喊叫，也會經常哭。飛機上的其他人對這點感到不滿。你想享受安靜的時刻，希望這種安靜能夠持續下去，可是經常事與願違。不過，他睡着以後，飛機上就安靜了，他們會把燈關掉，這樣很好。不過飛行時間太長了。對1歲的孩子來說，時間太長了。也許一年一次我還可以應付。

Abidemi: I remember my sister, she has two kids and she told me a story a few years back when one of her daughters was still a toddler, and they went to Disneyland from Canada. And she said it was just horrible, and they would never do it again. And I just smiled. I didn't have that experience. I was just thinking, "What could be so bad about it?" But hearing your story now, wow, I can only imagine.

阿比德米：我姐姐有兩個孩子，她和我說過幾年前的一個經歷，當時她其中一個女兒還是蹣跚學步的孩子，他們從加拿大坐飛機去迪斯尼樂園玩。她說那是次可怕的經歷，他們不想再經歷一次。當時我只是笑笑。我還沒有那種經歷。我當時在想，“怎麼會這麼糟？”不過聽了你的經歷以後，我可以想象了。

Jeremy: Well, I think that – actually most people, most passengers on the flight are usually quite understanding. And I think it's just, you know, in the parents' head that everybody is judging them, everybody is looking at them. Because, you know, I get so worried about what other people are thinking, that inconveniencing others that I just work myself up so much, and my wife is the same way. But, you know, talking – actually, we did have people say to us like, "Don't worry about it." They will just go out of their way to say, "Oh, what a cute baby" and stuff like that. So I think people were kind of aware of how stressful it is for parents. And they just – some people actually make an effort to make parents feel like everybody is not silently judging them or maybe not even silently.

傑里米：嗯，其實飛機上的大部分乘客都能理解。不過在父母看來，所有人都在評價他們，所有人都在關注他們。因爲我非常擔心別人的想法，給其他人帶去不便讓我很不安，我妻子也是一樣。有一些乘客跟我們說，“不用擔心”。他們會貼心地跟我們說，“哦，這孩子好可愛啊”之類的話。我認爲，人們意識到這種情況會讓孩子的父母非常緊張。一些人會努力讓父母感覺，沒有人在默默地評價他們，或者沒有人在評價他們。

Abidemi: Okay. Not saying anything. If you had an advice, one advice to give to a parent that would travel with that child in the future, what would you tell them?

阿比德米：好。什麼都不說。如果讓你給以後要帶孩子旅行的家長提建議，你會說什麼？

Jeremy: My best advice is if you can fly in the morning. So after baby wakes up and you have your breakfast and your flight is maybe at, I don't know, 9:00 or 10:00 in the morning, I think that works out if it's a, say, a 10-hour flight because you'll land it'll be probably around bedtime, like his normal bedtime. The first time we did it, the flight was in the late evening. So basically, he'd been up all day. And then there was another 10 hours on top of that. So, you know, when we landed, the readjustment to his normal schedule was really, really difficult. But when we flew in the morning and it was a 10-hour flight, when we landed, he just basically went to sleep like a normal schedule. So that's a small thing but it really makes a big difference.

傑里米：我能給的最好的建議是，儘量在早上坐飛機。孩子起牀以後吃早餐，你們的航班定在上午9點或是10點左右，如果要飛行10個小時，這個時間很合適，因爲飛機降落時差不多也到了孩子的睡覺時間。我們第一次帶孩子坐飛機坐的是深夜航班。他已經玩一整天了。然後還要再坐10個小時的飛機。我們降落以後，再調整他的作息時間非常困難。如果上午坐飛機，經過10個小時的飛行以後，降落時間正好是他正常作息的睡眠時間。雖然這是小事，不過會產生很大的影響。

Abidemi: Thank you.

阿比德米：謝謝。

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重點講解：
1. take apart 拆開；拆散；拆解；
例句：When the clock stopped, he took it apart, found what was wrong, and put the whole thing together again.
鐘停以後，他把它拆開，查出毛病所在，又把它重新組裝了起來。
2. fall asleep 入睡；睡着；進入夢鄉；
例句：He was so tired that he fell asleep quickly.
他非常疲勞，很快就睡着了。
3. work up 使(自己)心煩意亂(或氣憤)；
例句：She worked herself up into a bit of a state.
她把自己弄得有點兒緊張。
4. be aware of 知道的；明白的；
例句：She was well aware of the difficulties that had to be surmounted.
她很清楚必須克服哪些困難。
5. on top of 另外；加之；除…之外(還)；
例句：He gets commission on top of his basic salary.
他除了基本薪資還可以得到佣金。