美語情景對話 第1046期:Shockingly Different 截然不同

Jeremy: So you were 12 when you came to Canada.

傑里米：你在12歲的時候搬去加拿大生活。

Abidemi: That's right.

阿比德米：沒錯。

Jeremy: Do you remember anything that was either really similar or really different from how teachers taught or from the classroom experience? Were they more or less the same or were they shockingly different?

傑里米：就老師所教的內容和課堂學習來說，你記不記得有哪些相似的地方，又有哪些不一樣的地方？大體上是相同的還是說完全不同？

Abidemi: Actually, I think they were different in a lot of ways. For some reason, I had finished my grade 6, which is like primary 6; they called it in Nigeria, which is the end of high school—no, sorry. The end of elementary school in Nigeria. So when I came to Canada, they put me into grade 7 thinking it's the next level. But my level was higher so they put me into grade 8 after that. So I got to skip a grade, which was really great. But I remember in terms of the way of thinking; in my English literature class, we had a conversation and we had to finish a story. And it was like, "Suddenly, something appeared in the sky. What is it?" And all my classmates were, "It's a UFO." For me, I'd never heard of a UFO. So they were like it's a UFO. It makes somebody disappear, it picks up somebody, and one of their classmate and another person disappears. But in my essay, I'm like—it was just weird. I had a totally different way of thinking and processing things. And that really surprised my teachers because when they wrote my composition, they compared it to the rest of the class, to my classmates and they were like, "Wow, this is interesting that you're the same age and we're all speaking the same language, but the way we view things is very different." And I guess, to me as well, it was my first exposure to cultural differences. And then after that, many years later, coming to Japan and being different again, in a different setting, it made me think back to that time thinking, wow, you can't always expect the same things. Differences come in weird places sometimes.

阿比德米：我認爲在很多方面都存在不同。基於一些原因，我在尼日利亞唸完了六年級，在尼日利亞這被稱爲初級教育，相當於我完成了高中……抱歉。更正一下，我在尼日利亞完成了小學教育。我到加拿大時，他們讓我從七年級開始上，他們認爲那應該是下一個階段的學業。可是我的教育程度比七年級高，所以後來他們讓我從八年級開始讀。我跳了一級，這感覺非常好。我記得思維方式存在很大差異。在英語文學課上，有一個會話環節，老師讓我們完成一個故事。大概是這樣的，“突然天空中出現了一個東西。那是什麼？”其他同學的回答都是“不明飛行物”。而我從來沒聽說過不明飛行物。他們都認爲那是不明飛行物，會讓某個人消失，它會抓走某個人，然後會有個同學或者是其他人消失。可是我在作文中寫得是……這實在太不可思議了。我和其他人的思維方式和處理事情的方式完全不同。這讓我的老師非常驚訝，他們在看我的作文時，將我的作文和班裏其他同學的作文進行了比較，他們的想法是“哇哦，這太有意思了，你和其他學生年齡一樣，我們說的語言也一樣，可是你看待事情的角度完全不同。”我想，這可能是我第一次接觸到文化差異。許多年以後，我來到日本，我又經歷了這種不同，經歷了不同的環境，這讓我想起了那個時候，不能總是期待同樣的事情。差異有時會在意想不到的地方出現。

Jeremy: I see.

傑里米：我明白了。

Abidemi: So yeah, that's one thing I remember. But a lot of things were the same. We are the same, and yeah, different.

阿比德米：那是我記得的其中一件事。不過大部分事情是一樣的。既相同又存在差異。

Jeremy: So Abidemi, just in terms of sort of the simple things in life, when you came to Canada, were there any foods or drinks that you were particularly fond of right away or thought were particularly strange?

傑里米：阿比德米，現在來說說生活中簡單的事情，你到加拿大以後，有沒有哪種食物或是飲品讓你馬上就喜歡上了，或者有沒有讓你覺得很奇怪的食物？

Abidemi: Hmm, very good question. Food, a lot of food was all right, right off the bat, like we didn't have any difficulties with that. But one thing I do remember was nacho chips. We were not used to cheese, the taste of cheese. So my sisters and I, what we would do is we would buy nacho chips, like, Doritos—I don't know if everyone knows that—and we would wash it because the cheesy taste was strange. So we would wash it before eating it and then we would eat it. And I have some friends who will just stare at us, like, "What's the point? Why would you buy that flavor of chips? That's the whole point, to taste that." But we were like, "No, we can't eat this." But eventually now, I love Doritos. I have grown accustomed to the taste.

阿比德米：嗯，這個問題非常好。大部分食物都很好，我馬上就適應了加拿大的食物，在食物方面我們沒遇到什麼問題。墨西哥辣炸玉米片令我印象深刻。我們之前不習慣奶酪的味道。我姐姐和我在買墨西哥辣炸玉米片以後，比如我們去買多利多滋，我不知道是不是所有人都知道這個，我們會用水去洗那個玉米片，因爲奶酪的味道太奇怪了。我們在吃之前會用水衝一下，然後再吃。我有一些朋友會盯着我們看，問我們：“這樣有什麼意義？那你們爲什麼要買這種口味的玉米片？既然買了，就要品嚐它的味道”。而我們會說：“不行，我們吃不了這種味道。”不過現在我非常喜歡吃多利多滋。我已經適應那個味道了。

Jeremy: You probably made it healthier though.

傑里米：不過你之前那種吃法可能更健康。

Abidemi: That's true.

阿比德米：沒錯。

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重點講解：
1. more or less 或多或少；大概；幾乎；
例句：I've more or less finished reading the book.
我差不多已經把這本書看完了。
2. be fond of 喜歡…的；愛做…的；
例句：He was fond of drawing when he was a child.
他還是個孩子時就喜歡畫畫。
3. right off the bat 馬上；立刻；
例句：He learned right off the bat that you can't count on anything in this business.
他立刻明白在這一行業中不能依靠任何東西。
4. be used to sth./doing sth. 習慣於；
例句：The quick economy of her movements showed she was used to managing for herself.
她動作這樣乾淨利落，說明她一向是習慣於料理自己的生活的。