美語情景對話 第841期:The Big Mix 混合族裔

Todd: So CleAnn, you're from Trinidad and Tobago and you were saying that your country has a very diverse multicultural mix?

託德：科勒安，你來自特立尼達和多巴哥，你說過你們國家是多元文化混合的國家。

CleAnn: Yes.

科勒安：對。

Todd: Can you talk about that?

託德：你能詳細說說嗎？

CleAnn: Oh sure. Trinidad and Tobago mostly were made up of people from Africa (African descent) who came as slaves and Indians who came from ly, I think we may also have some from parts of Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, but they came as indentured laborers closer to when slavery was being abolished. These two groups actually make up the two largest ethnic groups in Trinidad. However, there is a lot of mixing. It's very difficult to find someone in Trinidad and Tobago who is extremely, purely of one ethnic group because everyone is sort of mixed. We have also a lot of whites or caucasians who are native to Trinidad and Tobago who speak exactly like me with my Caribbean accent and many people who find it very strange because they will walk around in Trinidad and think that they are tourists but realize that they are actually native Trinidadians. And many also come from Europe to settle in Trinidad after retirement and have their families here so this is how they came to stay here. We have a very large Chinese population and its growing because now the government is encouraging immigrants from China to come in to help us with our development, to build our capital city so we have a lot of Chinese. We have a lot of Colombians, Venezuelans, people coming from South and Central America migrating to Trinidad because Spanish is now being promoted as a second language for Trinidad so street signs in our capital city are in English and Spanish. So with all of this mixing of different people it's very, as I said, very difficult to find a person who is of just one ethnic group and it's reflected in our food, it's reflected in the kind of music we listen to, sometimes in the way we dress. For me, for example, I'm mostly of African descent but my dad is mixed with people from South American ethnicity and Chinese. So, as I said, although I'm mostly African, everybody still has a little bit of something in them.

科勒安：哦，好的。特立尼達和多巴哥人口主要由來自非洲（非洲裔）的奴隸和印度人組成，也有孟加拉國人、巴基斯坦人、斯里蘭卡人，這些人是作爲契約勞動力來到特立尼達和多巴哥的，他們到來時奴隸制已經快被廢除。這兩個羣體組成了特立尼達兩大少數族羣。不過基本上是混合族裔。在特立尼達和多巴哥很難找到純種人，因爲各族裔之間是相互混合的。特立尼達和多巴哥也有本土白種人，這些人的口音和我的加勒比口音非常像，很多人認爲這很奇怪，因爲他們以爲這些人是遊客，結果卻發現這些都是本土特立尼達和多巴哥人。也有很多歐洲人在退休後來到特立尼達定居，因爲他們在這裏有家人，所以他們就留了下來。我們國家的中國人也很多，而且人數還在不斷增加，因爲政府鼓勵中國移民幫助我們發展、建造我們的首都，所以我們國家有很多中國人。我們國家也有很多哥倫比亞裔和委內瑞拉裔等來自中南美洲的移民，因爲現在西班牙語是特立尼達的第二語言，我們首都街頭有很多標誌都是用英語和西班牙語寫的。我剛纔提到過，因爲各族裔混合在一起，所以很難在我們國家找到純種人，這一點也反映在我們的食物、音樂和我們的服裝上。舉個例子，我基本上是非洲裔，而我爸爸是南美和中國的混血。所以，如我剛纔所說，雖然我基本上是非洲血統，但是所有人身上都或多或少有其他族裔的血統。

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重點講解：
1. make up/be made up of 組成；構成；
例句：Six women and nineteen men make up the committee.
6位女性和19位男男性組成了這個委員會。
例句：The group was made up of doctors.
這個團體是由醫生組成的。
2. settle in 習慣(新居)；適應(新工作、新學校等)；
例句：His uncle chose to settle in the countryside.
他叔父決意在鄉下定居。
3. encourage sb. to do sth. 鼓勵；激勵；
例句：My parents always encourage me to try new things.
我父母總是鼓勵我嘗試新的東西。
4. for example 例如；比如；
例句：I'd like to keep a pet—for example, a dog.
我想養寵物，譬如說養條狗。