美語情景對話 第693期:Big Family 大家庭

Kara: So, Lupe, you have an extremely large family compared to family sizes here in the United States. How was that? How was that growing up in a large family?

卡拉：盧佩，與美國的家庭規模相比，你有一個非常大的家庭。在一個大家庭里長大感覺怎麼樣？

Lupe: Yeah, coming here to the Unites States it was really strange for me to see how small families were, and me coming from such a big family where there's — I have five brothers and six sisters, so five boys, seven girls. There's twelve of us and we all have the same mom and dad and you know at times it can be a little rough because growing up, you know, at one point we did all live together. Now it is not as hard because there is a big age difference between the oldest and the youngest. I am the youngest girl and I have a younger brother. My oldest brother now is forty, married, lives in his own house and most of my older brothers and sisters are all married and have their kids and have also moved out. It's not as tough anymore. What I love about having such a big family is that now they all have babies so there's twenty-three nephews and nieces so when we have get-togethers, it's really an amazing party because there's so many people there just with our immediate family. The kids are running around playing. All the women are you know, hanging out, talking and the guys are also doing there thing, and there's also a lot of birthday parties as you can imagine. There's so many birthdays throughout the year, so there's always a party. There's always someone to talk to. There's always someone to go to. Although it can really hurt your pocket around Christmas time because you know there's twenty-three nieces and nephews to buy presents for and there's also eleven siblings to buy, you know, presents and the family's only getting larger because also got to think about them getting married, so now I have sister-in-laws. I have brother-in-laws, and there's still a few of us that are not married so the family's only gonna get bigger, for sure.

盧佩：我到美國以後，對美國的小型家庭感到很奇怪，我來自一個非常大的家庭，我有五個兄弟和六個姐妹，所以我家一共有五個男孩和七個女孩。我們家一共有12個孩子，我們是一個媽媽生的，有時會有些艱難，因爲在成長過程中，有一個階段我們是住在一起的。不過現在不會那麼艱難了，因爲最大的孩子和最小的孩子差了好幾歲。我是女孩中最小的，我下面還有一個弟弟。我們的大哥今年40歲，已婚，住在他自己的房子裏，基本上我的哥哥和姐姐都結婚有孩子了，而且他們都已經搬出去單住了。所以現在的情況不太那麼艱難。我喜歡大家庭的地方在於，現在我的哥哥姐姐們都有了孩子，我有23個侄子和侄女，我們所有人聚在一起的時候就像一個大派對一樣，光直系親屬就有好多人。孩子們會到處跑來跑去地玩耍。女性會閒逛、聊天，男性們則在做各種事，你可以想象的到，家裏會舉行很多生日派對。一年到頭有很多生日，每個生日都會舉辦一場派對。總會有人聊天，總會有人陪。不過在聖誕節的時候，這也會讓你的錢包大出血，因爲要買23個侄子和侄女的禮物，還要給11個兄弟姐妹買禮物，而且由於兄弟姐妹已經結婚了，所以家庭在不斷壯大中，還有嫂子和和姐夫，因爲只有幾個人沒有結婚，所以家庭當然在不斷的壯大中。

Kara: What was the hardest part about growing up in a family that large?

卡拉：在一個這麼大的家庭中長大最難的地方是什麼？

Lupe: I think the hardest part about it when I was little was I think my parents didn't have the resources to raise all of us in maybe the way they wished they could have. There wasn't always enough money to make sure that everybody was well-dressed, or even that there was enough food. As the older siblings started, you know, growing up and being old enough that they could work, they became a central part of the family and started helping with the income, the family income and that made it a lot easier for us younger ones growing up. They had it a little tougher than we did because they had to work a lot and they were really young to make sure that the rest of us had everything we needed. That was definitely the hardest part.

盧佩：我覺得最難的地方是，我小的時候我的父母沒有辦法用他們希望的那種方法撫養我們所有的人。他們沒有足夠的錢確保所有孩子都穿着講究，而且食物也不夠。年長的孩子漸漸長大到可以工作的年齡時，他們就會成爲家庭的支柱，賺錢幫忙貼補家庭收入，因爲他們的幫助我們小一些孩子的成長就沒有那麼困難。他們比我們更辛苦，因爲他們要做許多事，雖然他們也還很小，但是他們要確保滿足弟弟妹妹的需求。這無疑是最難的地方。

譯文屬僅供學習交流使用，未經許可請勿轉載

重點講解：
1. compared to 與…相比；和…比起來；
例句：Compared to other vehicles,cars are really quite convenient.
同其他車輛相比，汽車確實很方便。
2. hang out 閒逛，逗留；
例句：We can just hang out and have a good time.
我們可以只是閒逛一下，開開心。
3. for sure 無疑；肯定；
例句：Even to this day we don't know what happened for sure.
即使到現在我們也不確定究竟發生了什麼。
4. make sure 一定要；設法保證；
例句：The examiner never left the classroom to make sure there was no cheating.
主考人一刻也沒有離開教室以確保不發生作弊。