中英对比翻译:
Six months ago Xie Lei said goodbye to her family and friends in China and boarded a plane for London. It was the first time she had ever left her motherland. "After getting my visa I was very excited because I had dreamed of this day for so long. But I was also very nervous as I didn't know what to expect," Xie Lei told me when I saw her waiting in a queue at the student cafeteria between lectures.
六个月前,谢蕾告别了她在中国的家人和朋友,登上了飞往伦敦的飞机。在这以前,这是她首次离开她的祖国。“在得到签证之后,我感到很兴奋。因为我梦想这一天的到来已经等了很久。但我也很紧张,因为我不知道会发生什么事情。”在我见到她在讲座中间的学生餐厅排队等候时,
谢磊跟我说了这番话。
Xie Lei, who is 21 years old, has come to our university to study for a business qualification. She is halfway through the preparation year, which most foreign students complete before applying for a degree course. Xie Lei highly recommends it. "The preparation course is most beneficial," she said. "Studying here is quite different from studying in China, so you need some preparation first."
谢磊,21岁,已经到了我们的大学攻读
工商管理资格证书。通过准备学习的这一年,她(对这门课程)是半路出家,而多数的外国学生在申请学位课程时已经完成了。谢磊极力推荐这门课程。“这门课程是最有益的。“她说,”在这里学习跟在中国的学习很不一样,所以你首先需要有相应的准备。”
"It's not just study that's difficult. You have to get used to a whole new way of life, which can take up all your concentration in the beginning," explained Xie Lei, who had lived all her life in the same city in China. She told me that she had had to learn almost everything again. "Sometimes I felt like a child," she said. "I had to learn how to use the phone, how to pay bus fare, and how to ask a shopkeeper for things I didn't know the English for. When I got lost and had to ask a passer-by for directions, I didn't always understand. They don't talk like they do on our listening tapes," she said, laughing.
谢蕾——这个在中国一直生活在同一个城市的女孩,解释说:”这不只是
学习困难,你还必须习惯一种全新的生活方式——这在开始的时候能占去你所有的集中力。“她告诉我,她不得不再次学习几乎是所有的事情。她笑着说:”有时我觉得自己像个孩子。我得要学习如何使用电话 ,如何付公交车费,如何向店主问我不知道英语名的东西。当我迷路了,得找个路人为我指路时,我并不总是明白他们的意思。因为他们所说的话不像他们在我们的听磁带里说的那样。“
Xie Lei lives with a host family who give her lots of good advice. Although some foreign students live in student accommodation or apartments, some choose to board with English families. Living with host families, in which there may be other college students, gives her the chance to learn more about the new culture. "When I hear an idiom that I don't understand, I can ask my host family for help," explains Xie Lei. "Also, when I miss my family, it's a great comfort to have a substitute family to be with."
她和房主一家住在一起,他们给了她很多好的建议。虽然有些外国学生住在学生宿舍或公寓,但是也有些人选择寄宿在英国人的家中。跟房主一家一起生活, 可能还有其他的大学生住在一起,这样能给她机会学习更多新的文化。谢蕾解释说:“当我听到一个我不懂的成语,我可以向我房主一家求助。同样的,在我想家的时候, 有一个替代的家庭可以呆在一起,这是很大慰藉。”
Xie Lei's preparation course is helping her to get used to the academic requirements of a Western university. "I remember the first essay I did for my tutor," she told me. "I found an article on the Internet that seemed to have exactly the information I needed. So I made a summary of the article, revised my draft and handed the essay in. I thought I would get a really good mark but I got an E. I was numb with shock! So I went to my tutor to ask the reason for his revision. First of all, he told me, I couldn't write what other people had said without acknowledging them. Besides, as far as he was concerned, what other people thought was not the most important thing. He wanted to know what I thought, which confused me because I thought that the author of the article knew far
more than I did. My tutor explained that I should read lots of different texts that contain different opinions and analyse what I read. Then, in my essay, I should give my own opinion and explain it by referring to other authors. Finally he even encouraged me to contradict the authors I'd read! At first I lacked confidence, but now I'm beginning to get the idea and my marks have improved. More importantly, I am now a more autonomous learner."
谢蕾的预科课程帮她适应了西方大学的学术要求。她告诉我:“我记得第一次交论文给我的导师的时候,我发现网上有一篇看起来跟我所需要的资料很吻合的文章。所以我总结了这篇文章,修订了草案并上交了。我想我应该可以得到一个相当不错的分数,但是我只得了一个'E'。我感到很震惊!所以我去问我的导师修改分数。首先,他告诉我,我不能没有跟别人说就把别人的话写下来。此外,于他而言,别人怎么想不是最重要的事。他想知道我怎么想,这把我搞糊涂了,因为我以为这篇文章的作者知道的远比我知道的多。我的导师解释说我应该看很多不同的意见文章,并分析我看到的东西。然后,在我的论文里,我应该有我本人的观点并解释参照的其他作者。最后,他甚至鼓励我反驳我读的书的作者。开始的时候,我没自信,但现在我开始有想法了,分数也得到了提高。更重要的是,我现在成为一个更加自主的学习者。”
Xie Lei told me that she feels much more at home in England now, and what had seemed very strange before now appears quite normal. "I've just got one more thing to achieve. I have been so occupied with work that I haven't had time for social activities. I think it's important to have a balance between study and a social life, so I'm going to join a few clubs. Hope- fully I'll make some new friends."
谢磊跟我说,她现在在英国感到自在多了,之前那些看上去很奇怪的事物,在现在看起来很正常。“我只是还要成功地做一件事。我一直都忙于工作,以致我没时间参加社会活动。我觉得平衡学习与社会生活很重要,所以她 打算加入一些俱乐部。希望我会结交一些新朋友。
We will follow Xie Lei's progress in later editions of this newspaper but for now, we wish Xie Lei all the best in her new enterprise. She deserves to succeed.
我们会在这份报纸后面的版次跟进谢蕾的进步,但是现在我们祝愿谢蕾在她的事业中事事顺利。她值得成功。