【老外说】美国的“香蕉人”|brother|old|sheep|white|美国|香蕉人

来源：市场资讯

（来源：TeacherGwen）

【老外说】是一档以“采访”老外为主的节目，帮助大家更好的了解中西文化差异，一窥英国人、美国人日常生活。每周一更新。本栏目适合精听/泛听。可做听写练习。

香蕉人又叫ABC（American-Born Chinese），意指出生在美国的华裔人。他们虽然也是黑发黄皮，但不识中文，说一口地道的美国英语。今天我们就来听听这位华裔美国人给我们带来的“老外说”吧！

Gwen

Wow, so your mother actually went through a very big change. She worked in a bank in China and then right now she works as a nurse.

My dad, because he is in the military, his wife and his children have free education. So my tuition and my mother’s tuition was paid for. It’s very fortunate actually.

Gwen

Your father is now retired from the military?

Yeah. He’s trying to enjoy life, but still struggling to pay his own bills, and he has five children in total.

Gwen

Including you, you’re the bigger sister?

I am the middle child. So I have two elder brothers and two younger sisters. So he just takes care of my younger sisters, drives them to school, comes back home and cooks. That’s it（就这样）.

Gwen

So you don’t really live with your parents.

I’m living alone at the moment. I moved out （搬出去）about...when I was 16 years old.

Gwen

Wow, that was in high school?

Yeah, when I was still in high school. I also studied abroad for about only six months. It’s really easy for me to live alone because I’m used to being alone. When I was in high school I lived with my parents until my third year, and then I was working already. I worked my first job as a waitress (服务员), and I decided that it was better for me to live alone, because I often argue with my parents, because we have very different ideals(理想标准). I told them I want to work and go to school at the same time. But my father really disapproved of me working, because he wanted to take care of me. So I chose to live alone. So that way I can prove to him I am OK. Kind of like a rebel (叛逆者).

Gwen

And it turned out to be good.

Yeah, cause now I’m very independent and I’m helping him out with his living expenses. So I am repaying him for the benefits of my education.

Gwen

Are you the only black sheep of the family?

black sheep，对应到我们中文是

“害群之马”或者“家族败类”

人们总会有意无意的带着有色眼镜来观察，依照主观心情来做判断。由于黑羊在一群白羊中显得特别刺眼，所以牧人一般不喜欢，就连黑羊的毛也没有白羊的毛值钱。甚至还有人认为黑羊是魔鬼化身，拿黑羊来比喻家庭中的不孝子弟或社会的害群之马。

It’s funny that you say that. I’m the only black sheep. My two elder brothers, they actually still live with my parents. I’m the only child to leave the house so far. How did you learn the term “black sheep”?

Gwen

Just from a song actually.

其实是下面这首歌里学到的：

Goodbye Papa, please pray for me

I was the black sheep of the family

It’s actually a very good one. Not a lot of non native speakers will know that term. So I found it funny.

Gwen

You’re now in the second year or first year in your college?

I’m in my second year already.

Gwen

After four years of college life, what is your plan?

I will probably go to medical school right after to pursue hopefully a Ph.D. It will be a long time before I finish school basically. So in the meantime, I’m still working as a waitress, so I have very long awkward days. Americans, they really focus on love and romance in comparison to (跟....比起来) a lot of Asian countries.

I do a lot of traveling, and every single time I tell them I have a boyfriend and we’ve been dating for 7 years. They’re always shocked because my parents...they’re like “wow, how did your parents agree.” But the truth is my parents did not agree. My parents are very traditional. I secretly dated him until finally at age 16, when we were arguing often I told my father. My father did not kick me out or anything. He just was very disappointed.

Gwen

So you and your boyfriend are still together and he’s now a college student too?

He just recently started going back to school. He first pursued working in office doing just a lot of phone calls, office work. But now he wanted to go back to school to pursue electrical engineering, to work on electric cars. So he will have a long way to go. He is actually a lot older than me. He is 25 years old, so 5 years difference.

Gwen

How did you meet each other, you were 13 years old, that was when you were in middle school and he was a high school student.

I was at the park doing some exercise. My brother was there watching me and hanging out with his friends. And then my boyfriend, he saw me and he said “you have a very nice belt”. So I asked him “why do you say that?” It turns out he was wearing the same belt. And then I found out he was my brother’s friend. We continue to talk every single day after that.

Gwen

So you brother knew from the start.

Yeah. My brother had a very hard time with me. He did not approve either. He threatened me to tell my dad. Actually he really liked my boyfriend. They were really good friends. But he didn’t like that he was too much older than me, like way too old for me. So he said you shouldn’t have a boyfriend, you need to focus on your study. I was really the black sheep, always rebellious (叛逆的).

Gwen

Even when you were so young, 13 years old.

I had no idea what I should be doing.

Gwen

Your boyfriend is a white man or an Asian American?

He is Asian American. He is Thai Chinese. I actually have never dated a white person. One time, me and my boyfriend, we broke up once, just to experience life alone. We were having some trouble so we decided to experience life alone for a little bit. And I dated one more other person. But we realized that we did not need to have time apart, so we got back together.

But I’ve never dated a white man, I think it’s too difficult for our cultural difference. Even though I’m American, I was brought up by graced with a lot of Asian ideals, ideas and practices, so white people are still very very strange to me. For example, they really like to hug each other when seeing each other or even meeting for the first time. But it’s not something we do very often. Or sometimes they will say like “I love you, but I don’t know you. ”It’s really strange. We have the difference in culture.