韓國“袋鼠族”

在韓國，有大批三四十歲的成年人依然和自己的父母同住，由父母來做飯、干家務(wù)并支付生活費，這樣的人被稱為“袋鼠族”。這些大齡啃老族和他們的父母都是怎么看待這種生活狀態(tài)的呢？

Most parents want to shield their children from the hardships of the world, and in South Korea, that often means continuing to provide a home for them even after they are well into adulthood.

大多數(shù)父母都想在這個艱難的世界中保護(hù)自己的孩子，在韓國，這意味著甚至在孩子們早已成年后依然要給他們提供一個家。

"Let's be honest. How could I let my precious boy have a hard time?" Lee Young-wook, 61, said.

61歲的李英宇說：“說實話，我怎么忍心讓我的寶貝兒子受苦呢？”

His son, Lee Jeong-kyu, is 31 and still lives with his parents in the home in which he grew up in Bundang, a suburb of Seoul. Their home is no mansion, but rather a small apartment, just big enough for the three of them.

她兒子李廷圭已經(jīng)31歲了，依然和父母一起住在首爾市郊盆唐區(qū)他從小長大的家里。他們家并非豪宅，只是個小公寓，對一家三口來說僅僅是剛好夠住而已。

Despite the tight space, the younger Lee has never moved out and lived on his own before - and he doesn't intend to get his own place anytime soon.

盡管空間有限，小李從來沒有搬出去獨自住過，而且他近期也沒這個打算。

He is a member of South Korea's "kangaroo tribe" — a moniker used to describe unmarried men and women who haven't moved out of their parents' homes, even though they are in their 30s and even 40s. The name suggests the image of an overgrown marsupial that hasn't left its mother's pouch.

他是韓國“袋鼠族”的一員。“袋鼠族”用來描述那些已經(jīng)三十多歲甚至四十多歲卻還未從父母家搬出去的未婚男女們。這個稱謂讓人聯(lián)想到一只長得過大卻尚未離開母親育兒袋的有袋類動物。

According to a recent report from South Korea's national statistics office, more than 50 percent of unmarried adults between the ages of 30 and 40, and 44 percent of those between 40 and 44, still live with their parents.

韓國國家統(tǒng)計局最新報告顯示，一半以上30至40歲的未婚成年人以及44%的40至44歲的未婚成年人仍然和父母住在一起。

The report, which was released at the end of March, caused a stir in the country, fueling the popular stereotype that the kangaroo tribe is made up of South Koreans who have failed to achieve success in life. The report noted that 42 percent of children who live with their parents are unemployed, and mainstream media coverage featured images of exhausted older parents accompanied by carefree, unemployed adult children.

這份報告于三月底發(fā)布后，在韓國引起了不小的震動，強化了大眾的刻板印象，即“袋鼠族”是由那些人生不成功的韓國人組成的。報告指出，與父母同住的孩子中有42%是無業(yè)人員，主流媒體的報道中描繪了疲憊不堪的年長父母和無憂無慮的失業(yè)成年子女的形象。

Despite the recent media attention, however, experts say that it's long been common for children in South Korea to live with their parents into adulthood.

盡管最近受到了媒體關(guān)注，然而，專家表示，長期以來，韓國的孩子與父母一起生活到成年是非常普遍的現(xiàn)象。

"The kangaroo tribe phenomenon is hardly a modern phenomenon in South Korea, since the percentages of adults in their 30s and 40s living with their parents in the 1980s and 2010s do not differ by much," Kye Bong-oh, a sociology professor at Kookmin University, said.

韓國國民大學(xué)的社會學(xué)教授桂奉武說：“袋鼠族現(xiàn)象并非什么新現(xiàn)象，因為上世紀(jì)80年代和本世紀(jì)10年代，三四十歲的成年人與父母同住的比例并沒有太大的差別。”

Furthermore, while a lack of economic independence is often a factor for why children don't leave the nest, the truth is that many continue to live at home for a variety of reasons, and the kangaroo tribe phenomenon is not as simple and one-sided as often depicted in popular culture.

此外，雖然缺乏經(jīng)濟獨立往往是孩子們不離巢的一個因素，但實際上，許多人出于各種原因繼續(xù)住在家里，“袋鼠族”現(xiàn)象并不像流行文化中經(jīng)常描繪的那樣簡單和片面。