dialogue 1
N: if you can choose, will you marry a foreigner or a Chinese?
如果讓你選的話,你是愿意嫁給一個(gè)中國(guó)人還是一個(gè)外國(guó)人?
S: why? Did tom pop the question?
為什么這么問(wèn),湯姆向你求婚了嗎?
N: not yet. But I wonder if I can get my parents’ consent.
沒(méi)有,我怕父母不同意。
S: let me guess, your parents want you to marry a Chinese man, right?
我猜猜,你父母一定是想你嫁一個(gè)中國(guó)人,對(duì)嗎?
N: you are right. It is giving me a real headache. I feel like I’m between a rock and a hard place.
是啊,我正頭疼呢,我覺(jué)得左右為難。
S: I used to have the same problem when I was with my ex.
我和以前的男朋友談戀愛(ài)時(shí),也遇到了同樣的問(wèn)題。
N: oh, how did you deal with it?
那你怎么解決的?
S: I just let it go and continued dating with my Korean boyfriend. But finally we broke up.
我就順其自然,繼續(xù)和我的韓國(guó)男朋友約會(huì),但是后來(lái)我們還是分手了。
N: oh, it’s a pity. What was the matter?
太可惜了,為什么啊?
S: simple. We had personality clashes and there were too many cultural differences.
很簡(jiǎn)單,我們性格不合,雙方文化也有很多不同之處。
N: like what?
比如呢?
S: he hoped to live in the Korean way and asked me to give up working and stay at home to take care of the family.
他希望我過(guò)韓式的生活,要求我放棄工作,安心待在家里。
N: Oh, I see. In their culture women should put family first.
這樣啊,在他們的文化里,女性應(yīng)該以家庭為重。
S: yes, he said it would be batter for me and for the whole family. But I simply can not quit working.
是啊,他說(shuō)這樣對(duì)我,對(duì)整個(gè)家庭都好。但是我就是不想辭掉工作。
N: so that's why it’s hard to have a happy marriage with a foreigner.
所以和外國(guó)人結(jié)婚,很難幸福。
S: not really. There are many successful mixed marriage around us.
也不一定,我們周圍不也有很多成功的例子嘛。
dialogue 2
N: more and more Chinese are marrying foreigners.
越來(lái)越多的中國(guó)人嫁給了外國(guó)人。
S: that's true. But I have a low opinion of those women who go out with foreigners.
是啊,但是我挺鄙視那些和外國(guó)人在一起的女人的。
N: oh, why?
啊?為什么啊?
S: I think some Chinese wonem marry foreigners for money while others just want to live abroad. There is no true love between them.
我覺(jué)得有些人嫁給外國(guó)人是為了錢,有些人是為了去國(guó)外定居,反正他們之間沒(méi)有真愛(ài)。
N: I wouldn't say that's totally true. I've met many happy intercultural couples.
也不全是吧。我見(jiàn)過(guò)很多幸福的跨過(guò)夫妻。
S: well, then why aren't there many East-West couples where the man is a Chinese and the woman is a Westerner?
N: I guess it's because the Chinese women are more attractive to Western men.
那為什么沒(méi)有多少夫妻,男方是中國(guó)人,女方是外國(guó)人呢?
S: or because they are less attractive to to Chinese men.
可能是因?yàn)橹袊?guó)女人對(duì)外國(guó)男人更有吸引力吧。
N: what do you mean?
怎么說(shuō)?
S: you know, usually the woman is in her thirties and she is a left girl.
這些女人大約三十多歲,是剩女。
N: a left girl? What's that?
剩女?什么意思啊?
S: they're called that because they're left behind on the shelf. They're also known by their three H's---high diploma, high salary, and high degree.
這么說(shuō),因?yàn)樗麄兪莿e人挑剩下的。她們有三高:高文憑,高工資,高學(xué)位。
N: and they're also known as the three S's—single, stuck, and born in the seventies.
還有人說(shuō)她們有三難:單身,高不成低不就,出生在70年代后。
S: definitely! So most of these women go for Western men.
的確!所以這些人就把目標(biāo)轉(zhuǎn)向了外國(guó)人。
N: you have a point here, but I believe some mixed marriages are based on true love.
也許吧。但是有些跨國(guó)婚姻還是有真愛(ài)的。
S: that' for sure but very few.
那是,不過(guò)很少。