實戰(zhàn)口語情景對話：First Memories of Canada 對加拿大的第一印象

Jeremy: So Abidemi, you were born in Nigeria, but you moved to Canada and did most of your schooling in Canada.

杰里米：阿比德米，你出生在尼日利亞，后來搬到加拿大去生活，你大部分學(xué)業(yè)是在加拿大完成的。

Abidemi: That's right.

阿比德米：沒錯。

Jeremy: Can you tell me a little bit about what the transition was like coming from Nigeria to Canada and doing a Canadian education system?

杰里米：你尼日利亞去加拿大并融入加拿大教育體系，你能說說你對這種過渡的感受嗎?

Abidemi: Sure. For me, it was an interesting experience. Both great and at the same time—hmm, I don't want to say traumatic, but very different in terms of lifestyle. Since I was very young, I'd loved traveling. I wanted to travel. So when my family decided to make the move to Canada, I was really excited. But I have to say, I wasn't really prepared. I had no idea where is Canada, America, England—they're all the same to me at that age. So when we moved and my dad had initially made the move. He went ahead of us. He got a job. He found a place for us to live. And then, I arrived with my mom and my other sisters. There were five girls and we arrived at the airport. And my first memory is looking out, mid-December in Montreal—we arrived at Montreal airport—, looking out, and seeing this white thing covering the ground and thinking, "What is that? Why is it so white?" And I remember saying to my dad as he drove up to drive us home, "Let's play in that. I want to play in that. What is that?" So that was my first memory of Canada of the snow. And it was fun. It was great arriving in December but at the same time, it was very cold. Personally, I'm not somebody that likes the cold too much, but having the warmth of my family in the midst of that cold made it worth it. It was awesome. And then at school, making the transition was a little harder. At that time, the school we went to, there were not a lot of minorities. So, I think some of the teachers and some of the students weren't sure how to get accustomed to us, and we weren't sure what to expect either. But everyone tried their best and we flourished. And I went on to high school and then to university. And one of the things was having my teachers—like we were talking about before, recognized the potential in me and my sisters and really encouraging us, and being with my classmates and making friends and having fun with them. And during that time, it was the late '90s, and there were a lot of transitions going on in other parts of the world. So people from different countries, like I remember we had a lot of people from Bosnia because of the war coming to my high school, and from other parts of the world, from Asia, so it was a really multicultural school—high school that I went to. So learning about other cultures through my friends, too, made it really worth it. So I'm certainly glad that my family made the move. It's opened up amazing opportunities for me as well. And being able to come now to Japan and teach English, that was because of that. So yeah, although it was hard in ways that I hadn't imagined, but it was so worth it. And I'be grown and I'be had so many awesome experiences that yeah, I'm really thankful for it.

阿比德米：當(dāng)然可以。對我來說那是一次很有趣的經(jīng)歷。那個經(jīng)歷很棒，但是又……我不想用痛苦來形容，不過那是兩種完全不同的生活方式。我小的時候非常喜歡旅行。我想到處去旅行。所以，當(dāng)我的家人決定搬到加拿大生活時，我非常興奮。不過我也承認，當(dāng)時我并沒有完全準備好。我當(dāng)時不知道加拿大、美國和英國在哪里，那個時候這些國家對我來說是一樣的。我們搬家時，我爸爸先搬去了加拿大。他比我們早過去，他在加拿大找了份工作。他為我們找了住的地方。然后我和我媽媽還有其他姐妹一起搬了過去。我們五個女生抵達機場時……我們在12月中旬抵達了蒙特利爾機場，當(dāng)時我四處張望，我看到地上被白色的東西覆蓋了，我還在想“那是什么?地上為什么這么白?”我記得我爸爸開車來機場接我們時，我對他說：“我們在那兒玩吧。我想在那里玩。那是什么?”雪是我對加拿大的第一印象。非常好玩。在12月抵達加拿大感覺太棒了，但是特別冷。個人來說，我不太喜歡那種寒冷，不過在寒冷中感受到家庭的溫暖還是值得的。那種感覺很棒。至于上學(xué)，完成過渡有些艱難。當(dāng)時，我們上的那所學(xué)校沒有很多少數(shù)族裔。所以，一些老師和學(xué)生不知道如何讓我們適應(yīng)新生活，當(dāng)然我們也不知道應(yīng)該怎樣做。不過所有人都竭盡全力，而且我們表現(xiàn)得很好。然后，我在加拿大上了高中和大學(xué)。我們之前談到過，我們讓老師認可了我和我姐姐們的潛力，這讓我們受到了鼓舞，可以和同學(xué)和睦相處，而且交到了朋友，一起度過了快樂時光。那是上世紀90年代末，世界其他地方也在經(jīng)歷著過渡期。我們學(xué)校招收了很多來自不同國家的學(xué)生，我記得有很多波斯尼亞人因為躲避戰(zhàn)爭來到我念的高中，當(dāng)然學(xué)校也招收了一些來自亞洲等其他地方的學(xué)生，所以我上的高中是一所多元文化的學(xué)校。我通過朋友們學(xué)到了其他國家的文化，我認為這非常值得。我很高興我們家搬到了加拿大。那為我打開了不可思議的機會之門。我現(xiàn)在能來到日本教英語，也是受益于此。雖然經(jīng)歷了一些我沒有想到的艱難，不過我認為那很值得。這段經(jīng)歷讓我更成熟，而且我還體驗了如此精彩的生活，我非常感激。