When we go abroad. we tend to cluster in hotels and restaurants where English is spoken. The attitudes and information we pick up are conditioned by those natives-usually the richer-who speak English. Our business dealings, as well as the nations diplomacy. are conducted through interpreters.
For many years, America and Americans could get by wich cultural blindness and linguistic ignorance. After all. America was the most powerful country of che free world, the distributor of needed funds and goods.
But all that is past. American dollars no longer buy all good things, and we are slowly beginning to realize that our proper role in the world is changing. A l979 Harris poll reported that 55 percent of Americans want this country to play a more significant role in world affairs; we want to have a hand in the important decisions of the next century, even though it may not always be the upper hand.
参考译文
我们的文化使大多数美国人不仅觉得自己的语言是到处通用的,甚至自己的手势也是尽人皆知的。我们没有意识到挥手告别的动作是菲律宾人召唤一个人到自己身边的方式,也没有意识到在意大利和一些拉丁美洲国家,手指向自己弯曲才是一种告别的手势。
那些寄送包裹给我们二战后在德国驻军的市民,在包裹上面标记GIFT(礼品)以避税,他们并未费神去弄明白 GIFT 在德语中指的是有毒物质。此外,我们往往认为自己很友好,却喜欢与别人保持至少3 英尺或一臂之长的距离。拉丁美洲和中东国家的人喜欢靠得很近并有身体接触,而这样却会使美国人感到极不舒服。
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