又开学了,你是迫不及待地想与室友分享假期的点点滴滴,还是为重逢而苦恼?还记得你第一次见到室友时的情景吗?想想你如今心中的他(她)与当初他(她)给你第一印象有何不同?室友,躲也躲不开的人,是否左右了你的大学生涯?
美式发音 适合泛听
Host: Within the next few weeks, thousands of parents will move their kids into tightly packed dorm rooms. Chances are entering freshmen have already friended their roommates on Facebook, revealing their ethnicity, gender, home state, and sexual preference. So what happens when your teen’s college roommate is not what he or she had in mind? Messy, liberal, conservative, black, white or gay—1)traits that make a diverse student body can also create tension.
So, we’re going to begin with a letter that you got from a worried parent.
主持人:在接下来的几个星期里,数以千计的父母就要让自己的孩子搬到拥挤的宿舍里去了。新入住的大一新生们很有可能早就在脸谱网上与室友交上了朋友,了解了对方的种族背景、性别、来自哪个州,以及性取向等。可如果你孩子的大学室友与他(她)当初想象的有差距,那会怎么样?对方可能会让寝室变得凌乱不堪,或者是有自由主义倾向,或者是个保守派,或者是个黑人、白人,又或者是同性恋——这些让学生群体呈现多元化的特点也可能造成学生之间关系紧张。
好,我们就从一位焦虑母亲寄来的一封信说起。
“Dear Amy: My 18-year-old son Bob is leaving for his freshman year of college. Bob just received his roommate assignment, and after friending him on Facebook, Bob discovered that his roommate is gay. Bob would prefer a straight roommate. When I called the university to ask if Bob could be assigned another roommate, the housing director 2)intimated that I was 3)persecuting the gay roommate, and that if my son didn’t start out rooming with a gay student, then Bob could go to another school. He can put in for a room change during the first two weeks of school if he wants to switch. Bob will room with the assigned roommate.”
“亲爱的艾米:我18岁的儿子鲍勃马上就要开始他的大学生活了。鲍勃刚刚接到室友分配通知,他在脸谱网上与对方交上了朋友后,发现他的室友原来是一名同性恋者。而鲍勃则更愿意自己的室友是异性恋。于是我给校方打电话,问能否重新给鲍勃分配室友。而学校宿舍的负责人则向我暗示说我在为难这位同性恋室友;如果我儿子不愿意一开始就与同性恋学生同居一室的话,那他可以到别的学校去。鲍勃如果想换室友的话,可以在开学后头两个星期提交换寝室的要求。但一开始他必须与原定的室友住在一起。”
Amy Dickinson (Columnist): The first thing that this parent did was she 4)intervened on her son’s behalf in a matter that he honestly should handle himself.
Part of the process of handing your child over—you know, it goes way back to nursery school. You know, you have to prepare your child for the next experience as well as you can, and then you need to let them have the experience themselves. And schools have in place 5)mechanisms for dealing with roommate issues. And I appreciate the fact that schools encourage students to room with their assigned roommate and to see how it goes. That’s what life is supposed to be like, you know, the whole idea.
I felt this when I dropped my own daughter off at school. A lot of our children have never shared a room. I grew up sharing a room, sharing a bathroom. There were eight people, one bathroom. How did we do it? But my daughter never shared a room and almost never had to share a bathroom. She ended up in a triple, in a bunk bed. And it really felt like—and the bathroom down the hall and you take your things in a bucket and you’re sharing a bathroom with guys.
There are a lot of shocks when it comes to school. But one of the great things about this next phase of life is it’s such an opportunity to learn about people you don’t know about. My daughter’s first roommate was Chinese, literally had come the day before from Beijing. She had never set foot in the United States.
艾米·迪金森(专栏作家):这位家长首先做的事情就是以她儿子的名义干涉本该由他自己处理的事。
让自己的孩子独立这过程的其中一个环节,你知道吧,这事儿从幼儿园就开始了。你知道,你得尽力让你的孩子为下一段经历作好准备,然后,你要让孩子自己去体验。学校在如何处理学生室友问题上有一套机制。我很赞赏学校鼓励学生先与事先分配好的室友一起生活,看事情如何进展。生活本来就应该这样子的,你也知道,这个理念的关键就在此。
我在把我自己的女儿送到学校时也想到这一点。我们很多人的孩子从来都没有与其他人分享过房间。我自己小时候与别人共用一个房间,共用一个洗手间。家里八个人,只有一个洗手间。我们是怎么过的呢?而我女儿呢,一直都是自己一个房间,也几乎从来不需要与别人共用洗手间。在学校,她住进了一个三人间,睡在双层床上。那感觉确实是……而且洗手间还在走廊的尽头,你要把你的东西放在桶里提过去,你还会与男生共用洗手间。
孩子们到了学校会经历不少意想不到的事。但在他们上大学这个人生阶段中,美好的事情之一是,这是一个了解陌生人的极好机会。我女儿的第一个室友是中国人,她前一天才从北京来,而之前她从没到过美国。
Host: Wow.
Amy: Those two had a terrific experience. It was a good match. But you can’t know that beforehand.
Host: And Jenna is calling from Portland, Oregon. Hi, Jenna.
Jenna: Hi, there. I went to college in Colorado and I did not meet my roommate prior to moving in with her on the first day. And the minute I met her, I could tell from the clothing she wore to her attitude, to just getting that first impression, that we were not going to be friends. And what I found was actually quite contrary. And it was a very eye-opening experience because even though we had very different backgrounds, very different family experiences, very different religious backgrounds, tons of things that were different in common, we actually became friends. And one of the things that blossomed from that were all the late-night conversations of laying in bed three feet away from each other in the dark, talking about theses 6)profound things. And it really opened my mind that even though you don’t come from the same background and you don’t seem to have anything in common that you can actually still be really great roommates.
Amy: This is an amazing example. Listen to the diversity of this group is really—and that’s what college is about for a lot of people.
主持人:哇。
艾米:她们两人因此有了一段很棒的经历,两人是很好的室友搭配。但这些你事先并不可能知道。
主持人:詹纳从俄勒冈州的波特兰打来电话。你好,詹纳。
詹纳:你好。我曾在科罗拉多州上学。我是直到搬进宿舍那天才认识我的室友的。我见到她的那刻,从她的衣着、态度,以及她给我的第一印象,我就知道我们俩不可能成为朋友。但结果正好相反。尽管我们的背景相差甚远,家庭也很不一样,宗教信仰也不同,还有其他许多不一样的地方,但最后我们成了朋友,这是一次让人大开眼界的经历。令我们的友情迅速发展的因素之一是卧谈。夜深人静的时候,我们各自睡在相隔一米的床上在黑夜里讨论一些颇为深刻的问题。尽管两人来自不同的背景,似乎没有什么相同之处,但却成为相处得很好的室友,这一点让我很长见识。
艾米:这是一个很好的例子。听到这个多元化的人群的心声确实……对许多人来说,这正是上大学的精彩之处。
翻译:丁一
