A Key to Fitting in

By Leo Luo

Growing up in an ordinary Chinese immigrant family,surrounded by Chinese friends and always enjoying Chinese cuisine, I had never questioned my cultural and ethnic heritage.1. Chinese cuisine： 中國菜；ethnic heritage： 民族遺產(chǎn)。Even though my familiarity with the language,especially with more eloquent means of expression,2. familiarity with： 熟悉，精通；eloquent：流暢的，口才流利的。was lacking,I still saw myself as Chinese, and proudly so. With this mindset driving my naive grade-school self, I felt the need to defend my culture against those who did not appreciate it.3. mindset： 心態(tài)；defend against： 保衛(wèi)。Yet when my horizon was finally expanded with the start of university, I realized that being Chinese was far more than simply wolfing down chive dumplings.4. 但是隨著進(jìn)入大學(xué)后眼界的開闊，我意識到了作為一個中國人不只是狼吞虎咽地吃韭菜餃子那么簡單。horizon： 眼界；wolf down： 狼吞虎咽地吃；chive dumpling： 韭菜餃子。Instead, my experiences have enlightened me to how language plays an enormous role in not only building a cultural and ethnic identity, but also integrating into a community that can eventually become a home.

Fifth grade was the first time I started to bring lunches from home, instead of eating at the school cafeteria5. cafeteria： 自助餐廳，食堂。. Normally, my meals were quite tame: sandwiches, some pasta, perhaps some fried rice on occasion.6. tame： 簡單的，平常的；on occasion： 偶爾，有時。But one day I brought the traditional Northern Chinese style dumpling, stuffed with pork and chives. I had just lifted the lid of my Tupperware to breathe in the dumplings’ familiar aroma when I heard a loud groan from the back of the class.7. Tupperware： 特百惠，一個塑料保鮮容器品牌，這里指午餐飯盒；aroma： 芳香；groan： 抱怨。I turned and saw the Caucasian kids all grimacing and holding their noses.8. Caucasian： 白種人的；grimace： 扮鬼臉，作怪相；hold one’s nose： 捏住鼻子。In a massive herd, they scrambled over each other to sit as far as possible from me.9. 他們一大幫人，互相推搡著坐在盡可能遠(yuǎn)離我的地方。herd： 人群；scramble：爭搶?！癢hat is that? It stinks10. stink： 發(fā)出臭味。!” Raising my eyebrows,I shrugged11. shrug： 聳肩。and replied “it’s just dumplings.” Big mistake. From that moment onwards, no matter what kind of food I brought, those Caucasian classmates would screech12. screech： 尖聲喊叫?！癏ey Leo! Did you bring dumplings today?” For a while, I brushed them off.13. brush off： 不予理睬。But there was only so much taunting I could endure before I cracked.14. taunting： 嘲弄；crack： 崩潰。When the shrill “Hey Leo! Did you bring dumplings today?” rang out for the umpteenth time, I leapt out of my seat and slammed the table as I started screaming.15. shrill： 尖叫聲；ring out： 突然響起；umpteenth： 第無數(shù)次的；slam： 猛拍，猛擊?！癏ey! Will you stop it?! There is nothing wrong with my dumplings!” Silence fell over the classroom. My teacher glared at me and told me to sit back down.

國內(nèi)的經(jīng)濟發(fā)展催生出了少年留學(xué)熱，這一現(xiàn)象在最近兩年正呈井噴之勢。中國已經(jīng)成為美國海外高中生源的第一大國。那些遠(yuǎn)赴異國求學(xué)的孩子們將會面臨什么樣的文化沖擊和挑戰(zhàn)？我們的專欄作者Leo告訴你怎樣才能融入美國的生活。

That was my first experience of being discriminated against16. discriminate against： 歧視，排斥。based on my cultural identity. Granted, this was only a minor incident, and cannot compare to the level of discrimination that some of my peers and classmates of other ethnicities experience.Nevertheless, this incident could represent the difficulties of Asians integrating into Western, or primarily American, culture.This process is perhaps the most difficult during middle school,when kids begin to label themselves and their peers according to societal stereotypes.17. societal： 社會的；stereotype： 固定模式，成規(guī)。The Asians, especially those who were not born in North America, become divided into two subcategories that overlap: the nerds and the FOBs, otherwise known as the “Fresh off the Boat.”18. subcategory： 子類別；overlap：部分重疊；nerd： 呆子；FOB：Fresh off the Boat的縮寫，新移民。While the nerd label is household knowledge for most people, perhaps the FOB terminology may be confusing, precisely because what is considered FOB behaviour is simply everyday life in Asian cities.19. “呆子”這個稱號對多數(shù)人來說司空見慣，可能FOB（新移民）這個詞會令人感到困惑，恰恰因為“新移民”的行為就是亞洲城市中（人們）的日常行為而已。terminology： 術(shù)語；precisely： 恰恰，正好。With hair swept up and dyed like Korean pop stars for the boys and short skirts and layers of make-up for the girls,these FOBs are regarded with derision for their showy lifestyles.20. 這些“新移民們”中，男孩們的頭發(fā)像韓國歌星一樣進(jìn)行打理和染色，女孩們穿著短裙，畫著濃妝，他們因為這種炫耀的生活方式被人嘲笑。sweep up： 收拾干凈；derision： 嘲笑；showy： 炫耀的，顯眼的。As a result, they usually gather together in their own packs21. pack： 一群，一伙。, not interacting with the native students. Personally, I fitted into the nerd category, since I always walked around with my nose in a book. My image was not helped by the jars of Chinese traditional medicine I would bring to school that would always make my friends’ eyes bulge at the blackish-brown liquid.22. bulge： 突出，這里指“瞪大眼睛看”；blackish-brown： 棕黑色。Yet I revelled23. revel： 陶醉。in this identity, for it differentiated me from the crowd.

Yet this confidence in my identity faced a challenge when I went to boarding school24. boarding school： 寄宿學(xué)校。, and even more so when I entered university. When people from all over the world come to learn in one place, we inevitably have students from China. For some reason though, I could not fit in perfectly with them. Be it the language barrier, or simply the culture, I was in short, the most American of all the Chinese there. I may know how to speak Mandarin, and have been working on my reading and writing over the past few years. But without a mastery over the language,I can only smile blankly when native speakers spin the wordplay that comes only with a life spent in China.25. mastery： 掌握，精通；blankly：茫然地；spin： 精彩地講；wordplay： 雙關(guān)語。I faced the question of where I belonged, if I was not Chinese enough to be truly Chinese,yet too entrenched26. entrenched： 根深蒂固的。in my heritage to call myself American.

美國華裔家庭劇《初來乍到》劇照

Upon reflection of my own plight27. plight： 困境。, I realized that perhaps the same situation applies with Chinese teenagers who have just moved to North America. Thrown into a world where the two accepted languages are English or silence, they congregate amongst themselves in an effort to find an outlet to express their culture.28. congregate： 聚集；outlet： 發(fā)泄的途徑。Despite being away from China in the spatial realm, they replicate their home environment in almost every other way, as their friend groups are primarily other immigrants who feel just as out of place.29. 盡管離開了中國這個空間范疇，他們?nèi)匀环椒矫婷娑及凑赵趪鴥?nèi)的方式生活，他們結(jié)交的朋友們也主要是那些和新環(huán)境格格不入的移民。spatial： 空間的； realm：范圍；replicate： 復(fù)制；every other： 所有其他的；feel out of place：（因環(huán)境生疏）感到不自在。Since they huddle together everyday, they have no incentive to speak English,30. huddle： 擠成一團(tuán)；incentive： 動機，誘因。or even learn the language properly. Not only that,they barely venture31. venture： 冒險。past the boundaries of the Chinese community.Perhaps it’s because they also do not have a mastery of the local language. Without a mastery of the English language, they can easily be tricked: something they spent their entire lives preventing against in China.32. trick： 欺騙，哄騙；prevent against： 預(yù)防。

Although I have detailed the times I felt out of place, I would like to end on a happy note33. note： 音符，這里比喻“結(jié)局”。. Last summer when I visited Beijing, I finally felt like home. Even though at first I was completely out of my comfort zone, the environment forced my Mandarin to improve by leaps and bounds.34. comfort zone： 舒適區(qū)；by leaps and bounds： 突飛猛進(jìn)地。Thus with a better grasp on the language,especially when I could express myself with more than just a fifthgrader’s vocabulary, I walked the streets filled with more confidence than ever before. Perhaps the best advice to those coming to America,or any other English-speaking country, would be to take the leap and throw oneself into the community. Just as Alibaba’s founder Jack Ma practiced his English by talking to any foreigner he could find, I encourage anyone hoping to integrate into Western culture to jump at any opportunity to practice the language. After all, embarrassment is only temporary, but the knowledge of how to fit in to any foreign environment is forever.