【智梦外籍专栏】语言文化障碍→交友难？

顾问简介：Sophia，毕业于哥伦比亚大学英语写作专业（兼修心理学）。

Sophia讲述了她是怎样被一名罗马尼亚学生的友好所感染，继而交到好朋友的故事。她希望大家可以从她和罗马尼亚学生的身上学到些什么。

英文原文（后附有中文参考）：

My first day of Freshman year, a boy with a strange accent came up to me in the Cafeteria. “Hi,I’m Alex,” he said.

I stared at him blankly.

“Remember?＂He said. “I messaged you online.”

Then I remembered. He had messaged me on Facebook to introduce himself (we were both incoming Freshman who like math and Rubik’s Cubes), and I had thought he was weird then, too. Very friendly, but weird.

“Oh, yeah. Okay, maybe I’ll see youaround!” I put a Philly Cheesesteak on my tray and shuffled away toward thecash register.

I didn’t mean to be unfriendly. I wasvery shy, and in my surprise I hadn’t been able to think of anything better tosay, so I ran off. Sitting by myself afterword and picking at the congealed,soggy pile of beef and vegetables, I regretted my curt behavior. That night, I sent him a Facebook message: “Hey, sorry for being awkward before. We shoulddefinitely hang out sometime.”

“Great,” he responded. “Tuesday at 6:00.”

After that, webecame great friends. I found out he was from Romania, that he’d spoken more English this week than he had in his entire life, and that even other Romanian sthought he was weird. He taught me how to say something very rude in Romanian,and I took him home to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family. There were times when I had no idea what he was talking about, but he never let that bother him,so it never bothered me.

How silly is it that, even though I was the one who spoke the language and knew the culture, heended up being the one to make me feel welcome? When you first arrive at college in the U.S., it might seem hard to make friends with Americans. In those early conversations, it feels hard to overcome language barriers: how doyou make jokes in English? How do you keep a conversation going? Sometimes, your efforts will be met with blank stares, confusion, or seeming disinterest. But, like Alex, you can just step right over these barriers and be persistent. And, if you’re shy like I am, don’t let a couple of false starts and awkwardmoments get in the way of a perfectly good friendship. If you show people that you’re comfortable and friendly, they’ll follow your lead. 

 

中文参考：

大学开学的第一天，在餐厅里我遇到了一个带有奇怪口音的男孩。

 

“嗨，我是Alex。”

 

我一脸茫然的看着他。

 

“不记得我啦？我们在网上聊过。”

 

我记起来了。他在Facebook上介绍过他自己（我们都是新生，也都喜欢数学和卢比克方块），我当时觉得他有些奇怪，虽然非常友好。

 

“噢！是的我记得你！回头见！” 我拿着一块费城牛肉芝士三明治放在托盘里，拖着脚步朝着收银台走去。

 

我并不是故意表现出不友好的。我其实非常害羞，当时大脑短路也没不知道说什么好，所以我只好选择了逃走。等坐下来独自吃饭的时候，我很后悔我刚才的失礼。当晚，我给他发了一条消息：“嗨，我对之前的尴尬场面感到很抱歉。有机会我们一起出去玩。”

 

“好极了！那就周二六点。” 他回复。

 

在那以后，我们就成了特别好的朋友。他来自罗马尼亚，他这周说的英语比他之前所有时候说的英语加起来还要多，以至于其他的罗马尼亚人也觉得他很怪。Alex教了我一些罗马尼亚粗话（为什么学一种语言，往往是从学粗话开始的？），我带他回家和我家人一同庆祝感恩节。有时我完全听不懂他在说什么，但是他并没有因此而停止讲话，我也从未因此而烦心。

 

可笑的是，虽然我是说着英语懂着美国文化的美国人，可是却是他让我感觉到自己受欢迎（作者没有尽到地主之谊啊）。当你来到美国的大学校园，你可能会觉得和美国人交朋友很困难。开始交谈时，你会担心很难克服语言障碍，比如，怎样用英语开玩笑？如何让谈话不冷场？有时，你努力说了做了，可是还会让对方感到迷茫、困惑和无趣。但是，你可以像Alex一样，跨过语言障碍并坚持下来。如果你像我一样羞涩，那么千万别让错误的开始和尴尬的时刻阻碍友谊的的发展。将你友好又平易近人的一面展示出来，会有很多人喜欢和你交朋友的。