聊一聊在加州大學(xué)伯克利分校學(xué)習(xí)日語的經(jīng)歷

今天的這段對話，在討論日語，
 
聊一聊在加州大學(xué)伯克利分校學(xué)習(xí)日語的經(jīng)歷
 
來聽今天的講解:
 
A: Miki, where did you go to university?
 
美琪，你在哪兒上的大學(xué)？
 
B: I went to university in California, at a school called the University of California at Berkeley.
 
我在加利福尼亞上的大學(xué)，我上的是加州大學(xué)伯克利分校。
 
A: And where is that in California?
 
那所學(xué)校位于加州的什么地方？
 
B: It's in the Bay Area, which is in the northern half of California, right across the bay from San Francisco.
 
學(xué)校在海灣地區(qū)，位于北加州，就在舊金山海灣。
 
A: OK, and what did you study?
 
好，那你學(xué)了什么？
 
B: I studied many things, but I majored in Japanese.
 
我學(xué)了很多，不過我的專業(yè)是日語。
 
A: Oh, really!
 
哦，真的嗎？
 
B: I did.
 
沒錯。
 
A: Oh, wow. Now you are of Japanese ancestry.
 
哇！你有日本血統(tǒng)。
 
B: My mother is. My father is from Kansas.
 
我媽媽是日本人。我父親來自堪薩斯。
 
A: Oh, really.
 
真的啊。
 
B: His family is from the South, Kansas, Arkansas, Texas. My mother is from Japan. She grew up in Nagasaki and moved to Yokohama when she was young so most of my family is there, Yokohama and the South.
 
他的家人來自南部地區(qū)，堪薩斯州、阿肯色州和得克薩斯州。我母親來自日本。她在長崎長大，年輕時搬去了橫濱，所以我的大部分家人都在橫濱和美國南部。
 
A: Oh, wow! What a combo.
 
哇！這組合真棒。
 
B: Yeah, I guess so.
 
嗯，我也這么想。
 
A: Now were you already fluent in Japanese before you started university?
 
那你上大學(xué)前就能說流利的日語嗎？
 
B: I was but it wasn't a standard Japanese. It was very familial. It was Japanese that was spoken within the family, between parent and child, and so it was very casual, and conversational.
 
可以，不過并不是標(biāo)準(zhǔn)日語。那只是家庭用語，我說的是家人之間說的日語，是父母和孩子之間的用語，是非正式的用語，非?？谡Z化。
 
A: OK. Is it difficult for you to comprehend people sometimes in Japan or is it just like home?
 
好。你理解日本人說的話很難嗎，還是你覺得就跟在家一樣？
 
B: Oh, it's absolutely difficult because there, well first of all, they're dialects and then of course there are different levels of politeness and conversationalist, I guess, and especially once I get into a classroom with other professors, and other students, colleagues my age, it's quite difficult to follow the language, but if it's street talk it's much easier.
 
非常難，因?yàn)?，首先，他們會說方言，而且敬語有不同的等級，和談話專家……尤其是有一次我和其他教授、以及學(xué)生們以及和我同齡的同事一起進(jìn)入教室，我很難理解他們說的話，不過要是街頭閑談就要容易多了。
 
A: Oh, really! OK, so at university, did you study just to learn Japanese as a language or did you study literature?
 
真的啊。那你在大學(xué)的時候，是只把日語當(dāng)作一門語言來學(xué)習(xí)，還是你也學(xué)習(xí)文學(xué)？
 
B: I'll be honest. I studied to get an easy degree, and frankly it was quite easy, but then I had a very good professor in classical Japanese and that's when my interest in literature and history actually was born and I ended up becoming a researcher in medieval history, medieval literature.
 
說實(shí)話，我學(xué)習(xí)的東西很容易獲得學(xué)位，實(shí)話實(shí)說，我學(xué)的東西非常簡單，不過之后我在學(xué)習(xí)古典日語的時候遇到了一位非常好的教授，正是那時我開始對文學(xué)和歷史感興趣，最終我成為了中世紀(jì)史和中世紀(jì)文學(xué)的研究員。
 
A: Wow, that must be really difficult though cause that's old, old style of language, it's an old text. (Yes) Like Shakespeare is difficult for me.
 
哇，那一定非常難，因?yàn)槟鞘钦Z言的古典體，是舊體文字。（沒錯）就像我覺得莎士比亞很難理解。
 
B: That's actual, well, that's actually an interesting comparison cause Shakespeare is actually just a little bit easier for us modern Americans to comprehend than classical Japanese is for a modern Japanese person to comprehend because the language, actually, Shakespearean English is actually much closer to modern English than classical Japanese is to modern Japanese, but
it's not spoken, so if one has a dictionary, then one can do research.
 
那真是……那真是很有意思的比較，因?yàn)閷?shí)際上我們現(xiàn)代美國人理解莎士比亞要比現(xiàn)代日本人理解古典日語要容易，因?yàn)閷?shí)際上，莎士比亞風(fēng)格的英語和現(xiàn)代英語很相似，可是古典日語離現(xiàn)代日本人就比較久遠(yuǎn)了，不過那并不是口語，所以如果你有字典，那你就能進(jìn)行研究。
 
A: Alright! Well, thanks a lot Miki.
 
沒錯！好，美琪，非常感謝你。
 
B: You're welcome.
 
不客氣。