Unit 2 The Struggle to Be an All-American Girl 课文翻译

2021年1月25日发(作者：空竹)
UNIT 2
THE STRUGGLE TO BE AN ALL-AMERICAN GIRL
Elizabeth Wong
1.

It's still there, the Chinese school on Yale Street where my brother and I used to go.
Despite
the
new
coat
of
paint
and
the
high
wire
fence,
the
school
I
knew
10
years
ago
remains remarkably, stoically the same.

2.


Every day at 5 p.m., instead of playing with our fourth- and fifth-grade friends or
sneaking out to the empty lot to hunt ghosts and animal bones, my brother and I had to
go to Chinese school. No amount of kicking, screaming, or pleading could dissuade my
mother, who was solidly determined to have us learn the language of our heritage.

3.
Forcibly,
she
walked
us
the
seven
long,
hilly
blocks
from
our
home
to
school,
depositing our defiant tearful faces before the stern principal. My only memory of him is
that
he
swayed
on
his
heels
like
a
palm
tree,
and
he
always
clasped
his
impatient
twitching hands behind his back. I recognized him as a repressed maniacal child killer,
and knew that if we ever saw his hands we'd be in big trouble.
Detailed Reading

4.
We
all
sat
in
little
chairs
in
an
empty
auditorium.
The
room
smelled
like
Chinese
medicine,
an
imported
faraway
mustiness.

Like
ancient
mothballs
or
dirty
closets.
I
hated
that
smell.
I
favored
crisp
new
scents,
like
the
soft
French
perfume
that
my
American teacher wore in public school.

5.
Although
the
emphasis
at
the
school
was
mainly
language
—

speaking,
reading,
writing
—
the lessons always began with an exercise in politeness. With the entrance of
the teacher, the best student would tap a bell and everyone would get up, kowtow, and
chant,
Detailed Reading

6.
Being ten years old, I had better things to learn than ideographs copied painstakingly
in lines that ran right to left from the tip of a
moc but
, a real ink pen that had to be held in
an
awkward way
if
blotches
were
to
be
avoided.
After
all,
I
could
do
the multiplication
tables, name the satellites of Mars, and write reports on Little Women and Black Beauty.
Nancy Drew, my favorite book heroine, never spoke Chinese.
Detailed Reading
7.
The
language
was a
source
of
embarrassment.
More
times
than
not,
I
had
tried
to
disassociate myself from the nagging loud voice that followed me wherever I wandered in
the
nearby
American
supermarket
outside
Chinatown.
The
voice
belonged
to
my
grandmother, a fragile woman in her seventies who could outshout the best of the street
vendors. Her humor was raunchy, her Chinese rhythmless and patternless. It was quick,
it was loud, it was unbeautiful. It was not like the quiet, lilting romance of French or the
gentle refinement of the American South. Chinese sounded pedestrian. Public.

8.
In
Chinatown,
the
comings
and
goings
of
hundreds
of Chinese
on
their daily
tasks
sounded chaotic and frenzied. I did not want to be thought of as mad, as talking gibberish.
When
I
spoke
English,
people
nodded
at
me,
smiled
sweetly,
said
encouraging
words.
Even the people in my culture would cluck and say that I'd do well in life.
she
move
her
lips
fast,
they
would
say,
meaning
that
I'd
be
able
to
keep
up
with
the
world outside Chinatown.

9.
My brother was even more fanatical than I about speaking English. He was especially
hard on my mother, criticizing her, often cruelly, for her pidgin speech
—
smatterings of
Chinese
scattered
like
chop
suey

in
her
conversation.

not
'What
it
is,'
Mom,
he
would say in exasperation.
leave
out
an
occasional

or

or
perhaps
a
verb
of
being.
He
would
stop
her
in
mid-sentence,
he'd blame it on her,

10.
What
infuriated
my
mother
most
was
when
my
brother
cornered
her
on
her
consonants, especially
American name that her tongue wouldn't allow her to say. No matter how hard she tried,


11.
After
two
years
of
writing
with
a
moc
but

and
reciting
words
with
multiples
of
meanings, I finally was granted a cultural divorce. I was permitted to stop Chinese school.

12.
I thought of myself as multicultural. I preferred tacos to egg rolls; I enjoyed
Cinco de
Mayo
more than Chinese New Year.


13.
At last, I was one of you; I wasn't one of them.

14.
Sadly, I still am.