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15. 英国人的性格　Personalities of the English——Scotty

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      英国人做事不喜欢张扬，却格外认真和规矩。一个民族强大了几百年可谓不易，作为世界经济五强之一的英国，虽然被人们戏称在走下坡路，却也蕴含着缓缓流动的巨大能量，这种力量并非中国般的突飞猛进，一日千里，但却是持续与稳定的。当然，这个社会也存在着诸多弊端，这在后文中也会一一道来。

The English do not publicize themselves unnecessarily, but rather are a conscientious and well-disciplined people. It's not an easy thing for a nation to remain powerful for hundreds of years. Great Britain, currently one of the five strongest economies in the world, has retained a slow but strong and steady strength in the world, despite being comically described by some as languishing. This strength is not like that of China, which is developing by leaps and bounds at a tremendous pace, but is consistent and stable. Of course, there is a lot of corruption in this society, which I will address as I come to those issues.

诺大商学院的夜景
The Night Scene of TheUniversity of Norttingham  

        既然来到别人的国家，就把人家强大的原因找到，学回去发扬光大。"认真"二字可以说是英国人骨子里面的东西了。大到治学，小到地上挖一个坑的程序，无不规范、有序。我的导师，Sally，是位四五十岁的英国妇女，来自苏格兰。当时年少轻狂的我本以为凭借自己市场营销的老底，以及大学时的那些实践经历，完成这篇不到二万字的英文论文，只是几个朝夕的事情。不曾想，每次送给她的文章总会被挑出无数问题，从结构框架到拼写错误，甚至字体的不一致......让我不敢再有丝毫的怠慢。相比之下，我都怀疑本科时的导师是否认真通看过我的论文，哪怕一遍。另有一件小事可以看出英国人做事的认真：有一次学校图书馆楼下护栏最下面的一截长约30厘米的横杆丢失了，第二天，一根黄色的丝带绑在了对应的位置，前面还立有一个牌子："小心！"按照常识来讲，不会有人因为少了这段横杆而摔下楼去，或者受到伤害，但这种谨慎的行为，是我在国内不曾见到的。

 

地铁站里的警报信息装置
Alarm Equipment Installed in the Subway Station

        英国人这种认真的态度时刻存在在他们的意识中。在英国常常遇到的一件事就是跑火警警报，凡是厨房里烧糊个锅，或者聚众抽烟，火警探测器就会有所反应，之后整栋楼都会警铃大作，同时安全门自动关闭，防火楼梯的通道自动打开。刺耳的铃声会将整栋楼的人驱逐到楼外，无论是下午2点，还是凌晨3点，只要有带着温度的烟，兄弟们就别想踏实。当然也有大义凛然者，只要警报一响，就钻进浴室去洗澡。这种敢于直面惨淡人生的真猛男行为，我是不敢效仿的。虽然在英国遇到响警报无数次，没有一次是真的着火，但每次楼里面的清洁工或是图书馆管理员都会催促人们尽快疏散，虽然他们也知道没什么大事，但也没有人觉得多此一举。此举至少让人们相信，真有事情时，咱的小命儿还是保得住的。
        有太多事情来证明英国人认真，在他们这种行为习惯的背后，其实是一种有力而详尽的规章制度的规范。所有人按照同样的规矩去做事情，什么事都有章可循，慢慢的便形成了这种习惯。而习惯的力量是强大而恒久的，这些也许正是我们要学习的根源。
        英国人很幽默，说话打招呼的时候会向你挤眼睛。英国人很随意，聊天的时候可能会把脚放在桌子上。英国人也很友善，讲话的时候"Please"、"Thank you！"一个接着一个；路上迎面相遇，即使陌生，也会向你"Hi！"一声......说了这么多英国人的好，并非崇洋，只是希望我们民族能够向人家学习一些东西。
        好的说完了，也谈谈这个社会里的让一个人中国人看不顺眼的地方。姑且说之，姑且听之。

Since we are in another person's country, we have to look for the reasons behind their strengths in order to promote similar strengths in our own country as we return.  "Conscientiousness" is something deeply rooted in the heart of the English. There are procedures to follow and standards to observe for absolutely everything from big issues like academic pursuits to trifles like digging a hole in the ground. My tutor, Sally, is a middle aged woman from Scotland. As a proud young man at the time, I thought that by relying on my marketing ability and university experience, it would be but a few days' work to complete my English thesis of less than 20,000 words. I never imagined that each time I sent her an article she would pick out innumerable problems, from organizational errors to spelling mistakes and even inconsistent typeface...I dared not neglect the slightest thing. In contrast, I doubted whether my undergraduate professor had earnestly looked through my thesis even once when I was at the university. Another trivial matter also showed this conscientiousness of the English. Once, an approximately 30-centimeter-long crossbar at the foot of the school library guard rail was missing. The next day, a piece of yellow ribbon was tied there with a sign which read, "Caution!" Naturally, no one was going to fall to the floor below or be harmed in any way by the lack of this crossbar, at any rate, I have never seen such cautiousbehavior in China.

This kind of conscientiousness is always present in the English. Something one was often confronted with in Britain was the sounding of fire alarms. The fire detector would be set off by a burnt pot in the kitchen or a gathering of smokers, and the whole building would erupt in a piercing noise—the ringing of the fire bell. At the same time, the safety door would automatically close and the fire escape stairs would open. The harsh bell would drive all the people in the building out. No matter whether it was two in the afternoon or three in the morning, if there was heat and smoke, then it was impossible for you guys to be at ease. Of course, there were those fearless ones who would sneak into the bathroom for a shower as soon they heard the alarm begin ringing. I had no courage to imitate the behavior of these truly brave men, who dared to face a bleak life. Although I heard the fire alarm go off many, many times while I was in Britain, and there was not even one case of a real fire, however, every time the building cleaners or the librarians would urge everyone to evacuate as soon as possible even though they knew very well there was actually nothing wrong. Even so, nobody seemed to feel they were overdoing it. This allowed people to feel that at least they could have escaped had there really been a danger.

There is no end to the evidence of the conscientiousness of the English. Underlying these habits is a set of powerful and exhaustive rules and regulations. Everyone acts according to the same rules, and everything has rules to follow, so gradually this habit was formed over time. The strength of habits is powerful and lasting, so perhaps this root is the very thing we need to learn.

The English are very humorous; they might wink at you as they greet you. The English are very easy going; they might put their feet on the table while chatting with you. The English are very friendly, and they would use "Please" and "Thank you" frequently when talking. They will say "Hi" when passing even if you are strangers... Saying so many good things about the British certainly doesn't mean I worship foreign things however. I only hope that we as Chinese can really learn something from other nations.

Having talked about the good, I will now speak of the things in this society that are offensive in the eyes of a Chinese person. How about if I just say it without beating around the bush.

在幼儿园打工的日子
Days When I was Working in a Kindergarten

        虽说英国人很友善，但在他们骨子里有一种强大的民族优越感，其直接体现就是"种族歧视"。我到了英国两个月后，便开始寻找一些英语环境的工作，一来挣点零花钱，二来学点东西，练练口语。这种努力一直持续了10个月，申请了近20份工作，从超市主管到清洁工，只要有可能，我都会去要一份申请表格。而结果，是毫无结果，甚至没有一次面试的机会。更加让人难以接受的是，申请表上有一个选项是"种族"，备选项里有"亚洲人"，还有"中国人"。这就是说，如果你是中国人，只能勾选"Chinese"，而不能勾选"Asian"，以至我每次填写时都有把申请表撕碎的冲动。按照他们的解释，只有当一份工作无法由英国人担任时，才可以找其他国家的人。而按照他们的逻辑，在我们之前，还有欧洲人，澳大利亚人，甚至非洲人，和那些所谓的"亚洲人"。其实，民族，自由，平等，在一个现实的社会中，都是空谈。凡是有利益的地方，就没有绝对的公平。不过可喜的是，最终我还是利用自己的摄像专长，找到了一份没有英国人来申请的工作。虽然只有2天，但也算是扬眉吐气了一把。

Though the English are very friendly, they feel their superiority as a powerful nation down to their very marrow. This is directly reflected by the "racial discrimination". Two months after my arrival in Britain, I began to hunt for some work in an English environment. On one hand, I could make some pocket money, and on the other, I could learn something and practice my oral English.  Such efforts continued for 10 months with nearly 20 job applications submitted. Whether it was the position of a supermarket manager or that of a cleaner, I would request an application form if I felt I could possibly get the job. So what was the result? There was no result at all, not even one opportunity for an interview. What made this even harder to swallow was that on the application form there was an item for "race", and the options included "Chinese" and "Asian". So if you were a Chinese you could only choose "Chinese" and not "Asian", so that each time I filled in an application I felt like tearing it up because of this question. The explanation given was that a job would only be given to a foreigner when there was no suitable English applicant. According to their logic, Europeans, Australians, and even Africans and those so called "Asians" were before us in the picking order. In fact, in a realistic society, nationality, freedom, and equality are all empty words. Any time you have a benefit to anybody, there will be no true equality. However I was finally delighted to find a job with no English applicants using my special skills as a photographer. Even if it only lasted for 2 days, it still gave me a chance to hold my head up high.

　本文转载自Scotty的个人空间，要阅读更多作者文章，请移步作者个人空间 http://i.myechinese.com/index.php?s=/space/1251 。


 




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