實戰(zhàn)口語情景對話：Canucks and Yanks 加拿大人和美國人

Todd: OK, Mike, I was wondering, you're from Canada, and you have lived in America, and we work together, and in our company everybody is American but you, so how would you say Canadians are different than Americans?

托德：邁克，我在想，你來自加拿大，而且你在美國生活過，現在我們一起工作，在我們公司除了你都是美國人，你覺得加拿大人和美國人有什么不同呢?

Mike: Well, first of all, I'll just, to be honest, just to start, I'll say that Canadians and Americans I think share a lot more similar qualities than they do differences, I mean, I think Canadians have a lot more in common with Americans than they do with even with English people who are like from Britain who were the original sort of Canadians, I suppose, a few hundred years ago, so in that way I think that like again, just to preempt it by saying we're very similar, however, there's definitely some differences I think between Americans and Canadians. First of all, I think Canadians in general are maybe a little bit more humble. Not to put this in a negative way, but they just, they're not as willing to engage in an argument, or to argue over a point, I think, as you know, as most, at least, most of my American friends, who’ll want to debate and get to the bottom of a topic. Canadians would rather just sort of back off and say, you know, "That's, you're right. That's fine. Great" but again, and I can't speak for all Canadians because it depends on your personality too, but just to generalize, that's one difference. Also, I would say that Americans in general tend to be a lot more businesslike and maybe even a little more conservative in, just in the way they, in the way that they, I guess, view, relations, or view discussions with people, but Canadians tend to be a little bit more liberal, a little bit more free and easy-going, again, I'll preempt that by saying all of the Americans that I work with I think are quite liberal and not conservative thinking at all, but if you want to generalize, yeah, culturally, then I think those are probably a couple of differences between the two cultures, or people in the cultures.

邁克：嗯，首先，說實話，相比于不同點，我覺得加拿大人和美國人有很多相似的特質，我的意思是我認為加拿大人和美國人有很多共同點，我想大概是幾百年前，英國人原來是加拿大人的一部分，所以首先我們非常相似，不過美國人和加拿大人之間當然有一些不同點。首先，總的來說，加拿大人可能要更謙卑一些。不要用消極的方式來理解，加拿大人不太愿意牽涉進爭論中，或者是不愿意就某一觀點進行爭論。我想，正如你知道的那樣，至少我的大部分美國朋友想參與到爭論中，他們想弄清論題的真相。加拿大更愿意避讓，他們會說“嗯，你是對的。那很好。很棒。”不過，我不能代表所有加拿大人，因為這也要取決于你的個性，不過總的來說，這是一個不同點。而且，我認為美男人一般來說效率更高，而且他們和別人的關系以及在和別人進行討論方面要更保守，而加拿大人則更開放，更自由，更隨和，而和我一起工作的美國人，我認為他們的想法很開放，一點也不保守，不過如果從總體來說，從文化上來說，我想兩種文化或者說受這些文化影響的人們有一些不同點。

Todd: Yeah, anything else, any other differences?

托德：沒錯，那有嗎，還有其他不同點嗎?

Mike: Well, I think, one thing that Americans tend to point to with Canadians, and it is true to some extent, other than our love of hockey, is sense of humor. I think Canadians in general tend to have a, I wouldn't say unique, but they just tend to look at I guess, look at things with a little bit more of, a bit of humor, too it, and I think the main reason for that is cause it's so bloody cold in Canada.

邁克：我想，美國人和加拿大人其中一個需要指出的不同點是，除了我們對冰球的喜愛，從某種程度上來說應該是不同的幽默感。我認為總體來說，我不認為他們的幽默感很獨特，不過加拿大人以更幽默的方式來看待事物，我想主要原因是加拿大太冷了。

Todd: Fair enough. Thanks Mike.

托德：有道理。謝謝你，邁克。