1 我在中國的生活(doc)
1. My Life in China LiXin: Michael, as our vice-Premier Li Lanqing wrote appreciatively, “ Comrade Crook in his history of more than 50 years in China, devoted his energy to China's revolution and construction, contributing outstandingly to training talents for our diplomatic, foreign trade and educational fronts.” We can see that your father was drawn to China by the Chinese revolution, while you stay in China as well. Could you talk about your experience and the things that attract you in China? Mr. Michael Crook: Yes. I think that I didn't come to China for the revolution. I was born here. I went through very many events in recent Chinese history. China has changed so much. I think it is really remarkable and it is a great privilege to have the opportunity to live through so many historical events. I prefer excitement and I think China is the place to come for excitement. For example, I first went to England when I was six or seven years old and after that I visited England again when I was twelve, fifteen, about twenties, thirties and forties. I felt that I could go back to the same neighbourhood where my grandma has been living for the last forty or fifty years. While I remember the road outside Beijing Foreign Studies University it was a dirt road. And the dirt road then became the paved road; then it became a wider road and now it is a two levels multi-lane highway. All these happened just in my lifetime but I'm not even old yet. Li:Your parents are educators, writers and old devoted friends of our country and our people. Mr. David Crook in particular, he spent a life of dedication. I couldn't help wondering: when you were a child, were they very strict with you? Michael: No, actually they weren't. I think that the Chinese notion of education is rather different from the western notion of education. In Chinese education, I could think of many sayings like “ Talented students are trained by strict teacher.” And folk wisdom of “ Beating means love, scolding means affection.” And so on. The idea is that pain and suffering are necessary to get good result. In English we have “ the carrot and the stick” . I think in Chinese tradition, a lot of stress was made on the stick. Well, I feel that the carrot is much more effective than the stick. Encouragement is better than scolding and criticism. 　　I think that my parents are both good educators. They don't use the stick. It was much more positive encouragement and more freedom. They would discuss things with us reasonably. They treat us more or less as equals. My father used to say that he didn't believe in the generation gap, such as, parents don't understand their children and children don't understand their parents. Why, if you don't communicate, if every time your children tell you something they truly believe and their innermost truthful thoughts, you immediately scold them, then of course they stop talking to you and won't tell you the truth. Li: Do you have kids? As their father, do you think that you'll let them choose where they are going to stay? Michael: Yes. I have three kids. They are all grown now. All three of my kids live in America by their own choice. I'm living in China by my choice. I chose to live here and they chose to live there. I can't decide for them. I would be very happy if one or more of them were to decide to come and live in China. I would enjoy having my children close by. All three of my children have talked about coming to China. It's a matter of when. Li: We do admire people fluent in two languages. As I was told you were brought up bilingually, right? Michael: Not actually. I didn't begin bilingually. I wasn't brought up bilingually from birth, for example in a mix-marriage. That was not the case in my family.When I was young, the home language was Chinese. So I learned Chinese before I learned English. Li: Do you have any good experience to share with the large number of language learners? Michael: Well, I think first of all, it's a wonderful thing to be bilingual. You are able to communicate directly with people from different cultures. I would offer some tips according to my own experience. First, I think that having two languages the best thing for me is just for use. Then I think learning a foreign language, practice should come before theory. I know people who get complicated books about foreign language and study the grammar and so on. I personally think that it's a waste of time certainly at the beginning. I would stress just talk, talk a lot. It doesn't matter if you make mistakes. 我在中國的生活 李昕：馬凱，正如我國副總理李嵐清贊賞地寫下的，“柯魯克同志在他待在中國的50多年 里，把全部精力投入到中國的革命和建設中，為我國的外交、外貿和教育戰(zhàn)線培養(yǎng)人才 做出了突出的貢獻。”我們知道你父親是受中國革命的吸引來到中國，但你也待在了這兒 。你能談談你的個人經歷和吸引你待在中國的事嗎? 柯馬凱先生：好的。我想，我并不是受革命吸引來中國的。我出生在這兒。我經歷了中 國近期歷史上許多事件。中國變化太大了。我認為這真是了不起，而能有機會經歷這么 多歷史事件是我莫大的榮幸。我喜愛激動，我認為中國正是感受激動的地方。比如說， 我在6、7歲時第一次去英國，后來又在12歲、15歲、20幾歲、30幾歲和40幾歲時重訪英 國。我覺得我總可以回到相同的街區(qū)，我祖母一直在那兒住了四五十年。我記著北京外 國語大學外面的路，原是條土路，后來鋪了路，再后來擴寬了，如今那已是雙層多車道 的公路了。所有這些就在我的有生之年發(fā)生了，而我現(xiàn)在還年輕著吶。 李：你的父母是教育家、作家，也是我們國家和人民忠誠的老朋友。尤其是大衛(wèi)·柯魯克 先生，他的一生是奉獻的一生。我不由地想：在你小時候，他們對你要求嚴厲嗎? 馬凱：不，他們并不嚴厲。我認為中國的教育觀念和西方的大不相同。中國的教育，有 許多老話，如“嚴師出高徒”，民間流傳的“打是疼，罵是愛”等等。認為痛苦和磨難是獲 得成功的必要條件。在英語里，我們有“胡蘿卜加大棒”的說法。我覺得中國傳統(tǒng)做法是 對“大棒”強調過多。而我感覺“胡蘿卜”可比“大棒”有效得多。鼓勵勝于責罵和批評。 　　我認為我父母都是好的教育家。他們不用“大棒”，而更多是正面的鼓勵和更多的自 由。他們會通情達理地跟我們討論事情。他們對待我們基本上是平等的。我父親過去常 說，他不相信代溝一說，如家長不理解他們的孩子，孩子也不理解家長。為什么，如果 你們不交流，如果每次你的孩子告訴你他心里的真實信念和心底深處的想法，你就立刻 責罵他們，那他們當然就不再和你談了，也就不會跟你說實話了。 李：你有孩子嗎?作為他們的父親，你會讓他們選擇待在哪國? 馬凱：有，我有三個孩子?，F(xiàn)在他們都長大了。他們三人都選擇了住在美國。我選擇住 在中國。我選擇住這兒，他們選擇住那兒。我不能替他們做決定。如果他們中有一兩個 或全都要決定回來住在中國，那我是很高興的。我很喜歡孩子住在近旁。他們三個人都 跟我談起過來中國的事，只是個時間早晚的問題。 李：我們很羨慕那些能流利地講兩門語言的人。據我所知，你是雙語培養(yǎng)成才的，是嗎 ? 馬凱：并不確切。我不是從一開始就學兩門語言的。我不像某些跨國婚姻中，孩子一出 生就用雙語培養(yǎng)。在我們家不是這樣。我小時候，在家里所用語言是漢語。我學漢語比 英語早。 李：你有什么好的經驗與眾多的語言學習者分享嗎? 馬凱：哦，我想，首先會雙語是一件很美好的事。你能夠直接跟來自不同文化的人交流 。根據我的經驗，我可以提供一些小建議。第一，我認為會兩門語言對我來說最好的事 就是使用它們。其次，我認為學習一門外語，實踐要先于理論。我認識一些人，他們手 頭有各種各樣的外語書，他們學文法等。我認為在開始階段那肯定是浪費時間。我要強 調的是，說，而且要多說。犯錯不要緊。
1 我在中國的生活(doc)