生活、爱情与学习日语（对话篇）

欢迎收听《轻松英语故事》，这个播客将帮助你的英语从一般提升到良好，从良好提升到优秀。

Welcome to easy stories in English, the podcast that will take your English from okay to good and from good to great.

我是你们的主持人阿里尔·古德贝迪。

I am Ariel Goodbody, your host for this show.

今天的这一集有点像一次实验，有点像我随意发挥，有点像天啊，我们来试试新东西吧。

Today's episode is a bit of an experiment, a bit of me messing around, a bit of, god, let's just try something new.

在很长很长一段时间以来，也许甚至是这个主播客有史以来第一次，我决定即兴发挥。

For the first time in a very, very long time, perhaps for the first time ever on the main podcast, I've decided to wing it.

即兴发挥就是即兴创作。

When you wing it, you just improvise.

你打开摄像头，打开麦克风，然后看看会发生什么。

You turn on the camera, turn on the microphone, and see what happens.

这正是我今天要做的。

And that's exactly what I'm doing today.

我决定要做一集对话式的节目，因为我已经很久没有做过这样的节目了。

I decided I should do a conversational episode because I haven't done one of those in a while.

我一位忠实且忠诚的听众，一位长期喜爱学习的学员甚至给我发了邮件，说：‘Ariel，你什么时候做一期你的对话式节目呢？’

One of my faith faithful and loyal listeners, one of my long time lovely learners even reached out to me by email and said, Ariel, when are you going to do one of your conversational episodes?

我非常爱他们。

I love them so much.

所以我想，好吧，那就来吧。

So I thought, okay then.

我们来试试吧。

Let's just try it.

我决定做一次实验，因为我最近学了很多语言。

I decided to experiment also because I've been, you know, learning a lot of language.

这听起来不太好。

That doesn't sound very good.

我一直在学习。

I've been studying.

这样说让我显得更聪明了。

That makes me sound more clever.

最近我一直在学习很多语言。

I've been studying a lot of language recently.

不。

No.

具体来说，我最近一直在学日语。

Specifically, I've been studying Japanese recently.

事实上，我们说话时，我面前就放着一本日语教材。

In fact, I have a Japanese textbook in front of me as we speak.

如果你在YouTube上观看，你可以看到我拿着它。

If you're watching on YouTube, you can see me holding it.

如果你不是在YouTube上观看，那这本书听起来就是这样的。

And if you're not watching on YouTube, that's what the book sounds like.

听到了吗？

Hear that?

那就是日语的声音，或者用英语说，是日语的声音。

That's the sound of or Japanese as we say in English.

是的，我最近一直在学习很多日语，因为我正在准备一场日语考试。

Yes I've been studying a lot of Japanese because I'm doing a Japanese exam.

事实上，我将在七月参加日语能力测试的最高级别。

In fact, I'm doing the highest level of the Japanese language proficiency test in July.

我为什么要在七月参加日语能力测试的最高级别呢？

Why am I doing the highest level of the Japanese language proficiency test in July?

嗯，部分原因是想说：嘿，我日语真的很棒。

Well, partly to say, hey, I'm really good at Japanese.

我拿到了这个考试的最高级别。

I've got the highest level of this exam.

但还有一个秘密原因，我现在还不能告诉你。

But also for a secret reason, which I can't tell you yet.

但请放心，我学日语是有充分理由的，而且我觉得我越不说明原因却越频繁提起，就越让人烦，你可能心里在想：快告诉我们吧，快告诉我们你为什么这么拼命学日语。

But rest assured, I'm studying japanese for a good reason and I feel like the more I talk about it without saying what the reason is the more annoying it is like you're probably thinking just tell us just tell us the reason you're studying so much Japanese.

哦。

Oh.

我听起来像个木偶。

I sound like a a Muppet.

像个卡通角色。

Sound like a cartoon character.

但事实上，我觉得谈论这个真的很危险，天啊。

But the truth is, I think it's really dangerous to talk oh, god.

抱歉。

Sorry.

我正举起手臂，而这件毛衣的腋下有洞，所以请别评判我。

I'm putting my arms up, and I have holes in the armpits of this jumper, so please don't judge me.

其实，我在撒谎。

Actually, I lie.

你想怎么评判我都行。

You can judge me all you want.

看看这个洞。

Look at this hole.

你看，我这件毛衣上还有其他洞。

Look, I've got other holes in this jumper.

但你知道吗？

But you know what?

有些人会说，我穿有洞的衣服是因为我吝啬。

Some would say I wear clothes with holes in them because I'm cheap.

我会说，我只是个环保的朋友。

I would say that I'm just a friend of the environment.

我关心环保。

I care about being environmentally friendly.

既然这件满是洞的毛衣还好好的，干嘛还要买新的？

Why buy a new jumper when this perfectly good one full of holes exists already?

没关系。

It's fine.

它完全没问题。

It's perfectly good.

别那样看着我。

Stop looking at me like that.

Anyway，我刚才说到哪儿了？

Anyway, where was I?

啊，对了。

Ah, yes.

我为什么要学日语？

Why am I studying Japanese?

我不会告诉你们原因的。

And I won't tell you the reason.

这是因为生活中，我们有时会有这些宏大的计划、远大的目标和项目。

That's because sometimes in life, we have these really big plans, these really big goals, projects.

很多人想写一部小说，或者去某个特定的地方旅行，也许是遥远的地方。

A lot of people want to write a novel or go travel somewhere very specific, maybe somewhere far away.

也许人们想学习一项相当困难的技能。

Maybe people want to learn a skill that's quite difficult to do.

很多时候，我们会告诉别人这件事。

And a lot of the time we tell people about it.

我们会说：我真的很想做这件事，我一定会做，但后来却从未行动。

We say I really want to do this, I'm going to do this and then we never do it.

我们从未行动。

We never do it.

我们把所有积压的、沸腾的能量、渴望和动力，全都浪费在告诉别人我们打算做什么上，而不是真正去做。‘哦，我真的很期待写我的小说。’

We take all that pent up that bubbling energy that desire that motivation to do the thing and we don't do the thing we waste that energy telling people about how much we're going to do the thing Oh, I'm really excited for for my novel.

哦，我真的很期待写这部小说。

Oh, I'm really excited to write this novel.

我一定会写这部小说。

I'm going to write this novel.

我每天都在想这部小说。

Oh, I'm thinking about this novel every day.

但你只是在想、在说，你真的在做吗？

But you're thinking about it, and you're talking about it, but are you doing it?

你在写这部小说吗？

Are you writing the novel?

没有。

No.

所以，在我完成之前，我不会告诉你我打算做什么，因为我曾想过，比如说，做一个应用程序。

So I'm not going to tell you what the thing is that I'm planning on doing until I've done it, because I thought about, let's just say it's an application.

过去两年里，我一直想着要做这个应用程序，但我一直没有做。

I thought about making this application the past two years, and I didn't.

所以今年，真的是成败在此一举。

So this year, it really is sink or swim.

我要么做成它，游起来；要么做不成，沉下去。

Either I will do it and swim, or I will fail to do it, and I will sink.

是吗？

Yeah?

成败在此一举。

Sink or swim.

你要么做，要么走。

You do it or you get out.

我们还有一句话，虽然有点粗鲁，但你知道吗？

We are the other thing we say is this is a bit rude, but you know what?

如果你是孩子，就别听了。

If you're a child, stop listening.

如果你是和孩子一起听的家长，首先非常感谢你把简单的英语故事传递给下一代。

If you're a parent listening with your child, first of all, thank you so much for passing on easy stories in English to the next generation.

但同时，现在请关掉孩子的耳朵。

But, also, turn off your child's ears now.

孩子不是机器。

Children aren't machines.

把孩子推开，或者暂停一下。

Push the child away or maybe pause.

不。

No.

别停。

Don't pause.

把孩子赶走，继续听。

Get rid of the child and keep listening.

现在所有孩子都走了吗？所有孩子都走了吗？

Now that all the children are gone are all the children are gone?

起来。

Up.

所有孩子都走了吗？

Are all the children gone?

这是正确的英语。

That's correct English.

现在所有孩子都走了，我可以告诉你这个有点粗鲁的英语表达，那就是：要么拉出来，要么从马桶上滚开。

Now that all the children are gone, I can tell you this slightly rude phrase in English, and that phrase is shit or get off the toilet.

要么拉出来，要么从马桶上滚开。

Shit or get off the toilet.

这意味着你要么做这件事，做那个困难的事——在这个情况下，困难的事大概是上厕所，要么就从马桶上起来，让别人用。

That means you either do the thing, you do the difficult thing, I guess the difficult thing in this case is shitting, or you get off the toilet so someone else can use the toilet.

明白吗？

Okay?

所以今年对我来说将是背水一战。

So this year for me is really going to be sink or swim.

我会成功申请到那个神秘的项目吗？我不会告诉你是什么，但它和日本有关。

Will I make this mysterious application that I won't tell you about, but it has something to do with Japan?

这已经是个很大的线索了。

That's a big clue.

我会沉下去，还是会游起来？

Will I sink or swim?

我会拉出来，还是会从马桶上起来？

Will I shit, or will I get off the toilet?

我觉得我现在堆砌的隐喻太多了，整个人都被埋在一座隐喻的金字塔下面。

I feel like I have piled together too many metaphors at this point, and I'm buried in a pyramid of metaphors.

哦，金字塔，有点埃及风格。

Oh, pyramid, bit of an Egyptian vibe.

就像那样。

Like that.

好吧。

Okay.

我怎么突然说起学日语了？

Why was I talking about learning Japanese?

我原本为这个播客的另一个计划就是不加规划，我想了想，嘿，我挺能聊的，擅长瞎扯，就是这么回事。

That was the other plan I had for this podcast is to be unplanned I decided you know what I'm a good chatter I'm good at yapping I'm good at talking chatting shit, there we go.

希望孩子们还没回到房间，不然我又说了那个词。

Hopefully the children haven't come back into the room because I said that word again.

‘瞎扯’就是不停地说，没完没了地聊任何话题。

Chatting shit means just yapping, just talking endlessly about anything.

我擅长这个，而且我觉得你们所有人可能都会喜欢这种风格。

And I'm good at that And I have a feeling maybe it's something all of you would appreciate.

我最近也在想，哦，来了。

I've also been thinking about, oh, here we go.

这就是我为什么提到学日语的原因。

This is why I talked about studying Japanese.

我每天在通勤火车上听播客、看书来学习日语。

I've been studying Japanese by listening to podcasts every day on the train, going to work and reading books.

因此，作为语言学习者，我开始思考：我想要什么样的语言学习播客？

So I've become more aware of, as a language learner myself, what do I want in a language learning podcast?

我注意到我喜欢听那些人一直在聊天的节目，有时候我的大脑会走神几分钟，但之后我还能随时回来继续听。

And I've noticed that I like listening to these shows where people are talking and talking and talking, and sometimes my brain zones out for a few minutes, but I can just come back and keep listening.

也许这意味着我的注意力变差了。

Maybe that means my attention span has got worse.

也许这意味着我现在不太擅长集中注意力了。

Maybe that means I'm not so good at paying attention now.

或者也许只是因为我喜欢闲聊。

Or maybe it means I just like yapping.

我喜欢听人们闲聊胡扯。

I like people chatting shit.

我不知道。

I don't know.

但我想到，这并不是我在我自己的播客里真正会做的事。

But I thought, that's not something I really do on my podcast.

我会做对话类的节目，但我通常会提前规划，列出一些要点，比如我要聊些什么。

I do conversational episodes, but I tend to plan them and have, like, bullet points of, like, this is what I'm going to talk about.

我在视频里正做着一点要点的舞蹈动作。

I'm doing a little bullet point dance on the video.

明白吗？

Okay?

在我的对话类节目中，我通常讲得很有条理。

I tend to talk in quite a structured way on my conversational episodes.

我知道这可能看不出来，但通常我录制时，面前都会放着一堆要点。

I know it may not seem that, but normally when I record, I have a bunch of bullet points in front of me.

但今天，我决定，你知道吗？

But today, I decided, you know what?

我就要完全不按套路来。

I'm just gonna go completely unstructured.

我就直接开始录制，看看会发生什么，因为这对你们所有人，也对我自己，可能会很有趣。

I'm just going to hit record and see what happens, because that could be quite interesting for all of you and also for me.

那就开始吧。

So there we go.

我一直在学习日语，这激发了我想在这档节目里尝试一些新的东西。

I've been studying Japanese, and it's helped inspire me to try something different on this show.

说真的，我也只是因为想做点新东西而受到启发，你知道的，我去年年底开始在伦敦的一家语言学校教书，哦，这有点绕口——在伦敦的一家语言学校教书，去年年底。

To be fair, I've also been inspired by just the desire to do something new you know I started a new job I started teaching at a started teaching at a language school in London late last year oh that's a bit of a tongue twister A language school in London late last year.

从那以后，我的时间就变少了。

And so I've had less time since then.

所以我用来策略性地思考播客、撰写长篇故事、深入心理层面进行创作的时间也变少了。

So I've had less time to kind of think strategically about the podcast, to write longer stories, to really get into, like, a deep psychological place when I'm writing.

于是我想到，好吧，让我们找另一种方式让播客有所创新。

And so I thought, okay, well, let's find another way to do something different with the podcast.

我认为，对于创意人士来说，时不时地尝试些不同的东西、尝试新事物也是非常好的。

I think it's also great for creative people to just do things differently every now and then, try new things.

为什么不呢？

Why the hell not?

说到我过去几个月做事方式的改变，自从搬到伦敦后，我觉得自己确实变成了一个爱消费的小市民。

On the note of me doing things differently in the past few months, Since I moved to London, I feel like I've definitely become a dirty little consumer.

我之前开玩笑说我的毛衣有洞，但总体来说，搬到伦敦后，我买的东西确实多了很多。

I know I was joking earlier about the holes in my jumper, but generally since moving to London, I've been buying a lot more things.

我一直在考虑多买点东西、购物、度假之类的。

I've been thinking about buying more and shopping and holidays and all that stuff.

而生活在一座到处都是广告的大都市里，广告无处不在，在世界上最繁忙的购物街之一的办公楼里工作，或许并不令人意外。

And it's perhaps unsurprising that living in a massive metropolis plastered with adverts, with adverts absolutely everywhere, working in a building that's on one of the busiest shopping streets in the world, possibly.

我在牛津街工作，那是一条非常繁忙的购物街。

I work on Oxford Street, which is a very busy shopping street.

在这样的环境下，一个人变得更有消费主义倾向，更像个肮脏的小资本家，这并不奇怪。

It's unsurprising that in those circumstances, one would become a bit more consumerist, a bit more of a dirty little capitalist.

我们也可以这样表达。

That's another way we can say it.

但确实有一部分我对此感到不安。

But there's definitely a part of me that feels uncomfortable with that.

我想我很幸运，因为我非常内省。

I suppose I'm quite lucky in that I'm very introspective.

我对自己有很强的洞察力。

I have a lot of perspective about myself.

所以即使在我经历变化、甚至当我正在发生很大改变的时候，我都能清楚地意识到自己正在变化。

So even when I'm going through a per even when I'm changing a lot, when I'm going through a process of change, I'm pretty aware that I'm changing.

而我猜很多人是在不知不觉中发生变化的。

Whereas I guess a lot of people change without realizing it.

这些就是我平时花时间思考的东西。

This is the kind of stuff I spend my time thinking about.

我知道这听起来很哲学，但你知道吗？

I know it sounds very philosophical, but you know what?

这是我的播客，我想谈哲学就谈哲学，管他呢。

It's my podcast, and I'll talk about philosophy if I damn well please.

哦，该死。

Oh, damn.

这算是个粗话。

That's sort of a rude word.

说‘该死’的时候，孩子可以在房间一半的地方。

The children can be half in the room for damn.

比如，你打开门，他们一只脚在房间里，另一只脚在外面，然后你说‘该死’。

Like, maybe you open the door and they kind of put one leg in the room and have one leg out of the room, and then you say damn.

‘该死’其实不算太糟。

Damn isn't too bad.

虽然一些非常虔诚的美国人会不同意，他们会说‘ darn ’，因为‘darn’比‘damn’没那么粗鲁。

Although some very Christian Americans would disagree, they would say darn instead, because darn is less rude than damn.

说到那些不算太粗鲁的粗话，你可以让你的孩子只进一半房间来听这个词。

Speaking of sort of rude words that aren't that rude, you can have your children halfway into the room for this one.

也许只有25%的身体在房间里，比如他们只有一只手臂伸进房间，而身体的其他部分还在外面。

Maybe 25% into the room, like, maybe they have just an arm sticking into the room, but the rest of their body is outside of the room.

今天我教给学生的一个词是‘bastard’。

A word I taught my students today is bastard.

Bastard，拼写是 b-a-s-t-a-r-d。

Bastard, b a s t a r d.

传统上，‘bastard’指的是非婚生的孩子，也就是在婚姻之外出生的孩子。

Now, traditionally, bastard refers to a child who is born out of wedlock, meaning a child who is born outside of marriage.

这可能是两人结婚前发生的，或者通常是已婚男子与其他女性发生关系，对方生下孩子，这个孩子就是私生子。

This can either be before two people get married or when usually it's the man from a married couple goes and sleeps with another woman, and then she gives birth to the child, and that child is a bastard.

在过去，这在历史上大部分时间里都是非常重要的事情，因为对于国王、王子、领主等所有人来说，拥有一个合法继承人至关重要。

And this was a very important thing back in the olden days, you know, throughout most of history, because for kings and princes and lords and all of those people, it was very important to have a legitimate heir.

继承人，拼写是 h-e-i-r。

Heir, h e I r.

你的继承人是那个继承你的钱、你的王国或其他东西的人。

Your heir is the person who inherits your money, your kingdom, whatever.

所以很明显，如果一个国王只有私生子，他们可以成为继承人，但他们通常不是合法继承人。

So obviously, if a king only has bastards, well they can be the heir, but they're usually not the legitimate heir.

合法继承人通常是通过婚姻产生的。

The legitimate heir usually comes through marriage.

但如今，我们只是用‘私生子’来形容一个令人讨厌的人，一个我们不喜欢的人。

But nowadays we just use bastard to mean an annoying person, someone we don't like.

这是一个非常棒的词来使用。

And it's just a great word to use.

我不知道。

I don't know.

我觉得说‘私生子’这个词非常过瘾。

I find it very satisfying to say bastard.

说到私生子，我目前正在读。

Speaking of bastards, I'm currently reading.

我为什么一边读一边大喊？

Why am I shouting from I'm currently reading.

我不会隔着房间大喊着做播客。

I won't do the podcast shouting across the room.

这样不太专业吧，阿里尔？

That's not very professional now, is it, Ariel?

不会。

No.

我正在读这本书，当然，如果你在听，你就看不到。

I'm reading this book, which, obviously, if you're listening, you can't.

我总是做一些只为了视频观众的事情，但他们只是极少数，所以让我告诉你，我现在把书举到镜头前，同时我也会告诉你这本书的名字，书名是希拉里·曼特尔的《镜与光》，希拉里·曼特尔因为不幸已故，曾是英国最著名的作家之一。

I keep doing things just for the video viewers but they are very much in the minority so let me, I'll tell you that I'm holding the book up to the camera but I'll also tell you the name of the book, the name of the book is the mirror and the light by Hilary Mantel Now Hilary Mantel was because unfortunately she's passed away Hilary Mantel was one of the most well known British authors.

她写历史小说，写过一本非常著名的书叫《狼厅》，而这本《镜与光》是该系列的第三部，整个系列包括《狼厅》《提堂》和《镜与光》。

She wrote historical fiction, so she wrote a very famous book called Wolf Hall and this book the mirror and the light is the third book in that series so there's Wolf Hall bring up the bodies and the mirror and the light.

这些书都围绕着托马斯·克伦威尔展开，他是国王亨利八世的顾问。

And these books are all about Thomas Cromwell, who was the adviser to king Henry the eighth.

亨利八世可能是英国历史上最臭名昭著的国王。

King Henry the eighth was probably the most infamous king in British history.

他生活在十五世纪左右，共有六位妻子，不是同时拥有，而是一个接一个。

He was alive around the fifteen hundreds, and he had six wives, not at the same time, but one after the other.

我们在学校时学过一首押韵诗来记住每位妻子的命运：离婚、斩首、死亡、离婚、斩首、幸存。

When we're at school we learn a rhyme to remember the fate of each wife, we say divorced beheaded died divorced beheaded survived.

所以‘离婚’意味着婚姻结束，‘斩首’意味着这位妻子被砍了头，她的头被移除，而很显然，没有头是很难活下来的，因此这些妻子都死了。

So divorced means their marriage ended, beheaded means that wife had her head cut off, she was beheaded, she had her head removed, and unfortunately it's quite hard to survive without your head, so those wives died.

而最后一位妻子活过了亨利。

And then the last wife survived Henry.

她比他活得更久。

She lived longer than he did.

他先于她去世。

He died before her.

第三位妻子在分娩后不久便去世了。

And the third wife who died, died shortly after giving birth.

所以，用来记住亨利八世六位妻子命运的押韵口诀是：离婚、斩首、死亡、离婚、斩首、幸存。

So again the rhyme to remember Henry the eighth's six wives is divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived.

还有一部叫《六位妻子》的音乐剧，讲述的是亨利八世的六位妻子，我觉得其中一首歌开场时，所有妻子都穿着像女明星一样的华丽闪亮服装，唱着：离婚、斩首、死亡、离婚、斩首、幸存，我觉得特别有趣。

There's even a musical called Six which is about king henry the eighth's wives, and I think one of the songs opens with all of the wives, and they're all like dressed like divas, they're wearing these like fun sparkly outfits, and they're like, divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived, which I find very funny.

我对这部音乐剧一无所知，但我还挺想去看一看。

I know nothing else about the musical, but I kind of want to go see it.

总之，这是英国历史上非常有趣的时期。

Anyway, very interesting period in British history.

精彩的好书。

Wonderful books.

非常有趣的书。

Very interesting books.

非常厚重的书。

Very big books.

这本书有八百多页。

This book is like eight hundred eight hundred and something pages.

这是一本很长的书。

It's a long book.

我从圣诞节得到这本书以来就一直在读。

I've been reading this book since I got it for Christmas.

但我提到这本书的原因是因为私生子，这是故事中一个非常重要的元素。

But the reason I mentioned this book is because of bastards, which are a very important feature of the story.

他们确实是亨利八世国王非常关注的问题。

They're certainly they were certainly something that preoccupied king Henry the eighth a lot.

他对此非常担忧。

They were something he worried about a lot.

因为亨利八世国王拥有这么多妻子的部分原因，是他一直努力想要一个男性继承人，一个儿子。

Because part of the reason king Henry the eighth had so many wives was he was struggling to get a male heir, a male son.

一个儿子？

A male son?

所有的儿子都是男性。

All sons are male.

他努力想要一个能继承王位和王国的儿子。

He was struggling to get a son who could inherit his throne, his kingdom.

有一段时间，他曾考虑让私生子继承王位，但后来他的私生子因病去世了。

And at one point, he was considering making his bastard the heir, but then his bastard died of an illness.

天啊。

Oh my god.

在中世纪的那些年代，很多人都是因病去世的。

So many people were dying of illness in these times in the middle ages.

难以置信。

Unbelievable.

当时的女性就像火柴一样，非常脆弱。

The women were like matchsticks, just so easy to break.

另外，如果你注意到了，今天这集的语言难度稍微高了一些，我试着少一些过滤。

Also, if you notice the language level in today's episode is a bit harder, I'm trying to talk a bit less filtered.

通常我教学时，以及在播客里说话时，都会非常谨慎地选词，语速也很慢，这当然有它的适用场合。

Normally, I teach and when I talk on the podcast, I really carefully choose my words and speak very slowly, and there's definitely a time and place for that.

但我意识到，当我听播客学习日语时，中级或中高级学习者与母语者内容之间存在一个缺口——这时候，仍然需要有人来解释文化概念和难词，但又不会过度控制自己的表达方式，而是以更自然的方式说话。大多数老师的问题在于，他们很难为初级学习者简化语言；而我现在面对一些高级学习者时，却遇到了相反的问题：我必须刻意提高我的语言水平，以持续挑战他们，提升他们的英语能力，并教给他们大量生动实用的词汇。

But I realized when I was listening to podcasts to learn Japanese, that there is this gap between intermediates or upper intermediates and native speaker content, where it's still useful to have someone who explains cultural concepts and difficult words but who doesn't control how they speak too much right they speak in a more natural way so most teachers have the problem that they find it hard to simplify their speech for most learners, for lower level learners, and I now kind of have the opposite problem with some of my upper level learners where I have to, like, deliberately raise the level of my language so that I'm continuing to challenge them and to improve their English and to teach them lots of delicious and useful little words.

另外，不好意思。

Also, sorry.

我旁边有个暖气片，房间太冷了，我干脆把手伸进暖气片里取暖。

There's a radiator down here next to me, and my room is so cold that I kind of just shove my hand into the little radiator.

所以如果你听到一些噪音，那大概是我正在‘骚扰’我的暖气片。

So if you hear some noises, it's probably me molesting my radiator.

骚扰。

Molest.

这个词本身并不算脏话，但根据语境，你可能希望孩子离得远一点，免得听到。

Now there's a word that's not technically dirty, but you might want your child halfway out of the room for that one, depending on the context.

不过这次我只是在‘骚扰’暖气片，应该没什么问题。

In this case, I'm only molesting a radiator, so it's probably okay.

总之，说实话，我也不确定自己有多少生活更新可以分享，因为我最近就一直在练瑜伽。

Anyway, I don't know if I have that much updates to give about my life, to be honest, because I've just been doing my yoga.

实际上，我撒谎了，我确实有个关于我生活的更新，而且是很私人的事情，所以我在想，我该不该说这个？

Actually, I lie, I do have an update about my life, and it's something quite personal, so I'm like, do I talk about this?

但我还是决定说了，因为为什么不呢？

But I think I will, because why the hell not?

我最近约会了很多次。

I I've been dating a lot recently.

约会、浪漫、爱情。

Dating, romance, love.

传统上，我一直是个非常浪漫的人。

Traditionally, I've been a very romantic person.

我曾经深深地爱过一个人。

I've fallen head over heels in love.

当你深深坠入爱河时，就像你整个人都要翻倒了。

When you fall head over heels in love, it's like you're toppling over.

你整个人转了180度。

You're turning over a 180 degrees.

你的头都快倒到脚后跟了。

Your head is going over your heels.

明白吗？

Okay?

你完全陷进去了。

You're falling completely.

传统上，我经常一见钟情。

And, traditionally, I have often fallen head over heels in love.

我很容易而且很深地爱上别人，然后当我们分手时，我会非常情绪化。

I've fallen for people very quickly and very deeply, and then when we break up, I get very emotional.

但最近，我一直在尝试我所谓的慢节奏约会，我觉得大多数人只会称之为约会。

But recently, I've been experimenting with what I like to call slow dating, which I think most people would just call dating.

我和一个人已经约会了六次，但我们还不是正式的情侣。

I've been on six dates with someone, and we're still not an official item.

我们还不是正式的伴侣，这还挺有意思的。

We're still not an official couple, and that's kind of interesting.

这对我来说是新的。

That's new for me.

现在我对这种暧昧关系非常警惕。

Now I'm very wary of this situationship thing.

你可能听说过这种说法。

You've maybe heard of this.

这种想法是，人们有时会约会六个月到一年，却从不明确彼此是伴侣，然后突然关系就结束了，因为其中一方会说：‘我们根本不是情侣。’

This idea that, you know, people sometimes now date for like six months to a year without saying they are partners, and then suddenly their relationship ends, because one of the people says, well we weren't in a relationship.

这被称为暧昧关系，而我不想要这种关系。

That's called a situationship, and I don't want to be in a situationship.

但同时，慢慢来、顺其自然也挺好。

But also it's, it's nice to take things slowly and just see where they go.

我觉得过去我总是觉得：我必须定义这段关系，这需要一个标签，我得把它放进一个盒子里，必须认真审视我的所有情绪和关系，给它们分类，甚至对很小的问题也要解决。

And I don't know, I think in the past I was always like, I need to define this, this needs a label, I need to put this in a box, I need to examine all my emotions and all my relationships very seriously and categorize them and solve any problems even if they're very small.

而现在的我放松多了。

Whereas now I'm much more relaxed.

我只是觉得，我喜欢这个人，喜欢和他们在一起，顺其自然吧。

I'm just like, I like this person, I like spending time with them, let's see where it goes.

我觉得这确实是伦敦如何改变我的另一个例子。

I think this is genuinely another example of how London has changed me.

这有点奇怪。

It's a bit weird.

你可能会觉得，生活在一个充满人口的大城市里，每天都要乘坐嘈杂的地铁通勤，会让我更焦虑，但事实上，它让我更放松了。

You'd think living in a massive city full of people where I have to commute on a noisy train every day would make me more anxious, but actually, it makes me less anxious.

我觉得自己就像在生命的长河中，和许多其他鱼儿一起游动。

I think because I'm, like, swimming through the river of life with lots of other fishes.

这真是个奇怪的比喻。

That's a weird metaphor.

但伦敦也有很多令人压力重重的事情。

But there's a lot of stressful stuff in London as well.

比如今天，我下扶梯准备乘坐地铁时，有人推了我一下，而且推得挺用力的。

Like today, as I was going down the escalator to get on the tube, the underground, someone pushed me, and they pushed me quite hard.

他们把我推到了一边。

They pushed me to the side.

他们就像，砰。

They were like, bam.

我不喜欢那样。

And I didn't like that.

然后我上了地铁，遇到一个特别臭的人，臭得厉害，有人上车后又下车，换到别的车厢。

And then when I got on the tube, there was a really smelly guy, like, he stank so bad that people were getting off, people were getting on that train, and then getting off and going to a different carriage.

这些只是些例子。

Those are just some examples.

实际上，那还不是最让人压力大的事。

Actually, that's not even the most stressful thing.

前几天，我和学生们在上课时，听到学校前面传来一阵巨大的噪音，像是喇叭声，但又不是汽车的喇叭。

The other day, I was in class with my students, and then we heard this really loud noise coming from the front of the school, like these horns being honked, like, kind of like cars, but not like cars.

我们去了另一间教室，往外面看是什么情况，结果看到一群拖拉机在城里行驶。

We went into the other crop so we went into the other classroom to look out and see what it was, and we saw a bunch of tractors driving through the city.

所以我去查了一下。

So I looked it up.

所以发生了一次拖拉机抗议。

So there was this tractor protest.

这实际上在法国也发生过，也许其他一些国家也有。

This is actually something that's happened in France as well, and maybe some other countries.

我想加拿大发生过卡车抗议。

I think there was a truck protest in Canada.

拖拉机抗议就是所有农民开着拖拉机进入大城市，堵住所有道路。

So tractor protest is when all the farmers drive into the big cities with their tractors and block all the roads.

而拖拉机抗议发生的原因是，如果你不知道的话，拖拉机是一种大型车辆，有着巨大的轮子，农民用它来耕作田地。

And the reason the tractor process happened, sorry, protest happened, if you don't know, a tractor is like a big, big car with massive wheels that farmers use to work the fields.

拖拉机抗议的发生是因为政府宣布将开始对农民征税。

The tractor protest was happening because the government announced that it would start taxing farmers.

所以我们有遗产税，遗产税又来了——遗产税是在遗产传承时征收的税，而传统上农民是免征遗产税的。

So we have inheritance tax, inheritance there it comes again inheritance tax is tax that is taken when money is passed down through inheritance and traditionally farmers were exempt from inheritance tax.

他们之前不需要缴纳遗产税。

They didn't have to pay inheritance tax.

但现在，资产或土地价值超过100万英镑的农民将需要缴纳20%的遗产税。

But now farmers whose assets, whose land is valued at more than £1,000,000 will have to pay 20% inheritance tax.

100万英镑是一笔巨款，但另一方面，农场价格昂贵，通常规模庞大，而且往往是家族企业，因此真正达到这一门槛、资产超过100万英镑的农民大约占四分之一，这些农民将需要缴纳20%的遗产税。

Now that's a lot of money 1,000,000 but on the other hand farms are expensive and they often are very large and they're often family businesses so the amount of farmers who will actually hit that threshold, who have assets worth more than £1,000,000, is about a quarter of them, and those farmers will have to pay 20% inheritance tax.

然而，奈杰尔·法拉奇——一个极其糟糕的人——他正是大力推动英国脱欧、并基本带领我们走向脱欧的政治人物，煽动了农民们的愤怒。

However, Nigel Farage, who is an awful, awful man, who is the politician who really pushed for Brexit and basically led us into Brexit, whipped them up into a fury.

他告诉这些农民要极度愤怒，我想正是他激发了这场抗议遗产税的拖拉机示威。

He he, you know, told all these farmers to get really angry and, I guess inspired this tractor protest to protest the inheritance tax.

不过，我其实并不想，你知道吗？

Now I don't want to actually, you know what?

我本来想说，我不想在这档播客里过多谈论政治，但为什么不去谈呢？

I was about to say, I don't want to get too much into politics on this podcast, but why the hell not?

为什么不能谈谈英国政治呢？

Why not talk about British politics?

因此，英国政府负债严重。

So the British government is in severe debt.

我们的财政状况并不好，而且已经糟糕很久了。

Like, our money situation is not good, and it's been bad for a long time.

保守党政府、英国脱欧和新冠疫情共同让情况变得更糟。

And like the conservative government, Brexit and COVID all together have just made it so much worse.

所以，政府不得不做出许多艰难的决定来弥补资金缺口。

So yeah, the government's having to do a lot of difficult, they're going they're having to make a lot of difficult decisions to make up the money.

所以我认为，从纸面上看，向这些农民征收遗产税是个好主意，尤其是因为这只影响那些收入很高或资产丰厚的农民。

So I think on paper, yeah, it is a good idea to charge inheritance tax to these farmers, especially since it's only affecting the ones who make a lot of money or who have a lot of assets.

但另一方面，英国的食物安全状况并不理想。

But on the other hand, The United Kingdom does not have particularly good food security.

我们进口了所消费食物的42%，所以我们需要保护我们的粮食供应。

We import 42% of all the food we eat, So we do need to protect our food supply.

我们必须确保人们能够在英国可持续地从事农业。

We do need to make sure that people can actually farm sustainably in The UK.

我知道农场通常是家族企业，但我对农业了解不多，无法真正判断这是否是个好主意。

And I know that farms are usually family businesses, but I don't know enough about agriculture to really have an opinion on whether this is a good thing.

我的直觉是，这可能是那些并不穷、但还算富裕的人在抱怨，说他们也得像我们其他人一样缴税。

My instinct is that it's, if not rich people, fairly well off people complaining that they have to pay taxes like the rest of us.

但你也可以认为，这对我们的粮食安全不利，我想。

But you could also argue that it's bad for our food security, I suppose.

我觉得这不太可能，但嘿，如果你们当中有农民，或者任何正在听的听众是农民，请联系我。

I don't think it's very likely, but hey, if any of you are farmers, if any one of you listening are farmers, reach out.

告诉我你们的看法。

Let me know your opinion.

我非常想知道。

I'd be very interested to know.

最近我还做了些什么？

What else have I been up to recently?

我去了一趟皇家艺术学院。

I went to the Royal Academy of Arts.

皇家艺术学院是伦敦历史悠久、规模庞大的艺术或美术机构之一。

The Royal Academy of Arts is one of the big and very old institutes of arts, or fine arts, in London.

他们有一所学校，教授雕塑、绘画等各种艺术形式，并经常举办不同艺术家的展览。

So they have a school where they train artists in sculpture and painting and all of those kinds of things, and they frequently have exhibitions of different artists.

他们展出很多古典作品，比如米开朗基罗和梵高的作品，但这次展览的主题是二十世纪的巴西现代主义。

They do a lot of classical stuff like Michelangelo, Van Gogh, but this exhibition was about Brazilian modernism in the twentieth century.

这还挺有意思的。

And it was pretty interesting.

是的。

Yeah.

我想我对巴西现代主义没什么好说的。

I guess I don't have that much to say about Brazilian modernism.

你知道，除非你对艺术界非常感兴趣，否则我觉得美术和视觉艺术在播客里很难讨论。

You know, unless you're really into the art world, I feel like fine arts and visual art is something that's very difficult to talk about on a podcast.

或者至少，我并不太擅长在播客中谈论视觉艺术，除了说我喜欢其中一些画作。

Or at the very least, I'm not super well equipped to talk about the visual art on a podcast, other than saying I liked some of the pictures.

它们看起来不错。

They looked good.

我去看展览已经好几周了，所以我对看到的东西记不太清了。

It's also been weeks since I went, so I kind of don't really remember what I saw.

但我当时是在约会。

But I was on a date.

我是和别人约会时去的那里，感觉很不错。

I went there on a date, and it was nice.

很有趣。

It was fun.

我喜欢和别人讨论画作。

I love discussing pictures with people.

当我年轻时第一次去艺术画廊，我会想：天啊，我必须得有观点，必须深入思考，还得读每幅作品旁边的小说明，这过程让我觉得压力很大。

And when I used to go to art galleries when I was younger, when I originally went to art galleries, I was like, oh my god, I have to like have an opinion, I have to think deeply, I have to read the little descriptions of the artwork, and I found it quite a stressful process.

但现在我去艺术画廊，就只是想：喜欢，不喜欢，讨厌这个，这个挺有意思。

But now when I go to an art gallery, I'm like, like it, don't like it, hate this one, this one is interesting.

我只是随自己的直觉走。

And I just kind of go with my gut reaction.

我跟着第一感觉走，然后喜欢和别人讨论这些作品。

I go with my first thoughts, and then I like to discuss the pieces with people.

但如果我觉得某件作品没意思，我也不会强迫自己去寻找其中的深意。

But I don't force myself to try and find something interesting if I don't think it's interesting.

我也不花太多时间读说明，因为我觉得对于视觉艺术来说，这些说明常常是多余的，它们强加给你某种解读，或者根本就是胡说八道。

And I don't spend a lot of time reading the descriptions, because I find for visual art, the descriptions are often unnecessary, they force a certain interpretation on you, or they're really stupid.

它们就是太自我中心了，我正想着怎么委婉地说——比如，‘这件作品完美地 encapsulated 了移民经历在万花筒中的情感记忆’。

They're just really, really, like, I'm trying to think of a polite way to say this, They're really self indulgence, like, oh, this piece encapsulates the memory of a feeling that perfectly mirrors the immigrant experience within the kaleidoscope.

你就直接说这是张画就行了。

Just just say it's a picture.

这是一幅用颜料、蜡笔、粉彩或其他任何材料画出来的画。

It's a picture made with paint or crayons or pastels or whatever you want.

这并不是说艺术就不能有深度。

That's not to say that art can't have depth.

当然，艺术是有深度的。

Of course, art does have depth.

讨论和分析艺术确实有很多价值。

And there is a lot of merit in discussing art and analyzing art.

但一般来说，如果描述是由艺术家自己写的，那通常是因为视觉艺术家并不想写这些描述。

But generally, if the descriptions are written by the artist themselves, then they're, you know, visual artists don't want to write their descriptions, usually.

他们更愿意让作品自己说话。

You know, they they would rather just let the piece speak for itself.

如果由画廊来写描述，那就更糟了，因为他们试图展示自己有多聪明。

And then if the gallery writes the descriptions, then it's even worse because they're trying to kind of, like, show how clever they are.

或者说，写描述的那个人想展示自己有多聪明。

Or I guess the person who writes the description is trying to show how clever they are.

我觉得我一直在谈论一个我其实并不太了解的话题。

I feel like I'm talking a lot about a topic that I really don't know that much about.

但如果你是艺术策展人、独立艺术家或在画廊工作，请在评论区告诉我你的看法。

But if any of you listening are art curators, fine artists, or work in an art gallery, let me know your thoughts in the comments.