日本室友归来🚶‍♂️旅行故事与更多 [950]

逐一完成待办事项清单上的任务会带来极大的满足感。正因如此，State Farm保险代理会协助您选择适合的保险方案。无论您购置新房、汽车、游艇还是房车，保障它们的安全都至关重要。State Farm将通过面对面、电话或获奖应用程序等多种方式，帮您挑选所需保障。丰富的保险选项让您安心，因为我们能协助找到最契合您需求的方案，使您能持续专注于生活中最重要的事物。

Checking off the boxes on your to do list is a great feeling. That's why a State Farm agent is there to help you choose a coverage option that's right for you. Whether you're getting a new house, car, boat, or RV, helping protect it is important. And State Farm is there to help you choose the coverage you need, whether you prefer talking in person, on the phone, or using the award winning app. And with so many coverage options, it's nice knowing you have help finding coverage that best fits your needs so you can continue to focus on what's most important to you.

如同好邻居般，State Farm随时守候。

Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.

为何选择Sleep Number智能床？

Why choose a Sleep Number smart bed?

我能调软我这侧的床垫吗？

Can I make my site softer?

我能

Can I

调硬我这侧的床垫吗？

make my site firmer?

我们能睡得更凉爽吗？

Can we sleep cooler?

Sleep Number智能床实现这些需求：降温速度提升八倍，两侧可独立选择理想舒适度——这就是您的Sleep Number设定值。正值年度最大促销，所有床款最高五折，限量版智能床享免费高级配送（需搭配智能床及可调底座），活动截止劳动节。

Sleep Number does that. Cools up to eight times faster and lets you choose your ideal comfort on either side. Your Sleep Number setting. It's the Sleep Number biggest sale of the year. All beds on sale up to 50% off the limited edition smart bed plus free premium delivery with any smart bed and adjustable base ends Labor Day.

所有Sleep Number智能床均配备温控解决方案，助您获得优质睡眠。立即前往门店或访问sleepnumber.com体验。

All Sleep Number smart beds offer temperature solutions for your best sleep. Check it out at a Sleep Number store or sleepnumber.com today.

您正在收听Luke的英语播客。更多信息请访问teacherluke.co.uk。听众朋友们好，欢迎回到这档面向全球英语学习者的播客节目。本节目致力于为您提供有趣的听力素材，确保自然英语如涓涓细流般持续融入您的生活——就像住在河畔，不过这条河里流淌的不是清澈河水，而是鲜活生动的英语。它就这般自然而然地存在着。

You're listening to Luke's English podcast. For more information, visit teacherluke.co.uk. Hello, listeners, and welcome back to my podcast for learners of English around the world, a podcast in which I aim to give you interesting things to listen to in order to make sure you get a steady stream of natural English input into your life. A bit like living next to a river but a river which instead of having water in it, lovely fresh water has lovely fresh English in it. So it's just there.

你可以直接出去获取一些。虽然世界上并不缺乏英语资源，但能住在一条充满新鲜、活力、流淌着英语的可爱小溪旁还是很棒的。这就是订阅Luke英语播客的意义所在。总之，这一期是对话节目，你会听到我和一位曾同住的老朋友——我的前室友聊天。这段对话还提供了完整文本记录。

You can just go out and just get some. Not that there's a shortage of English available in the world, but still, it's nice to live next to a lovely, fresh, bubbling stream full of full of English. That's what it means to be a subscriber to Luke's English podcast. Anyway, this episode is a conversation episode, and you can hear me talking to an old friend that I used to live with, my old flatmate. And there is a full transcript available for this conversation.

你可以在描述中找到链接。清楚了吗？无论你使用的是哪个播客应用，或者在任何地方收听，描述里都有PDF文本的下载链接。直接下载就行。不客气。

You'll find a link in the description. Is that clear? A link in the description either in your podcast app of choice or, in fact, wherever you're listening to this, there's a link for the PDF transcript right there. You can just download it. You're welcome.

所以如果你愿意，可以边听边看文本，或者之后查阅以巩固听到的内容，确认理解无误，还可以记下出现的趣味词汇。里面有很多小短语、小表达供你发现收集。先介绍一下我的嘉宾，然后我们就开始。如你所知，我曾住在日本。对吧？

So if you like, you could read along with us or just check it later if you want to consolidate the things you've heard or check that you understood everything and perhaps make note of any interesting vocabulary that comes up. And there are loads of little phrases, loads of little expressions and things that you could spot and collect if you want to. Let me just tell you about my guest, and then we'll get started. So as you may know, I used to live in Japan. Right?

我可能以前提过一两次。多年前我职业生涯初期在日本生活了几年，那段经历给我留下深刻印象。当时我住公司提供的迷你公寓——那是家语言学校，他们为外教安排住宿，通常会和一两室友合住。

I might have mentioned that once or twice before in the past. I spent several years in Japan at the beginning of my teaching career, many years ago now, and it made a big impression on me actually. I lived in this tiny little apartment that was provided by the company I was working for while I lived there. That was a language school. And working for this language school, they kind of took care of things for the teachers, including finding you an apartment, and they would put you in an apartment probably with one or two other people.

我那间公寓有两个小卧室，厨房餐厅客厅三合一的小房间。每次带客人参观时特别有趣，我总喜欢站在房间中央，手臂一挥说：这是厨房、这是餐厅、这是客厅——两秒钟就完成公寓导览。那是在日本神奈川县湘南地区辻堂的微型公寓。

So the apartment I stayed in had two small bedrooms, a kitchen, dining, living room, which was one small room that combined those three things into one tiny space, which was quite funny whenever I had a guest over to the apartment. I used to enjoy giving the tour of the apartment, which basically involved standing in the middle of the room and just moving my arm across pointing and saying, so there's the kitchen, there's the dining room, and this is the living room. And in just in a in a matter of two seconds, that was it, that the tour of the apartment was over. So it was a tiny, tiny apartment in a place called Tsujido in the Shonan area of Kanagawa in Japan. When I first arrived there, my first flatmate to be was already living in the apartment.

初到那里时，第一位室友已住在公寓里。搬进去才发现是他——一个因各种习惯让我觉得难相处的英国男生。细节就不赘述了，总之不太愉快。

And when I arrived, I had no idea who he would be. And I discovered him, you know, when I moved in. And he ended up being this English guy who, well, I found a little bit difficult to live with for various reasons, different habits he had and things he did. I won't go into all of the sordid details now, but it wasn't that great. Okay?

后来他搬走了，我有几个月独享整个公寓的美好时光。直到某天收到公司来信，说另一间卧室将迎来新住户。

Then he left. He moved out. And for several wonderful months, I had the whole apartment to myself. And then one day, I received a letter from the company saying that they had found someone else to occupy the other room. So my time living alone in this flat was coming to an end.

鉴于上次合租经历，我对又要和陌生人同住充满忐忑。来信说新室友叫Peter，来自英国。我完全不了解他，说实话很紧张。

And after my previous experience living with my previous flatmate, I was frankly dreading living with another random flatmate again. Who would it be? Would I have another similar experience as the previous one? The letter told me that I was to be joined by someone called Peter from England. I had no idea who he was, and, yes, I was quite nervous.

这次会遇上什么人？他会像前室友那样有令人不适的生活习惯吗？（具体就不说了）或者更糟？

Who would I get? What would he be like? Would he be the same as the previous flatmate? Would he have the similar dirty little habits and other things that he did, which I won't go into now? Or somehow worse?

情况会恶化吗？我有些担忧。Peter入住当天，我在学校加班到很晚，突然接到电话说新室友被锁在门外——他没有钥匙。

Could it be worse? I was a bit worried. Then the day came when Peter was supposed to move in. I was working late at the school on that particular day, and I got a telephone call telling me that my new flatmate was stuck. He couldn't get into the apartment because he didn't have a key.

不知为何，他们没给他钥匙。这故事挺有意思吧，听众们？戏剧性十足。于是我被通知要去接他进门。他在当地麦当劳等着我。

For some reason, they hadn't given him his key. It's a fascinating story, isn't it, listeners? The drama. So I was told that I would have to meet him and let him in. He was waiting for me in the local McDonald's.

我怀着忐忑心情前往辻堂车站的那家麦当劳——据说现在已不复存在了。真遗憾，他们本该立个纪念碑纪念我和老室友的初次相遇。总之我走进麦当劳，看见彼得——我的新室友正坐在桌边，周围堆满行李。他当时有点

And so with some trepidation, I made my way there to the McDonald's in Tsujido Train Station. Apparently, it doesn't exist anymore. Pity they should have put up a monument to to commemorate my first meeting with my old flatmate. Anyway, I went into the McDonald's, and there, sitting at one of the tables surrounded by luggage, was Peter, my new flatmate. He was a bit

比我年长。实际上，

older than me. In fact,

他现在依然比我大几岁。他来自英国曼彻斯特——过去是，现在也是。随着了解加深，我逐渐意识到：嘿，这人不错。我很幸运。我们志趣相投，音乐、电影、喜剧品味相近，相处得很融洽。

he still is a bit older than me. He was and indeed still is from Manchester in England. And the more I got to know him, the more I realized, oh, this guy's alright. I got lucky. We had things in common, similar tastes in music, films, comedy, and we got on pretty well.

我们在日本共度了许多难忘时光：在叶山、逗子、镰仓的海边酒吧夜游（日本听众知道这些地方吗？），去观看湘南贝尔马雷足球队比赛，逛东京筑地市场，唱卡拉OK，与同事参加满月派对，还有共同教授当地日本人英语的经历。后来我回英国了，但彼得留了下来。他在日本住了十九年，我们至今仍有联系。

We had some really fun and memorable times in Japan together, including nights down at the local beach bars in places like Hayama, Zushi, Kamakura, Japanese listeners. Do you know those spots? Going to see the local football team, Shonan Belmari at their football stadium, trips to Tsukiji Market in Tokyo, karaoke sessions, full moon parties with our colleagues, and shared experiences of trying to teach English to our local Japanese hosts. Later, I left Japan and went back to The UK, but Peter stayed. And he ended up living there for nineteen years, and we are still in touch.

几年前，在阔别十一载后，彼得到巴黎旅行时我们重聚了。我趁机和他录了期播客，就是第203期《日本来的室友》。你们听过吗？若没有，不妨当成本集前传听听看。

A few years ago, after not having seen Peter for about eleven years, he visited Paris, and we met up again. And I took the chance to do a podcast with him. That is episode number 203 called the flatmate from Japan. Have you heard it? If you haven't, you could listen to it after this if you enjoy it as a sort of prequel to this episode.

几周前彼得又来巴黎，我们共进午餐喝了咖啡，但没时间录节目。于是决定下周远程录制——当时他暂居英国父母家，而我在法国。如今750期过去了，这位日本室友再次回归节目闲叙。简单背景介绍：如我所言，彼得原籍英国曼彻斯特。

Then a couple of weeks ago, Peter visited Paris once more, and we had lunch and coffee, but we didn't have time for a podcast. So we decided to do one remotely instead the following week with him in The UK at his parents' house where he was staying and me in France. So now 750 episodes later, Peter, the flatmate from Japan, returns to the podcast for another friendly chat. Just a bit of background information. As I said, Peter is originally from Manchester in England.

他2003年2月移居日本，生活了约十九年后，现居马来西亚吉隆坡已近一年。他是英语教师，热爱旅行，足迹遍布各地。

He moved to Japan in 02/2003, lived there for about nineteen years before moving to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia where he lives now. He's been living there for nearly a year. He's an English teacher. He's also interested in traveling. He loves traveling, and he's been to lots of different places.

他钟情现场音乐，还表演单口喜剧。如你所见，我们的共同点应该能带来有趣对话，内容涵盖：他的兴趣爱好、旅行见闻、回英国时的逆向文化冲击、应对时差、在日马两国的英语教学经历、各国现场音乐体验、为不同观众表演喜剧、在图卢兹超市挨揍事件、旅行防骗技巧，以及随机聊到的科恩兄弟电影推荐。完整文字稿依旧

He loves seeing live music. He also does stand up comedy. So as you can see, we do have things in common, which I hope will lead to a fun and interesting conversation for you today, which is gonna start in just a moment. So let's catch up with Peter again for a conversation which covers a lot of his interests, his traveling experiences, reverse culture shock when going back to The UK, dealing with jet lag, experiences of living and teaching English in Japan and Malaysia, seeing live music in different countries, performing stand up comedy for different audiences, getting punched in a supermarket in Toulouse, avoiding scam artists while traveling, and randomly our favorite films by the Cohen brothers. Again, full transcript available.

详见描述区链接。本期有许多实用短语值得学习，可浏览文稿查漏补缺，或单纯享受与老友彼得的温馨对话。现在开始吧——彼得，欢迎重回播客。

Link in the description. There are loads of little phrases that you could pick up from this, so scan the script to see what you might have missed, or just enjoy listening to this friendly chat with my old mate, Peter. And here we go. Hello, Peter. Welcome back onto the podcast.

谢谢，卢克。很高兴回来。很荣幸能在这里。

Thank you, Luke. Good to be back. Pleasure to be here.

是的。我想大概有750集了。

Yeah. It's I think it's about 750 episodes

哇。

Wow.

自从你上次上节目以来。

Since you were last on the show.

我记得。是的。你们一直很忙，因为那大概是在2014年。

I can remember. Yeah. You have been busy because that was that was back in 2014, I think.

好的。所以，大概十一年前。这很有趣，因为上次见你时，距离我们上一次见面也差不多十一年。现在十一年后，我们又见面了。

Okay. So, yeah, it's about eleven years ago. That's funny because when I last saw you, it was about eleven years since I'd seen you the previously. Right. And now eleven years later, we're doing it again.

所以不知为何，每隔十一年，我们就要这样见一次。

So for some reason, every eleven years, we have to do this.

好吧。我们已经设定了模式。有了先例。所以2036年2月，你得来找我，无论我在哪里。

Alright. We've set the pattern. We've a precedent. So 02/1936, you'll you'll have to come and find me wherever I am.

是啊。你觉得2036年2月你会在哪儿？有想法吗？

Yeah. Where do you reckon you'll be in 02/1936? Any idea?

我说不准。完全没概念。十一年前，我没想到会住在马来西亚。再往前十一年，我也没想过会住在日本，所以真的说不准。

I couldn't tell you. I have no idea. Eleven years ago, I had no idea I'd be living in Malaysia. Eleven years before that, I wouldn't have thought I'd have been living in Japan, so there really is no telling.

谁知道呢？谁知道你会在哪儿？总之，你今天过得怎么样？

Who knows? Who knows where you'll be? Anyway, how are you doing today?

挺好的，老兄。嗯，我在家人那儿住了一阵子，不过明天我就要动身去埃文河畔斯特拉特福待上几晚了，还挺期待的。

Doing well, mate. Yeah. I've been staying with my family for a while, but tomorrow, I'm pleased to be heading out and going to visit Stratford On Avon for a few nights.

嗯，不错啊，莎士比亚的故乡。

Mhmm. Yeah. Very nice. Shakespeare's hometown.

是啊，准备看看莎士比亚相关的东西。但不确定会不会在斯特拉特福看现场舞台剧，因为网上瞅了眼，票价贵得离谱，感觉专坑游客钱的。

Yeah. Gonna see some Shakespeare stuff. Not not sure I'll go and see any actual stage plays in Stratford because, like, a a look online suggests that they are wildly expensive, it seems, dedicated to extracting money from tourists.

嗯，很可能。确实可惜，毕竟那儿有几家不错的剧院。

Yeah. Probably. Yeah. Yeah. It's a pity because, I mean, they've they've got a couple of nice theaters there.

比如这个天鹅剧院

There's this this Swan Theater

对。

Yep.

它算是环形剧场。观众席环绕着舞台，这种设计挺有意思的。

Which is kind of like in the round. Yes. Which is an interesting thing, you know, that the audience is all around the the stage.

是啊，这样看戏剧效果不错。

Yeah. That that's a good way to see drama.

确实。上次你来节目时——大概750期前吧——你那时时差反应严重。能保持专注聊下来挺不容易的，不过快结束时你确实有点撑不住了。当时你真是被时差折腾得够呛。

Yeah. It is. Last time you were on the show, as I said, about seven fifty episodes ago, you were really jet lagged. You did really well to maintain your focus during the conversation, but you did start flagging near the end. You were really jet lagged then.

但你现在没有时差反应了。自从来到

But you're you're not jet lagged now. You've kind of got over your jet lag since coming to

这个

The

英国后，我想你已经基本克服了时差。

UK this time, I think.

是的。已经有一段时间了。实际上我大约八九周前就到了欧洲，在西班牙和法国旅行了六周，还在一家不错的餐厅和你碰了面。嗯。

Yeah. It it's been a while. I actually came to Europe something like eight or nine weeks ago. I I traveled in Spain and France for six weeks, caught up with yourself at a nice restaurant. Mhmm.

然后呢。可能有点奇怪吧。我父母原本计划去乘游轮，所以我本打算先和姐姐住一周，再去瑞士待一周，等父母游轮旅行结束休息好了再和他们团聚。事情大致就是这么发展的。我

Then yeah. Maybe it's it was a bit strange old thing. Like, I my parents had planned to go on a cruise, so my plan had been stay with my sister for a week, then visit Switzerland for a week, then come and stay with my parents after they had had their cruise and recovered a bit. So that that's more or less what happened. I

嗯。

Mhmm.

去了英格兰，在瑞士度过了一周，最近十天一直和母亲住在一起。所以我现在完全适应英国时间了。

Went to England, did my week in Switzerland, and for the last week and a half, been staying with my mother. So I am very solidly in UK time.

明白了。你是怎么应对时差的？因为你经常旅行，现在又住在日本、马来西亚这些地方。嗯，有时候确实需要长途跋涉。

Okay. How do you deal with jet lag? Because you are someone who kind of travels quite a lot and living in Japan, living in Malaysia these days. Mhmm. That does involve traveling quite long distances sometimes.

你有什么克服或应对时差的小窍门吗？

How do you deal with jet lag? Do you have any kind of tips for recovering from jet lag or dealing with it?

我发现随着年龄增长，时差越来越难调整，大家应该都有同感。特别是从亚洲飞欧洲这种自东向西的行程。以前我只要熬个通宵就能立刻适应欧洲时间，现在需要更久。不过我认为关键还是别睡觉。

I've been finding it's getting more difficult as I get older, as we all are. So, like especially, like, traveling east to west, so from Asia to Europe. Time was, I'd be able to just stay up extra late for one night, and I was in European time straight away. It takes longer these days. I still think not sleeping is the key.

刚抵达时，就告诉自己现在是当地时间。然后尽可能一到就立即按那个时区作息。这次我从马来西亚吉隆坡飞马德里，晚上8点落地，对我来说已经很晚了。之后每晚都尽量熬到最晚，但完全适应西班牙时间大概花了四五天。头几天我确实发现自己醒得早，傍晚就精神不济。

Just when you arrive, tell yourself it is this time, it is local time. Then try to stay in that time as much as is possible as soon as you arrive. So this time, yeah, I flew from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia to Madrid and landed about 8PM, which would have been very late for me. And, yeah, then stayed up as late I could each night, but it took me maybe four or five days to completely acclimatize to Spanish time. I did find myself waking up early and flagging in mid evening for a few days.

反方向飞行也是同样道理。尽快告诉自己这是当地时间。比如九月份我要从里斯本经阿布扎比飞东京，一登上阿布扎比的航班，我就把手机调成东京时间。这样我的大脑就会想：啊，现在是这个点。

Going the other way, I would say the same. As soon as possible, tell yourself it's local times. So in the September, I'm gonna be flying from Lisbon to Tokyo via Abu Dhabi. So as soon as I get on the plane in Abu Dhabi, I'm changing my phone to Tokyo time. So then my head will be thinking, ah, it is this time.

如果运气好的话，到东京时我就已经适应了。

And when I arrive in Tokyo with luck and justice, I will be used to it.

是啊。但往那个方向飞特别难受对吧？不知为何从西往东飞就是更折磨人。

Yeah. But it's it's extra hard going that direction, isn't it? Going from west to east for some reason. It is. It's it's extra punishing.

我记得第二次从英格兰去日本时，想立刻正常活动。我还记得推着我那辆妈妈车——我以前骑的买菜自行车。

I remember going from England to Japan the second time and trying to kind of function normally straight away. I remember going taking my bike, my mama cherry Hey. That I used to have.

妈妈车。

Mama cherry.

就是那种主妇骑的大自行车，我推着它去附近超市，把车筐装满东西往回骑。突然就困得头晕目眩骑不了车，晕乎乎地只能推着车回公寓。当时感觉特别吃力，像被时差这堵墙迎面撞上。

This big, sort of housewives bicycle that I used to ride around, taking that down to the local supermarket, filling up the baskets of my bike with stuff, and then riding back. And I got so suddenly so drowsy and so lightheaded that I couldn't ride the bike. I got all dizzy on the bike, and I had to just I remember pushing this bike back to my apartment. It was suddenly such a struggle. It was I was hit by this wall of jet lag.

不过反方向飞就没这么糟。可能是因为...是逆着地球自转方向？是这个原因吗？

And, yeah. But going the other direction is not so bad for some reason. I guess you're going against the is it that you're going against the rotation of the earth or something like that? Is that what it is?

我觉得西向东更混乱是因为你睡醒发现突然变晚上了。比如晚上8点你却精神抖擞。我第一次到日本时，和你们合住那会儿，从没来过亚洲完全不知所措。

I think I think it's just more disorienting going from west to east Because you sleep and you wake up and suddenly it's evening. So it's like 8PM and you're, 'Hey, awake!' Yeah. I mean, when I arrived first in Japan, and we were sharing that apartment, I had never been to Asia before. I had like no clue how to deal with it. So I just arrived in Japan.

记得有次你看见我大下午蜷在榻榻米上吗？就是被同样的时差墙击倒了。突然间保持清醒变得不可能，身体直接罢工。

Hey, look at this. And I remember like one time you saw me just curled up on my futon in the middle of the afternoon because I had just been knocked over by the same thing, by that wall of jet lag. Yeah. Suddenly, it just became impossible to stay awake. My body said, nope.

睡觉时间到了。

Sleep time.

没错。完全正确。你只需要关机休息。但你说得对，最好的办法就是尽快开始按当地时间作息，让大脑认为这就是本地时间，尽可能去适应。

Yeah. Exactly. You just shut down. But you're right. The best way is just to, as soon as possible, start operating on local time, make your mind think that it is local time, and just, you know, adapt as much as you can.

对，我听说有些药物可以辅助。现在记不清具体名称了，但好像可以服用滴剂或药片来帮助适应，和阳光有关的某种成分...那个词叫什么？里面有种化学物质...

Yeah. I've heard that there are things you can take. I can't remember what it is now, but you you apparently can sort of take drops or pills even that kinda help you adapt something to do with, sunlight. What's the word? What's there's a chemical in there that

是褪黑素吗？

Is that melatonin?

褪黑素。对。听说服用褪黑素有帮助，不确定是否属实。

Melatonin. Right. I've heard that you can take melatonin that helps. Not sure if it's true.

嗯...我我会谨慎使用。我更相信身体的自愈能力，尽量不依赖药物，当身体能自行调节时就不用药。

Yeah. I I I would be wary of doing that. I just trust my body to know what it's doing, and as much as possible, I try not to medicalize things and not to take medicine when my body is able to deal with it by itself.

是啊。

Yeah.

所以我选择硬扛时差，直到身体自然调整过来。

So I just I just power through the jet lag until I'm in the right time.

对，这就是关键。那么你现在回英国了是吧？虽然偶尔会回来，但主要时间都在马来西亚，当然在日本也待过很久。

Yeah. That's the thing. That's the that's the key. Yeah. So you're back in The UK then after I mean, you do visit occasionally, but, most of your time is spent these days in Malaysia, but, yes, a long time in Japan as well.

这次回到英国，有什么让你觉得不同？会有反向文化冲击的感觉吗？

But being back in The UK now, what strikes you as being different? Do you ever get that feeling of reverse culture shock?

这挺奇怪的，对吧？因为你看，先是日本，现在又是马来西亚，它们成了我的参照点。所以现在我去任何地方，都会拿马来西亚来比较。回到英国后，一切都显得陌生又不同，却又莫名熟悉。真是种奇怪的感觉。

It's a weird one, ain't it? Because, you know, like, first Japan and now Malaysia, like, they became my points of reference. So when I go anywhere, I'm comparing it with Malaysia now. So coming back to The UK, everything seems strange and different and somehow familiar. So it's an odd one.

我立刻注意到的是电视广告。嗯哼。它们变得直白多了。

Something that has jumped out at me straight away is the advertising on TV. Uh-huh. It has has become much more forthright.

真的吗？

Yeah. Really?

是啊。电视上有个全身除臭喷雾的广告。

Yes. There's an advert on TV for like an all over deodorant body spray.

嗯。

Mhmm.

屏幕上用大字写着'胸、蛋、浴'。真的？没错。人们把喷雾喷进裤子里，互相闻屁股和胯部，特别诡异。

And like in big letters on the screen, they're saying boobs, balls, baths. Yeah. Really? Yes. And people are, like, spraying this spray down their pants, and people are sniffing each other's butts and crotches, and it's very weird.

因为在马来西亚不会看到这种明目张胆、近乎色情的内容。

Because you wouldn't get that, in Malaysia, something so blatantly, so outrageously kind of sexualized.

确实如此。

Exactly. It it is

那是个更保守的社会，所以让我很惊讶。

a much more conservative society, so that was a surprise for me.

是啊。对某些去英国的游客来说，看到这种露骨或开放的性内容肯定很震惊。我们文化的某些方面想必相当冲击。

Yeah. It must be weird for some visitors going to The UK where you do see things like that that seems seems so kinda sexually explicit or permissive. Certain things about our culture must be so kinda shocking.

确实如此。

Exactly.

是啊。我记得在日本住了一段时间后回去——其实相比你在国外生活的年头算很短了。那时我离开大约十八个月，八月份回去时，连伦敦的满眼绿意都让我震撼。

Yeah. I remember going after living in Japan, you know, a relatively short time really compared to how long you've been living away. Yeah. And I'd been away for maybe eighteen months, and I went back in August. And I was struck by how how green everything is even in London.

我之前住在东京郊外。即便现在住在距离不远的巴黎，每次回英格兰还是会被那种葱郁震撼。像沃里克我父母住的城镇，到处都能感受到蓬勃生长的绿意。

And I'd been living, you know, just outside Tokyo. And, yeah, just how kinda green everything is always strikes me. Even now, I live in Paris, which is not really that far away. But, yeah, going back to England, everything seems so lush and green. And even in in towns like Warwick where my parents live or other towns in England, you get this sense that there's so much greenery that's growing.

砖墙上爬满苔藓，人行道缝隙钻出草芽，总有种生机盎然的感觉。你也有同感吗？

You see kind of brick walls and there's moss growing on the wall or there are you know, there's pavements, then at the edge of the pavements, there's grass growing out from the gaps and things. It always seems so kind of lush. Do you get that feeling as well?

当然有。这几天虽然晴朗干燥，但前两天下雨后，明显感觉气候对植被的影响。

I do. Absolutely. Yeah. Like, we've we've had warm, dry, sunny weather for the last few days, but then a couple of days ago, like, the rain came back. And I think that the climate does impact that.

我住在伦敦新城赫默尔亨普斯特德，居民区里到处是树木灌木、草坪球场。步行五分钟就到村绿地，晴天有人打板球，周围绿树环绕。不过在马来西亚住久了反而习以为常——那里绿得惊人。

Because I live in Hemmelhempstead, like a new town suburb of London. It is very residential, but everywhere there's trees and bushes and little patches of grass and playing fields and open spaces. Five minutes walk away, I've got the village green, where you've got people playing cricket in good weather, and that is ringed by trees. So it is everywhere. I think it doesn't jump out as me as much now because Malaysia is also staggeringly green.

吉隆坡虽高度城市化，但处处可见热带植被。中央公园植物园自不必说，连繁忙道路两侧都绿树成荫。初访时我拍了张有趣的照片：背景是双子塔和吉隆坡塔，前景却是青草地上有几头牛在吃草。

Kuala Lumpur is like a very urbanized, but also like everywhere in KL, you've got lush greenery. There's like a big big park and botanical garden. Even the busy busy roads have got trees and grasses along the side of them. I remember first time I visited, I took a picture which I'm still entertained by. So in the background you've got like, the the Petronas Towers and KL Tower.

前景是大片青翠草地，还有几头牛在吃草。

And in the foreground, you've got a big patch of green, like, grassy land with a couple of cows grazing on it.

哇。听说有栋建筑里真的保留了片雨林？我读到过相关报道。

Wow. Yeah. Isn't it true that there is a there's technically a rainforest, within a building there? I read about it.

可能吧。不确定是否在建筑内部，但吉隆坡塔底座确实有片小型雨林，我参加过徒步导览。面积不大，很快能走完，但确实保持着原始生态。

Possibly. I I don't know that it's within a building, but certainly, like, at the base of KL Tower, there is a small patch of rainforest Yeah. Which I have done a little walking tour of. It it isn't big. It doesn't take long to get around, but it is wild.

那里郁郁葱葱，还有猴子住在里面。

It is lush, and there are, like, monkeys living in it.

对。那你有时会看到那些猴子吗？

Right. Do you see the monkeys then sometimes?

我去那儿的时候看到过。是的。

When I went there, I did. Yeah.

好的。是什么种类的猴子

Okay. What kind of monkeys are

？小型的。对。我不太清楚具体种类，但它们就是些小不点儿。不是那种大型的，不是长臂猿、猩猩或黑猩猩之类的。

they? Small ones. Yeah. I don't know exactly what kind, but, yeah, they're they're just small little things. Not not like not big like, not gibbons or apes or chimpanzees or anything like that.

对。可能是猕猴。

Right. Possibly meckex.

没错。就是那种会偷你午餐的小家伙。

Right. Just kinda steal your lunch kind of little little ones.

是的。

Yes.

嗯。好的。话说回英国，你会想念英国的什么吗？我是说，你现在长期生活在国外，显然是你自己选择离开那里的。

Yeah. Okay. Going back to The UK then, do you miss anything about The UK? I mean, you you live away, you know, long term now. So, you you've obviously chosen to live away from the place.

但有什么让你怀念的吗？

But is there anything that you miss?

有几件事。是的，我喜欢足球和音乐。我确实怀念能观看高质量现场足球赛和音乐表演的日子。比如在日本时，我们可以去看当地球队的比赛。

A couple of things. Yeah. I mean, I like my football and I like my music. And I do miss being able to see good quality live football and good quality live music. Like, in in Japan, we could go see the local team.

我们还能去看少年贝尔马里的演出。虽然达不到英超水准，但在体育场里和球迷们一起感受氛围很有趣。我在马来西亚看过一场比赛，认识了一位在亚洲足联工作的朋友，她给我们弄到了国王杯决赛的票，相当于英格兰的足总杯决赛。

We could go see Shonen Belmarie. And it wasn't premiership quality, but it was fun to be in the stadium and be among the fans and get the atmosphere. Yeah. I've been to one game in Malaysia. I made a friend who actually works for the Asian Soccer Federation, and so she scored us a couple of tickets for, like, the the King's Cup final, like the equivalent of the FA Cup final.

比赛在国家体育场举行，七万人的场馆座无虚席。在英格兰，比赛本身就是焦点，我们去看球，唱着带脏字的助威歌。

That was held at the National Stadium, 70,000 people, and it was full. It was rammed. Yeah. In England, the game is the spectacle. So we go and we watch the game, and we sing our swearing violent songs.

而这场更像娱乐秀，赛前有歌舞表演。开赛前一个半小时，场馆里就震耳欲聋地播放着音乐，我和朋友根本没法交谈。

Yeah. Certainly, this game, it was more like entertainment. So there was a pregame show with singing and dancing. And, like, even an hour and a half before the game started, before kickoff, they were just blasting this mad loud music everywhere in the stadium. So me and my friend, we couldn't actually talk with each other because the music was so loud.

哇哦。比赛本身被裁判的偏哨毁了。

Woah. Yeah. The game well, the the game was marred by a partial referee.

偏哨？

A partial referee?

对，裁判明显偏向强队。

Yeah. Like, the referee seemed to be favoring the big side.

哦，所以裁判对大球队有偏袒？

Oh, so the referee was kind of biased to to the to the big team?

没错。

Yeah.

好吧，这可不太妙，是吧？

Alright. That's not good, is it?

并不是。不。因为你有，比如，主力队伍，我忘了他们的名字。还有另一支中游球队叫Tullenganu。这一点也让我印象深刻，因为吉隆坡非常多元化。

It wasn't. No. Because you had, like, the the main team, which were I forgot their name. And, like, another mid table team called Tullenganu. And this is something that jumped out at me as well because Kuala Lumpur is very multicultural.

在马来西亚，人口比例大约是70%或80%马来人，20%华人，10%印度人。虽然不是精确数字，但大致如此。华人和印度人主要集中在主要城市，而Telanganu位于乡村地区，在国家的东北部，相当偏远。

In Malaysia, it's something like 70 or 80% Malay people, 20% Chinese, 10% Indian. That's not exactly right, but loosely, those are the proportions. The Chinese and the Indians are concentrated in the main cities, but Telanganu is out in the countryside. It's in the Northeast of the country. It's pretty rural.

所以当我和Tulligano球迷一起乘火车去体育场时，周围全是马来人。是的，这确实让我印象深刻。

So when I was on the train going to the stadium with the Tulligano fans, it was a 100% Malay people. Yes. But that really jumped out at me.

对。嗯。这让你对这个国家的民族构成有了概念。

Right. Yeah. You you gave you an idea of the kind of ethnic makeup of the country.

没错。是的。虽然我去过马来西亚的几个地方，但主要是较大的、发展较好的城市和城镇，还没真正去过偏远的乡村地区。

That's right. Yeah. Because I've traveled to a few places around Malaysia, but only really to the bigger and more, built up cities and towns. So I've not been out to the real, like, countryside, more remote areas.

好的。那么足球和音乐。那边没有类似的现场音乐场景吗？

Okay. So football and music. They don't do do they not have the same kind of live music scene over there?

我慢慢在寻找，但比如在日本东京或英国，音乐活动随处可见，随时都有。我能找到很多我喜欢的吵闹摇滚。而在马来西亚，这类音乐似乎较少。整个东南亚普遍更偏爱流行音乐。我喜欢的摇滚类型——那种怪异吵闹的迷幻风格——属于非常小众的品味。

I'm slowly finding it, but, I mean, like, for example, like, in in in Japan, in Tokyo, or in England, there's lots of music happening everywhere all the time. I can find lots of noisy rock that I like. Noisy rock seems less common in Malaysia. In Southeast Asia generally, there's a preference for pop music. Rock of the kind I like, the weird noisy psychedelic stuff is very much a minority taste.

我确实发现了几支乐队。有一支乐队我看过，非常棒。是一群中年印度男人演奏吵闹的重摇滚。

I have found a couple of bands. There was one band I saw, it fantastic. It was a bunch of like middle aged Indian men playing noisy noisy hard rock.

哇。

Wow.

简直太棒了。

It it was fantastic.

哦，那太好了。

Oh, that's great.

确实存在。我找到几个感兴趣的乐队想去看看。但这里的音乐场景似乎更偏向流行、爵士和古典，那种吵闹的摇滚反而少见。

It it does exist. I'm finding a few bands that I'd be interested to go and see. But, yeah, like, the scene seems to be much more about pop and jazz and classical, less about horrible noisy rock.

我在想为什么会出现这种情况。为什么那种吵闹的摇滚没有...嗯...风靡全国。

I wonder why that is. Why horrible noisy rock is not Yeah. Sweeping the nation.

在日本就容易找得多。在东京，我上tokyogigguide.com网站，毫不费力就能找到噪音、抽象或实验音乐演出。我甚至乐意花两三千日元赌一场音乐会，只为亲临现场体验live演出。经常能遇到不错的，当然偶尔也会踩雷。

It's much easier to find in Japan. Yeah. In In Tokyo, I could go on tokyogigguide.com and have no trouble finding noise or abstract or experimental, and I would happily gamble 2 or 3,000 yen on a concert just for the sake of actually going to the show and being in the space and having the experience of seeing the live music. Fairly often it'd be good and sometimes it would not be.

有趣的是在日本你能找到各种另类音乐，那里的地下音乐场景非常活跃。但吉隆坡显然不是这样。我在想...原因究竟是什么呢？

It's interesting that in Japan, you do find all this kind of alternative music. It's a really vibrant scene for all different types of alternative music. And yet apparently in Kuala Lumpur, this is not so much the case. And what I wonder why. What what could be the reason for that?

嗯...随便猜测的话，可能是外部影响。日本虽未被美国完全占领，但战后那些年美军驻扎带来的食物、音乐、电影等确实对日本社会文化产生了深远影响。

No. Yeah. Like, just speculating off the top of my head, it could be outside influence. Japan was not not completely occupied by The US, but there's like in the post war years, there had been a heavy US influence on, like, Japanese social culture just from the presence of the troops bringing all their food and music and movies and what have you. Yeah.

所以这是可能性之一。

So that that is one possibility.

某种程度上和英国类似。战后英国也被美国流行文化淹没，音乐首当其冲。于是发展出了自己的摇滚场景——

Yeah. Similar to The UK in a way because postwar, The UK was flooded by American pop culture, and that includes a lot of our music. And so you've got a kind of rock and roll scene

嗯。

Mhmm.

比如利物浦的Mersey Beat等流派。后来英国反而把改良版的美式音乐文化反向输出回美国，大获成功。日本受影响的路径也类似，最终发展出多样化的音乐类型。

Which which sort of developed into its own thing with stuff like Mersey Beat in Liverpool and other forms. And in fact, what eventually happened is that The UK sent American music and culture back to America and, was very successful with that. You can sort of see how Japan was influenced in a similar way as well and and as a result, kind of like, expanded into these different genres of music.

是啊，我能看出来。

Yeah. I can see that.

再回到英国这个话题，有什么是你不会怀念的关于英国、关于英格兰生活的吗？

Going back to The UK again one more time, are there things that you don't miss about Britain, about life in England?

我永远不会厌倦温暖的天气。我很喜欢这一点。

I don't get tired of being warm. I like that.

嗯。

Yeah.

是的。吉隆坡确实会下雨，但通常都是下午快结束时来一阵急雨。就这样。

Yeah. So it it does rain in KL, but it's generally a quick downpour at the end of the afternoon. So Yeah.

我其实正想问那里的季节是什么样的。你知道在英格兰，冬天寒冷阴暗，经常下雨，感觉有三四个月都见不到太阳。然后春天来了，春天很美好。

I gonna I was gonna ask actually what what the kind of, seasons are like. Because, you know, in England, of course, winter, cold, dark, often wet. You don't see the sun for for a good three or four months, it feels like. And then spring comes along. Spring is wonderful.

从不会特别热，会有阵雨和阳光，万物复苏。夏天通常干燥炎热，虽然也有夏雨。然后秋天降温，会有可爱的阳光之类的。但大体上夏天干燥冬天湿润。日本则正好相反。

It's never really that hot, but you get showers and sunshine, and everything comes to life. Summer is typically dry and hot, although you do get summer rain. And then, you know, the autumn, things cool down, you can get lovely sunshine and stuff like that. But it's generally sort of dry in the summer and wet in the winter. Japan, it's kind of the opposite.

冬天通常非常干燥，寒冷但极度干燥，天空常常湛蓝。经过宜人的春季后，会进入雨季，连续一个月下雨，越来越潮湿，然后夏天到来，酷热难耐，湿度极高，我觉得很难熬。夏末还会有大风暴。

So in winter, it's often very dry. It's cold, but it's it's it's it's extremely dry. The sky is often beautifully blue. And then you get in after a lovely sunny spring, you get that kind of rainy season where for a month it rains all the time, it gets more and more humid, and then the summer arrives and it's boiling hot, really humid, and really difficult, I found. And then big storms happen at the end of summer.

会有这些大风暴，大量降雨、大风和雷暴，然后天气又转回干燥寒冷。那马来西亚呢？

You get all these big storms and stuff and, and lot of rain and wind and electrical storms, then you kinda go back to that dry colder weather. What about in in Malaysia then?

是热带气候。终年炎热潮湿。

It's tropical. It's hot and humid all the time.

哇。好吧。

Woah. Okay.

有点潮湿，但远不及日本夏天那么严重，那简直可怕。我住在马来西亚，去过新加坡、越南、缅甸、泰国，但从没像在京都夏天那样被潮湿折磨得那么惨。简直糟透了。我整整一周都没干爽过。

Mildly humid, not anything like as humid as the Japanese summer, because that was horrendous. I live in Malaysia, I've been to Singapore, Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand, and I have never ever suffered humidity as badly as Kyoto in summer. It was rank. I wasn't dry for a week.

是啊。太难受了。我记得在日本，人们甚至会...我听到有人讨论...我常问学生，你们怎么应对这种闷热潮湿的天气？不断向学生请教他们的建议和经历。

Yeah. It was horrible. Yeah. I remember in Japan, people would even I heard people talking about I I would ask my students, like, how do you deal with this kind of hot humid weather? Constantly asking the students for their advice and their experiences.

人们会谈论衣物问题，因为衣服会返潮。连衣柜里的衣服都会受潮，甚至发霉。所以我听说有人衣服上长霉，于是他们买大袋硅胶，放在衣柜里吸湿。

And people would talk about your clothes because they get damp. Even your the clothes in your cupboards would get damp, and they would even get moldy. So I would hear about people having mold grow on their clothes, and so they would buy silica gel in large bags and put silica gel in their cupboards and things to absorb all of the moisture.

对。我完全能理解，因为直到五月份回来前，我在吉隆坡合租公寓时，有些东西就放在衣柜顶的行李箱里。五月打开箱子时，确实有几件东西发霉了。

Yeah. I I can totally see that because I until I came back in May, I was like renting a room in a shared apartment in Kuala Lumpur, and I kept a few things just in a suitcase on top of the wardrobe. And when at the May I came to open the suitcase, yeah, there was mold growing on a couple of things.

是啊。对我们来说太不可思议了。你知道吗？这种事从没发生过。你以前从没经历过。

Yeah. I mean, that's crazy for us. You know? It's just like something that never happens. You'd never experienced that.

不过确实挺奇怪的。所以...全年都是这样湿热吗？没有季节性变化？不会有时冷有时热？

But, yeah, that was a that was a weird thing. So okay. So it's it's hot and humid then all year round. You don't get like a it's not seasonal. You don't get colder periods and warmer periods.

基本上全年都差不多是这样？

It's just more or less kind of the same thing all the time?

全年大同小异。我还没完全摸清季节规律，因为在马来西亚还没住满一整年。

More or less the same year round. I haven't clocked the seasons completely yet because I haven't lived a complete year yet with Malaysia.

嗯。

Mhmm.

一年中有某些时候会稍微热一些，湿度大一些，雨也下得多一些，但区别仅在于程度不同，本质上并无差异。

There are times of year when it gets slightly hotter and slightly more humid and it rains a bit more, but the difference is one of degree, not actual substance.

嗯，好吧。好吧。没关系。

Yeah, okay. Okay. It's alright.

基本上，全年气候大致相同。

Basically, it's it's more or less the same year round.

所以你不会怀念在英国时总感觉有点冷，或者在家里有窗户漏风，不得不加件衣服或穿双袜子保暖的感觉。你完全不用操心这些，对吧？

So you don't miss that feeling of always being a bit chilly in England or being in your home and there being a draft coming from a window and having to put on an extra layer or pair of socks to keep yourself warm. You don't have to worry about that, do you?

一点儿都不怀念。在马来西亚我唯一穿长裤的时候就是上班或登台表演。仅此而已。

Don't miss that a bit. No. The only times I ever wear long trousers in Malaysia is to work or to be on stage. Those are the only times.

登台？是啊。当你表演单口...

On the stage? Yeah. When you're doing a stand

喜剧 对。舞台上不穿短裤。

up Yeah. No shorts on stage.

舞台上不能穿短裤？是这个原因吗？

No shorts on stage? Is that why not?

这算是单口喜剧界不成文的规矩。大家觉得如果你在台上穿的服装和观众不一样，那这身打扮必须成为表演的一部分。

It's it's kind of an unspoken rule in stand up. The feeling is that if you're gonna wear something on stage that doesn't look the same as the audience, then it needs to be part of the act.

意思是，如果观众能看到你的膝盖，你就得拿这个开玩笑。

Meaning, if if they can see your knees, you need to make a joke about it.

对，差不多是这样。所以如果我戴着一顶滑稽的帽子上台，那我就得聊聊这顶帽子。否则观众就会一直想，他干嘛戴那顶帽子？

Yeah. Something like that. So if if I go on stage wearing a funny hat, then I I need to talk about the hat. Otherwise, the audience is gonna be thinking, why is he wearing that hat?

嗯。

Mhmm.

然后注意力就从我精彩的笑话上分散了。

And be extracted from my fantastic jokes.

没错。对。好吧。同理，如果你上台时膝盖长得滑稽，你得确保你的段子比他们能看到的膝盖更有趣。

Right. Yeah. Okay. And similarly, if you go up there with funny looking knees, you have to make sure that your material is funnier than than the knees that they can see.

完全正确。而且我的膝盖简直滑稽得要命。所以

Exactly. Yeah. And my knees are pretty fucking funny. So

真的吗？疙疙瘩瘩的膝盖？

Really? Knobbly knobbly knees?

没错。观众应该庆幸这只是音频录制。

Yep. Yeah. Your your audience should be glad that this is only audio recording.

是啊。没有摄像机。这次没有膝盖特写镜头。不。不。

Yeah. There's no camera. There's no knee camera for this. No. No.

不。哦，对。好吧。我只穿短裤表演过单口喜剧一次。

No. Oh, yeah. Okay. No. I only ever did stand up in shorts once.

结果演砸了。可能就是这个原因——他们能看到我的膝盖，然后心想：卢克，我们实在没法笑出来，因为只要看到你小腿以下的部分，不管你说得多好笑都没用。真有意思。

Yeah. And, yeah, I bombed. Maybe that's it. Maybe it's because they could see my knees, and they were like, well, look, we just can't laugh at your jokes, Luke, because for some reason, if we can see the lower half of your legs, then it doesn't matter what you're saying, no matter how hilarious, it's just not gonna work. Funny that.

我偶尔会那样做。所以在我少数几次穿短裤表演时，我会拿自己的腿开玩笑。对，前排的女士们，请克制一下。我感觉不太安全。

I have done that occasionally. So on on some of the few occasions I've performed in shorts, I have, like, made a joke about the legs. Yeah. So front row ladies, hold yourselves back. I don't feel safe.

是啊，没错。

Yeah. Right.

但我觉得不全是心理作用。可能还因为穿短裤看起来不够权威。

But I guess I don't think that's all the psychology. I think there may be something about you you don't look authoritative in shorts.

对，确实是这样，不是吗

Yeah. It's true, isn't

？所以如果你穿短裤上台，观众会觉得，哦，你看起来好蠢。我们凭什么要听你的？

it? So if you go on stage in shorts, the audience is gonna think, oh, you look stupid. Why should we listen to you?

没错。你根本就没用心准备。

Yeah. You haven't made an effort.

哎。

Aye.

对。你得下点功夫。这是真的。如果你想上台让人听你说话，就得打扮得体面些。总得花点心思。

Right. You gotta make an effort. This is true. You have to be presentable if you're gonna go up on stage and expect people to listen to you. You gotta make some effort.

是啊。至少把腿遮住吧。

Yeah. At least covering your legs, at least.

对。不过也不是所有情况都这样。有个常驻曼谷的爱尔兰喜剧演员，叫韦斯·道尔顿，他在马来西亚演出时我看过。他的表演风格就是搞怪、充满活力、友善爱笑，而且很会与观众互动。所以对他来说，短裤配亮色衬衫很合适，因为这符合他的舞台形象。

Yeah. I mean, it's not not in every case. There's a comedian, Irish guy who's based in Bangkok, but I saw him when he came to Malaysia, a guy called Wes Dalton. And being wacky and very energetic and friendly and smiley and really talking to the audience is his act. So for him, the shorts and the bright shirt works because it matches his on stage persona.

嗯。嗯。对。

Mhmm. Mhmm. Right.

但对大多数人来说那样行不通。比如吉米·卡尔穿短裤就不合适，因为他需要穿着符合他高地位表演风格的服装。

But for most people, that wouldn't work. Like, like, Jimmy Carr in shorts wouldn't work because he needs to be dressed, like, in a way that matches his high status act.

没错。就是这样。这关乎地位，对吧？喜剧演员常常在玩弄地位这个概念。

Right. That's it. It's about status, isn't it? Yeah. Often, the the comedian is sort of playing with status.

你至少需要能掌控那种地位感，或者先以高姿态示人才能进行发挥。吉米·卡尔就是典型的高地位表演者——他穿着西装，看起来非常优雅，这些都是他喜剧效果的组成部分。

You need to at least be able to control that that sense of status or you need to come across as high status before you can do something with it. Sure. But, yeah, Jimmy Carr, very much a high status performer, and he yeah. He's he, you know, he's dressed in a suit. He looks really classy, and that's all part of the the the mechanisms for how his comedy works.

确实如此。一致性是关键。笑话、形象和表演方式必须是一个整体。

It is. Exactly. Yeah. Like, congruence is key. So, like, the the jokes and the look and the delivery, everything has to be one package.

嗯。嗯。你现在还在马来西亚做脱口秀吗？你觉得在吉隆坡观众面前表演有什么不同体验？

Mhmm. Mhmm. So you you're still doing stand up now in Malaysia. Do you find it to be a different sort of experience performing in front of a Kuala Lumpur crowd?

是的。比如在东京，这不是个英语城市，观众可能是外派人士、游客或会说英语的日本人。你永远不知道台下坐着谁，所以内容要么非常普适要么非常个人化。

Yes. I do. Because in Japan, for example, Tokyo is not an English speaking city, so the audience is gonna be by expats, some tourists, some English speaking Japanese. So you never know who's going to be in front of you. So you have to go very general or very personal.

而吉隆坡是英语城市，观众基本都是本地人，所以大部分笑料都基于本地文化认知，比如有很多关于种族刻板印象的幽默。

Kuala Lumpur it is an English speaking city, So overwhelmingly, it's locals performing for locals. So a majority of the humor really plays into local knowledge. So like, and there's a lot of humor about ethnic stereotypes.

明白了。

Okay.

但作为外国人我不能这么玩，一方面我不了解这些梗，另一方面我在本地观众中没有可信度。如果是个印度裔演员上台说'我嘲笑华人朋友吝啬，他嘲笑我是酒鬼'，这没问题。但要是我上台说'马来西亚人很懒对吧？'——绝对不行。

But as a foreigner, I can't really do that partly because I don't know the stuff and partly because I don't have any credentials with a local audience. So if if an ethnic Indian guy goes on stage and says, yeah, I was talking with my Chinese friend, and I made fun of him being, like, greedy, and he made fun of me being a drunkard, then this is okay because it's a local guy saying it and they are allowed to reference those stereotypes. But if I go on stage and say 'hey Malaysian people are lazy aren't they?' Nope. No. No.

不。不。不。不。不。

No. No. No. No. No.

不能那样做。是的。

Can't do that. Yeah.

这必须是从内部产生的那种东西。没错。是的。那你觉得什么方法有效呢？你最终会谈论些什么内容？

It's got to be from the inside sort of thing. Exactly. Yeah. So what do you find works then? What do you what what stuff do you end up talking about?

内容必须非常个人化，而我常做的那些更抽象的俏皮话在那里往往行不通，因为马来西亚观众习惯的是另一种幽默。他们喜欢双关语，喜欢基于当地社会文化的笑话。我有个关于学习马来语的经历段子效果不错。虽然手头没有笔记，但基本思路是：随着语言学习的深入，教材里的例句会反映社会文化。因为我上过两期共10节的马来语课，在第二册书里有些例句就很奇怪。

It has to be like very personal, and a lot of those kind of more abstract one liners that I do don't often work there because like Malaysian audiences are used to a different kind of humor. So they like puns, they like jokes that are based in their local social culture. I did one good bit that would work about my experience learning the Malay language. I haven't got the notes to hand, but basically the thought was that as you progress learning a language, the examples that are given in your textbook reflect the culture of the society. Because I did two sessions of 10 lessons of Malay language, and in the level two book, some of the examples were weird.

对吧？我无法想象人们为什么会进行这种对话。我记得其中几句，但想不起马来语原句了，这部分算是失败了。不过这些都是我马来语二级课本里的真实例句，我会在舞台上用的。

Right? I cannot imagine why people would be having this kind of conversation. I remember a couple of them. I can't remember the Bahasa Melayu, so that's kind of failed. But these are the true examples from my level two Bahasa Melayu book, I would use on stage.

例句一：我记得马来语是这么说的——那个老人快死了。

Example number one: I remember the Bahasa Mileo. The old man is almost dead.

哦，是吗？对，就是那种日常高频用语，你刚好需要的

Oh, yeah? Yes. Just normal everyday conversations, the sort of high frequency high frequency language that you'd need just

应付生活。我很少去超市时不评论某个快死的老人。

to get by. Rarely do I go to the supermarket without commenting on a old man that's nearly dead.

是啊。没错。你今天在超市找到所有需要的东西了吗？哦，找到了。

Yeah. Right. Exactly. Did you find everything you needed in the supermarket today? Oh, yes.

找到了谢谢。哦对了，那个老人快死了。哦，谢谢告知。

I did. Thanks. Oh, and by the way, the old man is nearly dead. Oh, thanks for letting us know.

对。对。没错。5号通道需要协助。有个快不行的老头。

Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Assistance on Aisle 5. There's a nearly dead old man.

好吧。他又来了。是的。

Right. He's back again. Yeah.

是啊。相当。所以有那个例子。还有另一个例子，我真的不记得印尼语怎么说。我当时在台上照着笔记念。

Yeah. Quite. So there was that. And another example for which I really don't remember the Bahasa. I was reading from notes on stage.

人质无法动弹，因为他的手脚都被绑住了。

The hostage cannot move because his arms and legs are tied up.

哦，好吧。这也很实用，因为你永远不知道，对吧？你永远不知道什么时候会需要处理人质谈判。某些关于

Oh, okay. Also, very useful because you never know, do you? You never know when you're gonna have to deal with a a hostage negotiation. Something on

一个被绑的人质，而你在去超市的路上。

a bound hostage while you're walking to the supermarket.

是啊。就像是，小心点。对。地上有个人质。没错。

Yeah. It's like, be careful. Yeah. There's a hostage there on the floor. Yeah.

他动不了因为他的腿和胳膊被绑在一起。哇。这真是个...这真是个很奇怪的内容放在语言学习教材里，不是吗？

And he can't move because his legs are arms and legs are tied together. Wow. That is a that is a really weird thing to put in a language learning course book, isn't it?

是啊。是啊。挺奇怪的。所以，我就...我就演练了那个。我演练了这个想法。

Yeah. Yeah. It was strange. So, like, I'd I'd I'd run through that. I'd run through the idea.

然后我...嗯，我有一些真实的例子和一些我编的例子。我会读出来让观众猜。这是真实的例子吗？还是我编的？

Then I'd well, I had I had some true examples and some examples that I made up. So I would read them out and get the audience to guess. Is this a true example? Is it one that I made up?

嗯。

Mhmm.

而且成功率大概五五开。

And about a fifty fifty strike rate.

这真的很奇怪。非常非常奇怪。我在想为什么。他们为什么会在教材里放这种东西？这又不是专门针对绑架情景的特定模块。

That is really odd. That is really, really odd. I wonder why. Why would why would they end up putting stuff like that in their coursebook? It wasn't like it wasn't a a specific module for dealing with kidnapping scenarios.

不，这些模块是基于语法点或语言点设计的。你本来在读一些可能用到的正常例句，突然就会碰到这些疯狂的内容。

No, the modules were based around a grammar point or a language point. So you'd be reading normal examples that you might use, then suddenly come across these insane things.

好吧。这确实挺怪的。绝对够奇怪的。

Okay. That's pretty weird. That is definitely pretty weird.

那个例子出现在被动语态的课程里。

That one was in a lesson about the passive form.

明白了。

Okay.

所以'他的手脚被绑住'是被动结构的例句。

So his hands and legs were bound is an example of the passive structure.

对。这确实令人难忘。我是说，这个语境很让人印象深刻。不过你只记得第一个例子吧？你应该不记得马来语里第二个例子怎么说吧？

Right. It's certainly memorable. I mean, you know, I guess the context is memorable. Whether you actually learned the you you remember the first one. You don't remember how to say that in in Malay, though, do you, the second one?

我不记得。没开玩笑。

I don't. I'm not kidding.

是啊。所以我只能祈祷希望这种情况不会发生。

So Yeah. So I'll just have to cross my fingers and hope it doesn't arise.

没错，希望如此。这样你永远不用处理那种情况。

Yeah. Let's hope so. So you never have to deal with that.

对。

Right.

嗯，好的。

Yeah. Okay.

从并肩工作到携手合作再到创造奇迹。通过ITOT融合加速

From working side by side to working together to working wonders. Accelerate

您的运营。与西门子一起改变日常。作为

your operations with ITOT convergence. Transform the everyday with Siemens. As

自己人生的主角，你知道为自己做出正确选择有多重要，以及为决定感到满意

the main character of your life, you know how important it is to make the right choices for you and how sweet

是多么美好。通过State Farm个人定价计划，您有多种选择来制定适合您的实惠价格，让您继续过上理想生活。今天就联系State Farm代理人，了解如何选择捆绑套餐并通过个人定价计划节省开支。如同好邻居，State Farm随时相伴。价格基于各州不同的费率计划。

it is to feel good about your decisions. With the State Farm Personal Price Plan, you have options to help create an affordable price for you so you can continue living your best life. Talk to a State Farm agent today to learn how you can choose to bundle and save with the personal price plan. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state.

保险选项由客户自行选择。可用性、折扣额度及储蓄金额以及资格条件因州而异。

Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts and savings, and eligibility vary by state.

我本来想问你关于旅行的事。你经常旅行对吧？你去过很多地方。只要有机会你就会去各种不同的地方。你有没有特别...其实首先，这样做的吸引力到底是什么呢？

I was gonna ask you about traveling. You you do a lot of traveling. You you go to lots of yeah. You you go to lots of different places whenever you can. Do you have a particular well, actually, first of all, what's what's the appeal of doing that then?

就是去一些你从未去过的地方？比如最近去了瑞士，在亚洲那边。你提到了一些你去过的国家。是的。这可能是个非常愚蠢明显的问题，但去一个你从未去过的地方有什么吸引力呢？

Just going off to some place you've never been to? Like, recently, went to Switzerland, out there in Asia. You mentioned some of the countries you've visited. Yep. This might be a really stupid obvious question, but what is the appeal of just going to a place that you've never been before?

体验。

Experience.

嗯。

Mhmm.

对，体验。所以看到新事物，了解一个地方，就像感受那里的空气、音乐和食物。我全是为了体验。所以看到新事物很有趣，即使是熟悉的事物，如果你重新去看，也会有趣。

Yeah. Experience. So seeing new things, getting to know a place, just like sort of feeling the the air and the music and the food. I'm all about experience. So like seeing new things, even seeing familiar things can be interesting if you're going back to it.

我记得我第一次离开英国时，我在加拿大、澳大利亚、新西兰旅行了六个月。在那之前，我在曼彻斯特住了大约十二三年，已经有点习惯了。那是我生活、工作、去健身房的地方。但离开六个月后回到曼彻斯特时，我以旅行者的眼光看待它，就像一个局外人。所以我实际上会注意到所有正在发生的酷炫有趣的事情，这些我以前都没注意到，因为我只是忙于生活。

I remember when I first left The UK, I traveled for six months around Canada, Australia, New Zealand. And before that I'd been living in Manchester about twelve or thirteen years, and kind of got used to it. It was where I lived and worked and went to the gym and what have you. But then after six months away when I went back to Manchester, I was viewing it with a traveler's eye, like as an outsider. So I would actually pay attention to all the cool interesting things that were happening, which I hadn't noticed before because I was just busy living my life.

是的。所以我喜欢去一个地方，跟着感觉走，感受它的脉搏。

Yeah. So I like to go to a place and just follow my nose and, get a feel for what makes it tick.

你到达一个新地方时有特别的例行程序吗？

Do you have a particular routine when you arrive in a new place?

我通常在去之前很少做研究。所以我会去一个地方，然后比如，我会去主要的艺术博物馆，拿一堆其他博物馆和画廊的传单。我会看看能不能找到一家唱片店，看看那里有什么传单或乐队的海报或正在进行的活动。如果有一座高塔可以上去，我就会上去，只是为了感受一下城市或小镇的布局。我经常会在小镇的主要部分好好走一走，然后迷路，跟着感觉走进一条看起来有趣的街道。

I often do very little research before I go. So I'll I'll go to a place, then I'll for example, I'll go to the main art museum and pick up a load of flyers for all the other museums and galleries there are. I'll see if I can find a record shop and see what flyers there are or posters for bands or events that are going on. If there's a big tower up to go up, then I'll go up the big tower just to get a feeling for how the city or the town is laid out. Often I'll just go for a good walk around the main parts of the town and, like, get lost, follow my nose down the street that has something that looks interesting.

嗯。嗯。

Mhmm. Mhmm.

你看，我会通过实地感受来了解一个地方。

You see, I'll I will feel my way into a place on the ground.

是啊是啊。你有没有遇到过什么奇怪的情况？因为你经常去这些地方，总有些未知因素存在。而且旅行时，你通常希望能遇到一些人，稍微了解他们。

Yeah. Yeah. Have you ever ended up in some sort of weird situation? Because you often go into these places, there's a bit of unknown there's an unknown element. And also, often when traveling, what you want is to meet some people and to kinda get to know people.

很多时候你根本不知道自己在哪或发生了什么，但你就是在探索。你有没有遇到过什么奇怪的情况？

And a lot of the time, you just don't know where you are or what's going on, but you're kind of exploring. Have you ever ever ended up in some sort of weird situation?

我先想想奇怪的事...一时想不起来。有一次在哥本哈根，晚上我在城里闲逛，远处传来低音鼓声，我就想去看看。沿着河边走了几分钟，发现有人搭了音响设备在开小型派对。

I'll come back to weird. Can't think of anything weird off the top of my head. In Copenhagen once, I was just walking around the city in the evening, and in the middle distance I heard a kick drum. So I thought I should go and investigate that. And like a few minutes walk away down by the river, some people had set up some decks and were having a little party.

很棒。他们在放电子音乐，一群人在跳舞。还有个小吃摊，可以买点吃的，在水边放松，听着音乐看人跳舞。我和那里的几个人聊了起来，比如一个叫约斯特的友善丹麦人。还和DJ卡斯滕聊了聊，他们邀请我去参加他们在红灯区一家酒店举办的休息室之夜活动。

Nice. So there was there was some techno being played, a bunch of people dancing. There was a food stand so you could get some food and chill out by the water, listening to the music, watching people dance. So I got talking to a couple of people there, like a friendly Danish guy called Jorst. Talked with one of the DJs, a guy called Carsten, and they invited me to a lounge night they were having, a hotel in the Red Light District.

有意思。

Interesting.

所以那很酷。我就去了酒店，边听音乐边闲逛。我问他们需不需要DJ，但他们说不用。

So so that was groovy. So I just like went down there and hung out at the hotel listening to the music. Yeah. I'm like, I've I asked if they wanted to DJ, but they said no.

好吧，他们已经安排好了。

Okay. They were they got that covered.

确实如此。

They did have. Yeah.

嗯。作为旅行者，你去过哪些最棒的地方？有哪些最棒的旅行经历？

Mhmm. Where are some of the best places you've been then as a traveler? What are some of the best traveling experiences you've had?

哦，大多数地方我都喜欢。特别喜欢里加，那里真的很美。在拉脱维亚，这是个很有趣的城市——有老城区、装饰艺术区，还有个进行黑市交易的混乱区域。

Oh, I enjoy most places. So loved Riga. Riga was really beautiful. That's in Latvia. It's very interesting city because there's the old town, there's an art deco district, there's a sketchy district where a kind of black market goes on.

嗯。还有一座巨大的斯大林主义建筑，建筑风格非常粗犷。某种程度上，我觉得还挺有意思的。我不介意那种大混凝土板的感觉。

Mhmm. There's also a gigantic Stalinist building, very brutal in its architecture Yeah. In a way that in a way that I find quite enjoyable. I don't mind, a big concrete slab.

嗯哼。那是个有趣的地方，不是吗？这些波罗的海国家确实很迷人。那里融合了不同文化和影响的组合很有意思。

Uh-huh. It's an interesting spot, isn't it, that, you know, the the these Baltic nations are quite fascinating, really. It's the interesting combination of different cultures and influences.

确实。比如拉脱维亚的年轻人，我想其他波罗的海国家也是，他们从小就会三种语言。在学校里，他们被教导说拉脱维亚语、俄语和英语。我和一个在徒步旅行中认识的人去了酒吧，那里买一送一莫吉托，还和几个英语流利的拉脱维亚当地女性聊了起来。

They are. Yeah. Like young people in Latvia, I guess in the other Baltics, grow up trilingual. They are brought up and taught in their schools to speak Latvian and Russian and English. So with with a guy I met on a walking tour, I went to a bar where they were doing two for one mojitos, got talking with a couple of local Latvian women who spoke flawless English.

真厉害。他们是怎么做到的？我是说，世界上有些国家的人英语就是特别好，比如我们通常会想到北欧国家，挪威、瑞典、丹麦、芬兰。而拉脱维亚、立陶宛、爱沙尼亚这些地方就在这些国家旁边。

It's impressive. How do they manage that then? And I mean because, know, there are we we know that there are certain nations in the world who just are just really good at English, like probably the Scandies are the ones we think of, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland. Yep. And Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, these places are right sort of right next door to these countries.

那里的情况类似吗？他们的英语也很好吗？

Is it a similar story there? Is their English also really good?

是的。所以我觉得这似乎是北欧国家的共同特点。

It is. Yeah. So I think it seems to be a Northern European thing.

是啊。这是怎么回事呢？

Yeah. What's going on there?

德国人的英语也很棒。这些地方的政府很进步，知道让民众会说英语是有用的。

Germany, also have excellent English. Yeah. Education. These places have progressive governments that know that it is useful for people to be able to speak English.

而且我觉得电视也有关系，对吧？就像我们想到挪威、瑞典、丹麦那样。他们播放很多英语节目，而且不配音。比如在法国，法律规定节目必须配音，他们通过这种方式保护法语。但很多人说，这也是法国人英语水平不如欧洲其他地区，尤其是北欧的原因之一。

And also, I think part of it is television as well, right, which is what we think of in Norway and Sweden, Denmark. I think they show a lot of shows in English which are not dubbed into the local language. Like in France, it's a law that things have to be dubbed, and they they they're protecting the French language by doing that. Yeah. But a lot of people say you know, French people say that this is actually part of the reason why maybe the level of English in France is not as competitive as it is in other parts of Europe, especially in Northern Europe, as you've said.

是啊，有道理。我去过的另一个地方，要么是西班牙要么是瑞士，也听说电影是配音的。

Yeah. Does make sense. Somewhere else I went, either Spain or Switzerland, was told the same, movies are dubbed.

是的，我认为这带来了巨大差异。不过我想如今有了互联网，这个问题可能越来越小了。而且我注意到在法国，年轻人的英语水平确实在提高。

Yeah. I think it makes a huge difference. Yeah. But I suppose these days with the Internet, that's probably less and less of a an issue. And I have noticed in France, the level of English among young people is definitely getting better.

我认为互联网产生了巨大影响。

I think the Internet makes a huge difference.

对，这是件好事。嗯。是的。没错。

Yeah. This is a good thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

我不认为这会一夜之间改变，但我想这确实在产生影响，我猜。

I don't think it's gonna change overnight, but I think that that is having an influence, I'd imagine.

嗯。总的来说，我认为全球的英语水平因为互联网正在提升。我是说，播客之类的，还有网飞，以及整体的同质化...对。文化和它的可获取性。要知道，曾经有段时间人们很难接触到大量英语听力内容。

Mhmm. I think generally, the level of English around the world is improving because of the Internet. I mean, you know, podcasts and stuff, but also just Netflix and the general homogeneity of of Yeah. You know, of culture and the accessibility of it. You know, there used to be a time when it was really hard for people to access a lot of listening content in English.

而现在，这些内容随处可见。

And these days, it's just everywhere.

是啊，从这个角度看，互联网确实改变了游戏规则。因为有Spotify、YouTube等等所有这些平台，让一切在任何地方都能触手可及。

Yeah. I mean, in in that way, like, the Internet has been a game changer because, like, there's there's Spotify, there's YouTube, there's all all of this. It has made everything accessible everywhere.

那么在马来西亚教英语，你觉得和在日本教学有什么不同体验吗？

So teaching English in in Malaysia, do you find it to be a different experience to teaching in Japan?

什么？哦，是的。

What's the Oh, yeah.

你的学生是什么样的？相比日本学生，他们在英语学习上会遇到哪些不同的问题？

What are your students like? What kind of issues do they have with English compared to, let's say, Japanese students?

再次强调，我们面对的是一个截然不同的市场，因为马来西亚主要是一个英语国家。但实际情况是这样的：在中国、中东、北非、中亚和东亚，有很多人想学习英语，其中许多人是因为需要雅思成绩才能去英语国家上大学。但去英国或澳大利亚学英语费用极其昂贵，而且由于签证问题往往难以实现。而马来西亚既便宜又对签证非常宽松，所以很多人选择来马来西亚学习英语。

Again, it's a very different market we're playing to because Malaysia is largely a English speaking country. But what's happening is this: in China, in The Middle East, in North Africa, in Central And Eastern Asia, there's a lot of people who want to study English, many of them because they need IELTS to be able to go to university in an English speaking country. But to go to England or to go to Australia and study English is madly expensive and often not possible because of the visa issues. But Malaysia is cheap and very generous with its visas. So a lot of those people come to Malaysia in order to learn English.

因此吉隆坡涌现了大量语言中心来满足这个市场需求。学生主要来自沙特、也门、中国和韩国。

So there's a lot of language centers have sprung up in Kuala Lumpur to meet that market. So mostly the students are Saudi, Yemeni, Chinese, Korean.

明白了。作为英语学习者，你觉得他们和普通日本学生有很大不同吗？

Okay. And do you find that as learners of English, are they quite different to the average Japanese student?

是的。他们更积极主动，比如不害怕开口说，也不怕犯错。

Yeah. They are much more forthcoming. So, like, not not afraid to speak, not afraid to make mistakes.

这对你的课程有什么影响？

How does that affect your lessons?

这让教学更轻松。由于我是兼职，主要做一对一私人教学，很多课程都是雅思辅导。所以不需要面对大型混合班级。

It makes it easier. Like, a lot of my lessons are IELTS because I I work part time. I just teach, privately, like, one to one. Mhmm. So I'm not having to deal with a big mixed group of people.

学生们都愿意开口、积极参与且投入，这是好事，能推动课程进展。

So the students are speaking and engaged and invested. It is a good thing. It helps the lesson progress.

确实。我在日本的经历虽然很棒，但有时挑战在于让学生开口，提升他们的流利度和口语能力。他们往往花大量时间做书面英语练习、翻译和语法，但最需要的是实际对话能力——即使一对一教学也很困难。

Yeah. Definitely. Mean, in my experiences in Japan, although I had fantastic times, yeah, sometimes the challenge was to get the students to speak, to get them to work on their fluency, to work on their speaking skills. Often they would they'd spent a lot of time doing English work on paper, a lot of translation, a lot of grammar work, but the thing they needed to do was to be able to actually have a conversation, and that could be really hard even in a one to one situation.

没错。我认为这是当地教育体系的结果，很多教学都基于语法翻译法，所以流利口语并不是他们常练习的内容。

Yeah. This is true. I think that that I think is just a consequence of the education system there. A lot of it is rooted in grammar translation. So speaking like speaking fluently is not something they practice much.

另外在小组教学中，如果是一群日本学生，你希望每个人都能平等发言、全员参与。但常见情况是，可能会有一位较年长的男性——通常比较流利——成为小组里的权威人物，其他人都会顺从他。当你向小组提问时，往往由他回答，然后他才会问'其他人怎么想？'

But then also in a group, if you if you had a group of Japanese students, what you want is everyone to do an equal amount of talking. You want everyone to be engaged, lots of speaking from everyone. Often what would happen is there'd be one maybe older man maybe who was probably quite fluent and would become the high status person in the group, and everyone would just kinda defer to him. So you'd ask a group the questions of the group, and he would probably answer, and then he'd say, What about everyone else? What do you think?

他们基本上只会说，哦对，就跟他说的那样。

And they would just basically say, Oh yeah, what he said.

没错。我确实记得那种场景。是的。就像一位年长的男士主导着讨论，其他人都在倾听、附和并点头赞同。

Yep. I do remember that. Yeah. Like the older man holding court and everyone else listening and agreeing and nodding along.

有很多人点头附和。是的。但当我回到英格兰在这里教学时，面对的是来自世界各地的学生群体。那完全是另一种不同的情况，每个人都更积极参与。一开始这让我相当震惊，因为管理起来相当困难。

A lot of nodding along. Yeah. But then when I came back to England and taught here, was teaching groups with people from everywhere. And yeah, that was a totally different different situation where you've got everyone taking part much more. And it became it was quite a shock at the beginning because it was quite difficult to manage.

人们非常直率。我有来自波兰、俄罗斯、韩国、南美等各地的学生。记得刚开始时我其实挺害怕的，因为人们都非常坦率直接，要求也很明确，但都很友善。现在的话，我肯定不会那么紧张了，反而会很喜欢这种积极回应的态度。但当时我刚在日本教了两年书，那是我职业生涯的前两年，突然面对一群中高级学生，他们提出各种问题和意见，确实挺吓人的。

People were very direct. I had people from wherever, like Poland, Russia, Korea, South America, and all sorts of places. And I remember being quite terrified, in fact, at the beginning because people were just really straightforward and really direct and quite demanding, but nice. I mean, these days, I would be far less intimidated by that situation, and I would really be glad for the kind of, that responsive kind of attitude. But having just spent two years, like the first two years of my career teaching in Japan and then being faced with a group of people, upper intermediate students, sort of like demand with all these questions and all these things to say, it was quite terrifying.

我能理解，因为那确实很不一样。我们习惯了自动成为权威人物，‘啊，大家都听我的’，但突然就不是这样了。我在马来西亚刚开始教学时也有类似经历，那时我每天教四小时课，上午两小时下午两小时，完美的日程安排，我很喜欢。我的学生中有一位埃及女士——希望她没在听这个节目。

I'm sure, yeah, because that's a very different thing. We are used to being automatically the authority figure, 'Ah, everyone is listening to me, not anymore.' I had a similar experience when I started in Malaysia, because when I started I was teaching like four hours a day. So two hours in the morning, two hours in the afternoon. Perfect schedule, loved it. One of my students was an Egyptian woman who I hope is not listening to this.

她人很好，我不允许任何人说她的不是，但她会极其直白地表达她对学校、制度和行政管理的厌恶。

She was lovely, and I will not hear a word said against her, but she would be brutally direct about how much she disliked the school and the system and the administration.

哦，真的吗？

Oh, really?

是的。

Yes.

哦，那确实挺难应付的。

Oh, yeah. That's that's tough.

她喜欢我这个人，会向我保证不是针对我，但她对课程管理方式很不满，而且毫不避讳地表达。比如她会直接说‘我讨厌某某学校’——具体校名我就不提了。

Like, she she liked me. She, like, she would reassure me that it wasn't anything against me, but she was not happy with the way her course was being administered, and she was not shy about saying it. Like, I hate name of school, which I'm not gonna mention.

是啊。在日本你通常不会遇到那种直截了当的表达方式。但说实话，我挺喜欢这样的。至少你知道对方的真实想法。

Yeah. You don't tend to get that kind of straightforward direct thing in Japan. But, you know, I like it, to be honest. You know? At least you know where you stand.

我住在法国。这里的人通常都很直接。

I live in France. People are generally pretty direct here.

没错。

Yes.

当你过了那种'天啊他们居然在说真心话'的震惊阶段后，会发现其实后果也没那么糟糕。在法国，人们确实会有冲突，会争论和持不同意见。

And, when you get beyond that sense of like, oh my god, they're saying exactly what they mean. Ah. When you realize that actually the the consequences are not really that bad, it's fine. Like, it's funny in France, people do have conflicts. They argue and disagree.

我上课时有时会看到学生意见不合，气氛变得有点激烈。以前这种场景让我很不自在，但有经验后我发现从不会真正升级。就像在街上，你会看到人们争吵，看到司机下车去质问卸货太慢的货车司机，他们会对吼，你在窗边都能听见。

And I see this in my lessons sometimes where students might disagree and it might become a little bit heated. And I used to get very uncomfortable in that situation, but with experience, I've realized that there it really never goes further than that. Like, even in the street, you know, you see people arguing. You see drivers getting out of their car to go to visit a van driver who's taking too long to unload his van, and they will shout at each other. You hear it from the window.

你过去时会想'要打起来了'，但他们从不动手。我在这里生活这么久，从未见过有人挥拳相向。可能我交往的圈子不对吧。

You go and you think, oh, there's gonna be a fight. They never have a fight. There's I've never seen fisticuffs. I've never seen actually someone throw a punch in in this country the entire time I've lived here. Maybe I just I'm hanging out with the wrong people.

但在英国，确实偶尔会看到打架。我在日本生活过两年，也见过一次斗殴，这很罕见对吧？

But in England, you know, yeah, you'd sometimes would see people fighting. Even in Japan, I spent two years there. I did see a fight happening once, which is Yeah. Quite That's rare, isn't it?

我完全不记得在日本见过这种事。

That is not something I remember ever seeing in Japan.

跟你说，那次太特别了。发生在盛夏时节，真的是我见过最罕见的事。

I tell you what, it was extraordinary. Right? Yeah. So it was in the height of summer. I mean, this is a really rare thing that I saw.

那是仲夏夜，我在公寓里试图保持凉爽。半夜睡不好时，听到外面有动静。记得我们公寓楼下有家可疑的酒吧对吧？我们几乎从不去那儿。

It was in the middle of summer and I was trying to stay cool in my apartment. It was the middle of the night and I wasn't sleeping very well. And I heard something going on outside. Now if you remember in our apartment, at the bottom, there was a dodgy bar that we Ah, yes. Never really went to.

我不确定你是否去过那里。

I don't know if you ever went there.

我记得那家店。对，我觉得是在隔壁那栋楼里？

I remember the one. Yeah. I think in the next in the next building?

我想应该是在隔壁楼或者我们这栋的某个角落。记不清了。对，肯定是在隔壁楼，但那是家看起来有点可疑的低档酒吧。

I think it was in the next building or part of our building. I can't remember. Yeah. It was must have been in the next building, but it was a sort of sketchy looking dive bar.

是啊。后来没——

Yeah. Didn't then

没。我和以前住我们楼里的一个家伙去过几次。唉，那地方真不靠谱。那里的人...我都不知道怎么形容，反正就是些鬼鬼祟祟的可疑分子。

No. I went there a couple of times with a guy that used to live in our building. Aye. And it was sketchy. There were there were sort of like I don't know how to describe the sorts of people who went there, but they were dodgy sort of Sketchy.

可疑到近乎犯罪的那种人。对，就是那种家伙。

Sketchy borderline criminal type Yeah. Guys.

然后

And

总之我听到骚动，就从五楼阳台往下看。我们楼旁边的停车场里，有两个人正在打架，场面太离奇了——他们都光着膀子。明白吗？哇，简直像电影情节。

so anyway, I heard a disturbance, and I looked over the balcony from the Fifth Floor. And down below in the car park next to our building, there were a couple of guys having a fight, and it was extraordinary because they had their tops off. Right? Wow. It was like something you have a film.

明显更厉害的那个家伙，每次对方冲上来，他就抓住人直接摔在地上，真的是

And the one guy who was obviously the better fighter, so the one would have a go at him and he would grab him and throw him, literally throw him onto the floor, slap on his back. He threw him down a couple of times, like kind of karate stuff that I was seeing. Wow. Slap onto his back on the tarmac. The guy would get up and have another go, and he would then flip him and throw him again, slap onto his back on the car park.

但这是我在日本唯一一次目睹打架。不过在法国，人们确实会有分歧和争执，但似乎最多就是提高嗓门。我确信这里也有人打架，只是我从未亲眼见过。

But that's the only time I ever saw a fight in Japan. But anyway, in France, yes, people will kind of disagree with each other and there will be discord, but it never seems to go much further than just raised voices. I'm sure people fight. Of course, people fight here. I've just never seen it.