英美文化差异一

　　Most learners of English around the world will learn a little about Britain and/or America while they are studying. But what do people really know about the culture of these two countries?

　　Do British and American people share the same culture, or are they totally different?

　　To help answer this Ask About Britain question, Jo and Oliver spoke 1 to a British man married to an American woman living in the UK, and an American man living in the UK. What did they think about the differences in British and American culture?

　　Listen to Jo's report to find out how the two cultures difference

　　BBC Learning English ? Ask About Britain

　　About this script

　　Please note that this is not a word for word transcript 2 of the programme as

　　broadcast. In the recording 3 and editing process, changes may have been made

　　which may not be reflected here.

　　一

　　British and American Culture 英国文化VS美国文化

　　Jo: Hello, I’m Jo and you're listening to Ask About Britain from BBC

　　Learning English, the programme where we answer your questions

　　about how British people live their lives.

　　Oliver: My name is Oliver and today we are going to answer the question

　　from this man:

　　Insert

　　Hi my name is Zhong Shi. I'm from the Communication University of China in

　　Beijing. How is British culture different from American culture?

　　Oliver: 听众 Zhong Shi 想了解英国文化和美国文化之间到底有什么样的不同，为此

　　我们特地采访了英国人 Mark， 他娶了一位美国太太，两个人在一起已经生活

　　了七年了。让我们听一听他是怎么说的。

　　Jo: Listen to what he thinks the differences are:

　　Insert

　　I think the single biggest difference is that Britain is a very very old country

　　whereas the US ? it's a very new country. I think they're probably more forward

　　thinking than we are, more forward looking ? we are quite backward thinking

　　people.

　　Jo: So Mark says the single biggest difference,

　　Oliver: 一个最大的不同就是英国是一个古老的国家，相反，美国是一个年轻的国家。

　　whereas 然而、相反。这是一个在英语中表达对比时候常用的连接词。

　　Jo: He says Americans are probably more forward thinking ? by which

　　he means they look to the future more.

　　Oliver: 美国人考虑未来，而英国人更看中过去。因为英国人觉得对于一个有着悠久历

　　史的国家来讲，过去是美好的。

　　Jo: In today's Ask About Britain from BBC Learning English, we are

　　answering Zhong Shi's question about the differences between

　　British and American culture. We also spoke to Jeff ? he's an

　　American who's been living with his American wife in the UK for

　　seven years ? he also lived here for a year and a half in the 1980s.

　　二

　　Oliver: 让我们再来听听美国人的观点吧。

　　Insert

　　What I see more of now is subtle differences that are distinct but not as blatant 4

　　differences as I saw when I lived here in the 80s. What I see are differences

　　primarily in attitudes ? there's much more of a remnant of a class system in the

　　UK ? we have classes in the US but it's primarily more socio-economic as opposed

　　to classes in the UK about history or where you're from, what your background is.

　　Jo: Jeff says now there's distinct subtle differences between American

　　and British culture. Distinct.

　　Oliver: 明显的和微妙的, subtle 不像是在八十年代的时候那么招摇，或者是说突出。

　　Jo: Blatant. The differences are primarily in attitudes. Primarily.

　　Oliver: 首先是态度上的。在英国仍然有残存的等级观念。残存的

　　Jo: Remnants of a class system. There are classes in the UK.

　　Oliver: 阶级、等级。与之不同的是，在美国等级观念是建立在经济基础上的，更多的是根据你的工作和收入决定的。请注意， Jeff 用了一个词儿是社会经济方面的。

　　Jo: Socio-economic.

　　Oliver: Jeff 认为英国人眼中的等级是建立在你的家族背景基础上的，人们关心的是你的来头儿而不是你的工作。

　　Jo: And finally what about the difference in character between the

　　British and the Americans? Let's look at some of the language first