BEIJING: Although I have lived and worked in China since October 2010, I am a native of Dallas, TX USA, born and raised there while I spent some time in the East Coast pf US, Washington DC, New York City and New Hampshire. So I have some familiarity about how average Americans think of China.

北京：雖然我從2010年10月開始在中國生活和工作，但其實(shí)我是美國德克薩斯州達(dá)拉斯市人，我在那里出生和長(zhǎng)大，同時(shí)我在美國東海岸、華盛頓特區(qū)、紐約市和新罕布什爾州呆過一段時(shí)間。因此，我對(duì)普通美國人如何看待中國有一些了解。

I was anti-China person myself until after moving to the Asian continent in South Korea from 2001 to 2007. At the time, I was just an ESL (English as a Second-language) teacher and not doing anything remarkable with my life. When I decided to move to Seoul, I was struggling professional career wise after graduating from college with a B.A. degree in Political Science.

到2001年至2007年搬到韓國的亞洲大陸之前，我都是個(gè)反中國人士。那時(shí)候，我只是一個(gè)ESL（英語作為第二語言）教師，人生中也沒有做過什么了不起的事情。當(dāng)我決定搬到首爾時(shí)，我剛從大學(xué)畢業(yè)并獲得政治學(xué)學(xué)士學(xué)位并且正在職業(yè)上掙扎。

I learned the hard way that when studying at a Liberal Arts’ school and deciding not to pursue a career path as professor or lawyer you will likely confront many challenges finding a stable and high-paying job.

我深刻地認(rèn)識(shí)到，當(dāng)你在文法學(xué)校學(xué)習(xí)，卻不將教授或律師作為職業(yè)追求時(shí)，你想找到一份穩(wěn)定的高薪工作，就會(huì)面臨許多挑戰(zhàn)。

Despite my love for reading Shakespeare, Aristotle and Tolstoy, it’s not easy persuading potential employees that my passion for reading the Western Classics should should place me as top priority in the hiring process.

盡管我喜歡閱讀莎士比亞、亞里士多德和托爾斯泰，但要說服潛在的雇主將我對(duì)閱讀西方經(jīng)典的熱情放在招聘考核的首位并不是件容易的事情。

But I have lived and learned from it and moved on. Nonetheless, I felt more comfortable among Asians as many of them are eager to learn, hard working and ambitious.

但我試過了，并從中吸取了教訓(xùn)，繼續(xù)前進(jìn)。正因如此，我在亞洲人中間感覺更舒服，因?yàn)樗麄冎械脑S多人渴望學(xué)習(xí)，努力工作，雄心勃勃。

But there was a harder edge to life in South Korea than I had anticipated. It was my experience that many South Koreans were perfectionists, quick tempered and impatient.

但是，在韓國的生活比我預(yù)想的要艱難。根據(jù)我的經(jīng)驗(yàn)，許多韓國人是完美主義者，脾氣急躁，沒有耐心。

But when people ask me why I chose to move to Korea back then it was simple. I wanted to try a new adventure and loved to travel. When reviewing job ads, there was a message about teaching English in South Korea and it captured my curiosity but to be honest I was not interested in teaching just wanted to try something new.

但是，當(dāng)人們問起我，為什么當(dāng)時(shí)選擇搬到韓國時(shí)，我的回答很簡(jiǎn)單。我想嘗試一種新的冒險(xiǎn)，并且我喜歡旅行。瀏覽招聘廣告時(shí)，有一則是關(guān)于在韓國教英語的信息，它吸引了我的好奇心，但說實(shí)話，我對(duì)教學(xué)不感興趣，我只是想嘗試新的東西。

So I called up the recruiter and two weeks later I was on a plane to work there. If the job ad said teach English in Japan, Vietnam, China or any other Asia-Pacific country I would have gone there without pondering the differences among Asian nations.

所以我給招聘人員打了電話，兩周后我就坐飛機(jī)去了那里工作。如果招聘廣告上寫的是在日本、越南、中國或任何其他亞太國家教英語，我肯定也會(huì)去那里，而不會(huì)去想這些亞洲國家有什么不同。

I mention this story to explain the notable ignorance on foreign affairs among average Americans. I was anti-China but I went to school, read books and most Americans I spoke to had hated China. I was young and never visited China so I made the logical conclusion that China is bad because most of my fellow Americans thank that’s true.

我提到這個(gè)故事是為了解釋普通美國人在外交事務(wù)上的明顯無知。我原本是反對(duì)中國的。無論是我在學(xué)校時(shí)，還是閱讀時(shí)，和我交談的大多數(shù)美國人都討厭中國。我當(dāng)時(shí)很年輕，從未訪問過中國，所以我做出了中國不好的邏輯結(jié)論，因?yàn)槲业拇蠖鄶?shù)美國同胞都認(rèn)為這是事實(shí)。

My perspective had changed dramatically after moving to South Korea and meeting local businessmen who told me they loved making trips to China and said the country was much better than what many others were saying.

搬到韓國并遇到當(dāng)?shù)氐纳倘撕?，我的觀點(diǎn)發(fā)生了巨大的變化，他們告訴我，他們喜歡到中國旅行，并說這個(gè)國家比許多人說的要好得多。

I took a weekend trip to Shanghai in 2005 and discovered the Chinese were not brainless Marxists, fanatical political zealots or ideologues, they were regular people and loved to enjoy life just like average Americans. The trip opened my eyes and knew I could feel comfortable in China if I choose to move there.

2005年，我利用周末去上海旅行，發(fā)現(xiàn)中國人不是無腦的馬克思主義者、政治狂熱者或意識(shí)形態(tài)主義者，他們是普通人，像普通美國人一樣喜歡享受生活。這次旅行使我大開眼界，并且使我明白，如果我當(dāng)初選擇搬到中國，我一樣會(huì)感到舒適。
原創(chuàng)翻譯：龍騰網(wǎng) http://nxnpts.cn 轉(zhuǎn)載請(qǐng)注明出處


And that’s what happened. I came to Beijing over 10 years ago and have stayed here. I point out that average Americans are not hearing the real story about China.

這就是在我身上所發(fā)生的事情。10多年前，我來到北京，并一直留在這里。我可以肯定地說，普通美國人從來就不了解真正的中國。

Many scholars with fancy titles and prestigious academic resumes are claiming to be ‘China experts,’ but they do nothing more than spew China hate. Their only expertise is knowing how to criticize China and sound convincing to others.

許多美國學(xué)者喜歡用一些花哨的標(biāo)題和所謂的權(quán)威學(xué)術(shù)研究履歷來宣稱自己是研究中國的專家，但是他們除了輸出對(duì)中國的仇恨以外什么都不干。他們唯一的會(huì)的就是如何批評(píng)中國并且如何使別人相信他們。

My recommendation for average Americans would be to encourage you to visit China and check it out for yourself.

我對(duì)普通美國人的建議是，你們應(yīng)該親自去中國，看看中國是否真的如你所認(rèn)為的那樣！

Latin experts not reading Latin and arabia experts not reading arabic are total jokes. China "experts" not able to read or understand chinese are total frauds .

就像拉丁文專家不會(huì)讀拉丁文，阿拉伯專家不會(huì)讀阿拉伯文這句笑話一樣。中國專家不會(huì)閱讀甚至不認(rèn)識(shí)中文，他們就只是在欺騙。