实战口语情景对话：Life Happens Up North 极北地区的生活

Todd: So Abidemi, you were a teacher in Canada, correct?

托德：阿比德米，你在加拿大当过老师，对吧?

Abidemi: That's true Todd.

阿比德米：没错，托德。

Todd: Now, where did you teach?

托德：你在哪里教书?

Abidemi: I taught in Northern Canada in a province called Nunavut.

阿比德米：我在加拿大北部的努纳武特地区教书。

Todd: Nunavut.

托德：努纳武特地区。

Abidemi: Nunavut.

阿比德米：努纳武特地区。

Todd: Nunavut. Wow is it like a native Americans type ..?

托德：努纳武特地区。哇哦，那是不是类似美洲土著地区?

Abidemi: Yeah, and except we call them Inuits.

阿比德米：对，我们称他们是因纽特人。

Todd: Inuits?

托德：因纽特人?

Abidemi: Aboriginals and First Nations.

阿比德米：原著民和土著居民。

Todd: So what was it like?

托德：那里怎么样?

Abidemi: I really liked it. It was great. Very different from other parts of Canada. Very cold obviously because it's in the far north, and the communities are very isolated. Very few people live there. In the particular community were I lived, there were about a thousand people, maybe less living there. So everything has to be shipped in, or flown in by ship that comes in the summer when the oceans melt, and then in the winter, they usually fly them in, so food was quite expensive, housing expensive. Yeah, it was a different experience for me.

阿比德米：我非常喜欢那里。非常棒。那里和加拿大其他地区有很大差别。当然，那里非常寒冷，因为那里位于极北部地区，而且社区与外界隔绝。那里的居民非常少。我生活的那个社区，大概只有1000个人居住。所有物品都要靠船只运送或是空运，夏天海冰融化以后，物品由船只运来，而冬天物品要靠空运，所以食品价格非常昂贵，房价也贵。对我来说，那是一段与众不同的经历。

Todd: Wow, what's life like that far north?

托德：哇哦，极北地区的生活怎么样?

Abidemi: Life happens, and it's interesting how similar it is to what we have down south in Southern Canada, the other parts of Canada. Like they have TVs and similar housing, but you do have to be careful when using water because the infrastructure is a little different. The ground is frozen, so they don't have indoor plumbing. They have plumbing but they don't have running water. The water has to be brought to each house almost every day and sewage also has to be taken away, so you have to be careful how you use water. That's one part. Also, you don't get access to all the things that you want to buy. Sometimes you go to the supermarket, and maybe all the bread is gone, or the milk has not been flown in yet, so you have to be patient with that as well, and you don't get the same variety of products as you would get in larger places, so yeah, and as winter... As you get more and more into the winter months, it gets darker earlier, so maybe around four o'clock in the afternoon it's already dark outside, and by the time you go to work in the mornings too, when you're going around seven, eight o'clock, it's dark outside, so you're like... it's dark a lot.

阿比德米：生活总要继续，有意思的是，那里的生活和我们在加拿大南部地区的生活非常相似。那里有电视，住房也类似，不过你在用水时要格外小心，因为基础设施不太一样。因为地上会结冰，所以他们没有室内管道。他们有管道，不过他们没有自来水。基本上每天水会被送到每户家中，污水会被处理掉，所以在用水时要格外小心。这是其中一点。另外，你不能买到所有你想买的东西。有时你去超市会发现面包已经卖完了，或者牛奶还没有被空运来，所以你要有耐心，而且超市内物品的种类也没有一些大城市的多样化，冬天……进入冬季以后，天黑得越来越早，可能下午四点天就黑了，那个时候早上也是一样的情况，早上七点时天还是黑的，所以黑夜时间很多。

Todd: Wow, what was it like being in an environment where you had so little sunlight?

托德：哇哦，在阳光如此少的环境中生活怎么样?

Abidemi: It was hard, but I kind of feel like, I'm used to it. I took vitamin D tablets to help with that. So, yeah, but because I was working for the most part, I didn't feel like it was too hard, and then during the holidays, I would come back down south to my family, so I wasn't there too much during downtimes. I did spend part of Christmas vacation there, and that was nice. They had a lot of activities outside for community members: ice sculpturing, winter games on the ice, Inuit games, different things like that. So it was fun. It was really an experience that was culturally enlightening. If I could say that for me. I really enjoyed it. I really, really enjoyed it, though there were challenges as well. The isolation and the fact that if you wanted to go to other places that weren't in the community, you had to fly out, so it's very expensive to go there.

阿比德米：很难，不过我我想我已经习惯了。我会吃维生素D片来应对。不过因为我大部分时间都在工作，所以我感觉其实不是那么难，一般假期我会回南部去和家人一起过，所以休假期间我在那里的时间不太多。不过圣诞假期我是在那里过的，其实很不错。他们为社区成员准备了很多室外活动：比如冰雕、冰上的冬季运动、因纽特游戏等等。所以很好玩。那真的是在文化上有启迪作用的经历。我想说，我真的非常享受。我真的很喜欢，虽然也有挑战存在。比如隔离性，还有如果你想去社区外的其他地方，你必须要坐飞机，所以花费很昂贵。

Todd: Oh, what an experience. Sounds cool.

托德：哦，这是多么难忘的经历啊。听上去很酷。

Abidemi: Yes, I loved it and I would like to do it again someday.

阿比德米：对，我很喜欢，我希望有一天我能再体验一次。