Every year, hundreds of thousands of college students in the UK choose to take a gap year or a short-term volunteering trip abroad. They dig wells in Africa, build schools in Thailand and save elephants in India. 在英國,每年有數(shù)十萬大學(xué)生會選擇休個“間隔年”或是出國進行一次短期的義工之旅。他們前往非洲挖水井、去泰國建學(xué)校、到印度拯救大象。 It sounds like a win-win situation in which students broaden their experience by helping others, while locals benefit from their financial support, knowledge and skills. 學(xué)生通過幫助他人來增加個人閱歷,當?shù)厝藙t能夠從他們的經(jīng)濟、知識以及技術(shù)支持中獲益。這聽起來像是一個雙贏的局面。 But in recent years, gap year volunteering has come under fire for becoming just a fashion trend. 而近年來,“間隔年”義工因淪為一種時髦形式而飽受抨擊。 A video that went viral on YouTube in 2010 best captures the mindset of some gap year volunteers. It’s a three-minute comedy sketch called Gap Yah, in which a young, British, upper-middle class man tells his friend on the phone about his gap year in Tanzania, Peru and Myanmar. All of his experiences result in him “chundering everywhah” (slang for being sick or vomiting) due to drinking heavily every day. 2010年在美國視頻網(wǎng)站YouTube上瘋傳的一段視頻很好地捕捉到了一些“間隔年”義工的心態(tài)。這是一個名為《Gap Yah》的3分鐘喜劇小品,記錄的是一個年輕的英國中上層階級男士打電話向朋友傾訴自己在坦桑尼亞、秘魯和緬甸的“間隔年”。所有的這些經(jīng)歷都令他感到陣陣作嘔,因為他每天都喝得酩酊大醉。 Matt Lacey, the video’s creator, told The Guardian that “It’s a satire on the great number of people who seem to be leaving these shores to vomit all over the developing world.” 這段視頻的拍攝者馬特•萊西在接受《衛(wèi)報》采訪時說:“大批人離開自己的國家,跑到發(fā)展中國家去喝到吐,這著實很諷刺?!?/SPAN> But many volunteers have the best of intentions when they embark on their gap year. Their biggest problem, according to American Daniela Papi, founder of a non-profit organization that specializes in organizing gap year tours, is that they suffer from a superiority complex. Recently, Papi wrote a piece for the BBC sharing her view on gap year volunteering. 但是很多志愿者在著手實施“間隔年”時,初衷是好的。來自美國的丹尼拉•派彼是一家專門從事組織“間隔年”旅行的非盈利組織的創(chuàng)始人。在她看來,這些志愿者所面臨的最大問題是他們存在著一種優(yōu)越感。最近,派彼為英國廣播公司BBC撰寫了一篇文章,來分享她對“間隔年”義工的看法。 According to her, many Westerners believe that because they come from a wealthy country, they have the right to bestow their generosity and kindness on people in developing countries. But often they know little about the local people and their culture, and lack the necessary skills to help them. 在她看來,很多西方人認為,正因為他們來自富裕國度,所以有權(quán)對發(fā)展中國家的人民慷慨解囊、施以恩惠。但他們往往對當?shù)氐娜嗣窈捅就廖幕跎?,缺乏施助的必備技能?/SPAN> “It’s like we think we are all Clark Kent [Superman’s disguise as an office clerk],” Papi says. “At home we work hard to be useful in our jobs, but then we enter a magical phone booth and we take off to a far away country and somehow our Superman suit, or our volunteer T-shirt, gives us all of the power and knowledge we need to save the world.” “這就像我們認為自己都是克拉克•肯特一樣(超人偽裝成的辦公室職員),”派彼說?!霸趪鴥?nèi),我們在工作中努力做個有用之人,但當我們?nèi)缤死艘粯?,走入神奇電話亭,飛到一個遙遠的國度后,在某種程度上,我們的超人制服,即志愿者T恤為我們帶來拯救世界的力量和知識?!?/SPAN> Volunteering is not about volunteers fulfilling their dream of being a hero, Papi says. “The travelers are not just missing out on learning the lessons that lead to more sustainable changes in themselves and in the world, but they are also often negatively impacting the people they are meant to be ‘serving’.” “間隔年”義工并非是讓志愿者們實現(xiàn)自己的英雄夢,派彼表示:“這些‘間隔年’行者們不僅只是錯失了能夠帶給自身和世界更深遠變革的學(xué)習(xí)機會,也給他們本來的‘服務(wù)對象’帶來了負面影響。 |
[發(fā)布者:yezi] | ||
相關(guān)閱讀:
·女生教學(xué)樓墜亡 中日雙語遺書透露失去生活勇氣
·雙語:“間隔年”到底是不是一個好點子?
·英語熱詞:黨的“群眾路線”mass line
·雙語:非洲姑娘因中國藝術(shù)結(jié)緣的跨國之戀
·雙語:聯(lián)合國預(yù)測 世界人口2025年將達81億
|