欢迎来到高邮:一个有着八十一万人口的中国小城。“高邮”,从字面理解上,意思是“筑高台,置邮亭”。而恰恰这个含义给我们提供了一个线索来探求它在中国历史上的重要意义。高邮是京杭大运河中的一个重要停靠站。尽管遭受着它所跨越的来自人工运河的严重洪涝,它也已经有超过两千年的历史了。对于一个过路人来说,这座城市本身似乎并不引人注目,但对于在那里住了一年的我来说,则领略到了这座城市的非凡之处——即高邮人民以及它美丽的春天。

足球场上的友谊

　　我是夏末来的,所以我并没有意识到它背后隐藏的美丽。我的祖国,英国,非常寒冷,但我很惊讶高邮也是如此。这种冷就像割开你的皮肤,侵入你的骨头。冬天它有时还会下点雪,把整个城市和乡村都装点得银光闪闪,它以它的姿态尽情展现着迷人的风情。虽然它仍然没有给我任何美丽春天的信息。

　　在高邮寒冷的冬日过后,大家都很欢迎春天的到来。尤其是油菜花盛放的时节。周围的乡镇都被这些漂亮的花涂成了漂亮的黄色。它们或者是农民种植的,或者是野外生长的。我的学校位于这座城市的郊区,在繁忙的一天教学工作结束后,我和我的爱人会经常骑着电动车下乡拍照,享受吹拂在发间的清风。我给她播放了一首来自英国音乐家斯汀的歌曲《金色的田野》。这首歌很快成为了我们穿越这片金色田野的歌曲选择。

　　我非常喜欢在高邮的生活。虽然其他季节并没有像春天一般的艳丽色彩,但是人们总会适时装点。

快乐英语——和我的学生在英语角

　　刚来学校时,学校的一位英语老师经常带我出去游历,他是我们在学校的监管老师。他有点懒散,但是非常幽默。幽默感对我来说很重要,因为在英国,我们的许多演讲以及谈话都充满了幽默。所以和有幽默感的中国朋友一起工作是非常棒的一件事情。在学校,我们还遇到了另一位可爱的当地老师,她也教英语。她经常到我们办公室聊天,或讨论课程,或看看我们的进展情况。

　　学校的许多英语老师都对“看看一个外国老师如何教学”非常感兴趣。所以一年里经常会有老师来听课,做笔记。这在我看来有些奇怪,因为他们中的很多老师比我更有经验(我只有28岁),而且我敢肯定他们也教得比我更好!不过,我很高兴能和大家分享,就像感觉自己很有影响力。我暗想,中国老师至少学会了一点“如何使课堂变得有趣以提高学生课堂的参与度”。而我很肯定的知道我从他们那里学到了一些课堂纪律和课堂控制!

　　既然谈了我在高邮的学校生活,就还要再谈谈我的学生们。我住过南京、禹山和婺源(后两者都在江西),但我还是对我在高邮的学生们拥有最深的感情。我从小学3年级教到初中8年级,所以我的学生们年龄差距很大。小学的孩子们用他们的可爱融化了你的心,而初中的学生们则真正和你紧密联系在了一起。他们的英语水平较高,显然也比较成熟。我的一些7年级和8年级学生将永远留在我的记忆中。他们中的许多学生并没有富裕的家庭背景,而在我的国家,这常常会导致学生放弃学习或不在乎他们自身的教育。然而在高邮我有很多这样的学生,他们是我所见过的最勤奋、善良、快乐和可爱的学生。我非常高兴能教这样的一群学生,他们让我所从事的教学工作成为了我的职业生涯中最有成就感的工作之一。

　　高邮的当地人民可能是我在旅行中见过的最友好的人们。我和我的爱人会经常被邀请去吃晚餐,我们和当地的一个数学老师,一个警察,甚至是我们的房东都成为了朋友!在高邮住了不久后,我被介绍到了当地的足球队。我加入了他们,他们不仅把我当作队友,还把我当作兄弟——即使我的中文和他们的英文都很差。这些所提到的人们都邀请过我到他们家里做客,让我感到我很受欢迎。中国人的热情好客表现在另一面上,而这些人们都是最棒的!

　　足球队里的一些人和数学老师“史提芬”还去了我爱人的家乡连云港参加了我们的婚礼。我很荣幸地在那里接待了他们,我还告诉他们,如果他们到英国来,他们可以放心地来我家里休息,我的家中永远有他们的一张床。我在高邮交到的朋友们和我在高邮教过的学生们赋予了这个地方对我的特殊意义!

　　作者:理查德·詹姆斯·史达兵顿(英国)

　　译文

Portraying Jiangsu from a Different Angle: My Life in Gaoyou

Richard James Stubington(United Kingdom)

Welcome to Gaoyou, afairly small Chinese city of eight hundred and ten thousand people. Gaoyou literally translates as ‘high post’ and this gives us a clue as to its historical significance. It was a major postal stop along the Grand Canal and the town itself has stood for over two thousand years despite suffering extreme flooding caused by the mighty man made canal that it straddles. The town itself may not seem remarkable to a passer-by, but having lived there for a year I can now appreciate what is remarkable about this city - its people and spring time.

I arrived at the end of summer, so I didn’t realise the hidden beauty of Gaoyou. My home country, England, can get rather cold, but I was surprised at how cold Gaoyou became too. The kind of coldnessthat cuts through your skin and bites into your bones. We had some snow too, which coated the city and surrounding countryside in sheen of white, very pretty in its own right but it still did not prepare me for the beauty of spring.

After a cold Gaoyou winter, spring was very much welcome. With spring came the rapeseed flowers. The surrounding countryside is painted yellow by these flowers. They are grown by farmers and also seem to grow wildly wherever they can too. My school is situated at the outskirts of the city, so after a long day of classes my wife and I would often ride around the countryside on our e-bike, taking photos and enjoying the wind in our hair. I played her a song called ‘Fields of Gold’ by Sting, an English musician. This song quickly became our song of choice as we drove around the edges of these beautiful golden fields.

I thoroughly enjoyed my whole stay in Gaoyou, whilst the other seasons don’t quite offer the vivid colours of spring, the people more than make up for it.

When I first arrived I was taken out by an English teacher at the school, this man turned out to be my supervisor for the year and he was laid back and had a good sense of humour. Having a good sense of humour is important for me as in Britain much of our speech, many of our conversations, involve humour. So to be working with Chinese people who are open to this was great.

At the school we also met a lovely local lady who was also an English teacher. She would often come to our office for a chat, to discuss lessons and to see how our classes were going.

A number of the English teachers at the school were interested to see how a foreigner teaches so throughout the year I would sometimes have other teachers observe my classes and take notes. This seemed odd as some of these teachers were much more experienced than me (I’m only 28 years old), and I’m sure they are also better teachers than me too! However, it was nice to share and to feel like I was having some kind of impact. I would like to think that the Chinese teachers learnt a little bit about how having fun in a class can improve class participation and I know I certainly learnt a bit about discipline and class control from them!

I cannot possibly talk about my school life in Gaoyou without talking about my students. I have lived in Nanjing, Yushan and Wuyuan (both in Jiangxi) and still I have most affection for my students in Gaoyou. I taught from grade 3 up to grade 8 across the primary and middle schools so my student age range was large. Whilst the youngsters from the primary school melt your heart with their cuteness, the real connections with students can be had at middle school. Their English level is higher and they are obviously more mature. A number of my grade 7 and 8 classes will stay in my memory forever. A lot of these students do not come from wealthy backgrounds, in my country this all too often results in students giving up and not caring about their education. In Gaoyou however I had many of these types of students, and they were some of the hardest working, kind hearted, happy and altogether loveable students that I have ever encountered. Students like these are a pleasure to teach and make the profession of teaching one of the most fulfilling careers out there.

The locals in Gaoyou are possibly the friendliest I’ve ever met on my travels. My wife and Iwere often invited to dinners.Wearebefriended a local maths teacher, a local police officer and even our landlord! After a short while of living in Gaoyou I was introduced to the local football team. I joined them and they truly treated me as not only a team mate but also as a brother - even in spite of my poor Chinese and their poor English. All the people mentioned above invited me into their homes and made me feel welcome. Chinese hospitality is simply on another level, and these guys were all fantastic! A handful of the football team and the maths teacher ‘Steven’ travelled to my wife's home town of Lianyungang to attend my wedding, it was a true honour to host them there and I made sure to tell them that if they ever visit Britain they can rest assured that they will always be welcome to a bed in my home. The friends I made in Gaoyou and the students I taught there are what makes this place special to me.