[转帖]环球也能成为“博士”：3年 环球之旅教会我的20件事

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	环球也能成为“博士”：3年 环球之旅教会我的20件事。 MarkTwain 于2010-08-27 03:32:53翻译 | 已有1333人浏览 Gary Arndt 是美国独立旅行摄影社和作家。2007年3月开始他进行了一次为期三年半的环球旅行。这篇文章是他环球的一些感悟。不少有趣的价值观。 Tags:世界 | 文化 | 旅行 | 媒体 | 民主 | 国家 | 说谎 | 学会 | 环球 | 东帝汶     （译者：虽然和 http://article.yeeyan.org/view/71272/129588  重复了，但是还是想译。）  On March 13, 2007, I handed over the keys to my house, put my possessions in storage and headed out to travel around the world with nothing but a backpack, my laptop and a camera.    记得那是2007年3月13日，我寄放了房子的钥匙，将财产存放妥当。然后轻装上阵开始了我的环球之旅，陪伴我的仅仅是一个背包，一台笔记本和一部相机。 Three and a half years and 70 countries later, I've gotten the equivalent of a Ph.D in general knowledge about the people and places of Planet Earth.Here are some of the things I've learned:    在经过三年半70个国家的游历之后。我已经获得了相当于一个博士在地球人文地理方面的常识积淀。 下面是我在旅行中学到的一些事情： 1）People are Generally good   1)人总是友善的    Many people are afraid of the world beyond their door, yet the vast majority of humans are not thieves, murderers or rapists. They are people just like you and me who are trying to get by, to help their families and go about living their lives. There is no race, religion or nationality that is exempt from this rule. How they go about living their lives might be different, but their general goals are the same.    大多数人都害怕外面的世界越过自家大门，但是绝大多数人并不是小偷、杀手或者强奸犯。他们只像你和我一样在努力养家糊口，以他们的方式在生存着。尽管他们 如果去过活自己的日子可能不同，但是他们的基本目标都是一致的。在这一点上不论涉及种族、宗教或者民族都是一样的。 2）The Media lies   2)媒体在“说谎”    If you only learned about other countries from the news, you'd think the world was a horrible place. The media will always sensationalize and simplify a story. I was in East Timor when the assassination attempts on President José Ramos-Horta, and Prime Minister Xanana Gusm?o in 2008. The stories in the news the next day were filed from Jakarta or Kuala Lumpur, not Dili. It was all secondhand news. Iwas in Bangkok during the political protests this year, but you'd never have any idea they were taking places if you were not in the immediate area where the protests were taking place. The media makes us scared of the rest of the world, and we shouldn't be.    如果你只是从新闻上得知其他国家是怎么样的，那你会认为世界处处都是可怕的地方。媒体将总是让一个故事缺斤短两误导民众。2008年有人企图刺杀东帝汶总统 Jose Romas Horta和总理Xanana Gusmao，我当时也在东帝汶。第二天看到的都是二手新闻，里面都是雅加达和吉隆坡的新闻，却没有帝力（东帝汶首都）的。今年我在曼谷的时候那里正发生政治抗议，但是如果你不在离发生抗议很近的地方，你根本不会知道他们在那里抗议。媒体使得我们害怕外面的世界，但是我们不应该害怕。1          译者：东帝汶抵抗组织于2008年2月11日侵入总统和总理的就家，开枪并重伤了总统 José Ramos-Horta，期间还打爆了总理Xanana Gusmão的车。这次攻击被多方理解为试图刺杀，绑架以及政变未遂。      3） The World is boring   3) 世界是平静的    If there isn't a natural disaster or an armed conflict, most places will never even be mentioned in the news. When is the last time you've heard Laos or Oman mentioned in a news story? What makes for good news are exceptional events, not ordinary events. Most of the world, just like your neighborhood, is pretty boring. It can be amazingly interesting, but to the locals, they just go about living their lives.    如果不是因为天灾人祸或者战乱冲突，许多地方可能从来也不会在新闻中被提及。你最后一次在新闻中听到老挝和阿曼被提到是什么时候的事情了？好事不出门坏事传千里。可能就像你的邻居，世界上的大多数地方总是相当平静。可是有意思的是，那里的人们只是在朝九晚五、乐业安居。 4) People don't hate Americans.   4）人们不恨美国    I haven't encountered a single case of anti-Americanism in the last three-and-a-half years. Not one. (And no, I don't tell people I am Canadian.) If anything, people are fascinated by Americans and want to know more about the US. This isn't to say they love our government or our policies, but they do not have an issue with Americans as people. Even in places you'd think would be very anti-American, such as the Middle East, I was welcomed by friendly people.    在这三年半中，我没有遇到过一起反美的例子.一个也没有。（当然他们都以为我是美国人，我也没有告诉他们我是加拿大人）如果有什么的话，那就是一些人们会为 美国着迷并想更多的了解美国。尽管这不是说这些人喜爱我们的政府或者我们的政策，但是他们却和美国人民没有矛盾。尽管你在诸如中东那种你觉得可能充斥着反美主义的地方，我仍然被友好的人民所欢迎。 5) Americans aren't as ignorant as you might think.   5） 美国人不是像你可能想象的那样无知    There is a stereotype that Americans don't know much about the rest of the world. There is some truth to that, but isn't as bad as you might believe. The reason this stereotype exists is because most other countries on Earth pay very close attention to American news and politics. Most people view our ignorance in terms of reciprocity: i.e. I know about your country, why don't you know about mine? The truth is, if you quizzed people about third-party countries other than the US, they are equally as ignorant. When I confronted one German man about this, I asked him who the Prime Minister of Japan was. He had no clue. The problem with America is that we suffer from the same problem as the rest of the world: an obsession with American news. The quality of news I read in other parts of the world is on a par with what you will hear on NPR.    美国人不太知道外面世界的事情，这是个老套的说法，有点道理，可是也没有你可能认为的那样糟糕。这个说法的来源是因为世界上大多数的其他国家非常关注美国的新闻和政治。大多数人用一种对等的方式来看待问题，从而觉得我们是无知的。比如，我了解你的国家，为什么你不了解我的？而事实是，如果你问的是对第三世界 国家而不是美国的了解，那个被你问的人一样会不了解。当我在这个问题遇到一个德国人的时候，我就问他知不知道谁是日本内阁总理大臣。他完全抓不着头脑。美国遇到这样的问题也使得我们别的国家遇到同样的问题：美国新闻过分关注。我在世界其他地方读到的新闻质量会如在国内电台听到的差不多。 6) Americans don't travel.   6）美国人不喜欢旅行    This stereotype is true. Americans don't travel overseas as much as Brits, Dutch, Germans, Canadians or Scandinavians. There are some good reasons for this (big country, short vacation time) and bad ones (fear and ignorance). We don't have a gap year culture like they have in the UK and we don't tend to take vacations longer than a week. I can't think of a single place I visited where I met Americans in numbers anywhere close to our relative population.    这个传言是真的。英国人，荷兰人，德国人，加拿大人或斯堪的纳维亚人比起来，美国出国旅行并不多。对此，有一些好理由（繁华大国，假期短暂）也有一些负面的 （恐惧和无知）。我们并不像在英国一样有空闲年的文化传统，我们不会休超过1周德假期。我去访问的那些地方中没有一个能够遇见很多美国人。   译者：空闲年或者是间隔年, 可以让学生们在大学之前有一年的时间好好享受人生。壮游（Grand Tour），西方也叫空档年（The Gap Year），素有走出去传统的欧洲，空档年就是西方年轻人“转大人”的阶段，可能相当于我们的成人礼，他们绝大多数是选择出国壮游来完成这项成年礼。 7) The rest of the world isn't full of germs.   7）世界的其他地方不是满是细菌    Many people travel with their own supply of water and an industrial vat of hand sanitizer. I can say in full honestly that I have never used hand sanitizer or gone out of my way to avoid contact with germs during my travels. It is true that in many places you can get nasty illnesses from drinking untreated water, but I don't think this means you have be a traveling Howard Hughes. Unless you have a particularly weak immune system or other illness, I wouldn't worry too much about local bugs.    许多人在旅行的时候携带自己的水还有一瓶超大桶装洗手液。我百分百诚实地可以说，在我的旅行中我从来没有使用过洗手液或者刻意去避免接触细菌。确实在不少地方你会因为饮用未处理的水而得难受的病，但是我不认为这意味着你得是一个旅行版的霍华德休斯。除非你免疫系统比较弱或者有其他疾病，否则我觉得你完全可以无视那些当地的问题。   译者：霍华德.休斯（全名为小霍华德.洛巴德.休斯，Howard Robard Hughes, Jr.），是美国著名航空家，工程师、企业家、电影导演、花花公子、怪人（有些是因为罹患强迫症的影响）以及当时世界上最富有的人之一。霍华德.休斯患有强迫性精神症。50年代末，曾经是美国最引人瞩目的人之一的霍华德.休斯彻底从公众的视线中消失。尽管小报经常报道关于霍华德.休斯的谣言，但是这些消息多半无法得到证实，例如不同的报纸曾经多次报道过霍华德.休斯的死亡。霍华德.休斯在很早就表现 出来，在30年代，霍华德.休斯的朋友说霍华德.休斯在吃他最喜欢吃的豆子的时候对豆子的大小非常介意，要用一个特殊的叉子把豆子按大小排序后再吃。在拍摄The Outlaw的时候，霍华德.休斯对Jane Russell的衣服的小问题表现出非常的执着，声称衣服上的褶暴露出了Jane Russell的乳头。后来他给工作人员写了一个详细的备忘录说明如何处理这个问题。 霍华德.休斯最终陷入了彻底的隐居状态，每天把自己锁在黑屋子里面。尽管他有一个随叫随到的理发师，霍华德.休斯每年才剪一次头发和指甲。在霍华德.休斯居住的地方通常会有好几个霍华德.休斯高价雇佣的医生，但是霍华德.休斯很少让他们看病而且不听他们的。在他生命的末期，霍华德.休斯的圈子里主要为摩门教徒，因为他认为只有摩门教徒才可以相信。 在这一阶段，霍华德.休斯对可待因，安定等多种药物上瘾，并且越来越虚弱。很多传记和小说里说他用牛奶瓶装尿，并且用纸巾盒做鞋。但据报道他仅有一次马桶漏水的时候用纸巾盒做鞋以“保护”自己。他坚持拿东西的时候要垫上纸巾，这样可以把他和细菌隔开。霍华德.休斯很年轻的时候就感染了梅毒，在三期梅毒阶段他的手上长了小水疱，一般认为医生曾经在这一阶段告诫他不要同别人握手，霍华德.休斯把这一不同别人握手的习惯保持了终生。霍华德.休斯还曾经烧毁了自己的全部衣物，有人认为这是因为他担心他害怕梅毒细菌会寄生在他的衣物中。    8) You don't need a lot stuff.   8）你不需要太多东西    Condensing my life down from a 3,000 sq/ft house to a backpack was a lesson in knowing what really matters. I found I could get by just fine without 97% of the things I had sitting around my home. Now, if I purchase something, I think long and hard about it because anything I buy I will have to physically carry around. Because I have fewer possessions, I am more likely to buy things of higher quality and durability.    将我的生活从一幢3000平米/英尺的房子压缩到一个背包，是一节名为“什么是真正重要的？”课程。我发现我能够在坐在家里可以在没有97%的东西的情况下过 活。现在，如果我买东西，我会认真的思考很久，因为任何我买回来的都是要实际要带在身边的。由于我的财产较少，我会更愿意购买高质量经久耐用之物。 9) Traveling doesn't have to be expensive.   9）旅行不需要太多钱    Yes, if you insist on staying in five-star hotels and luxury resorts, travel can be very expensive. However, it is possible to visit many parts of the world and only spend $10-30 per day. In addition to traveling cheap, you can also earn money on the road teaching English or working on an organic farm. I've met many people who have been able to travel on a little more than $1,000/month. I met one man from the Ukraine who spent a month in Egypt on $300.    是的，如果你坚持要住五星酒店或者奢华的休闲度假地，旅行自然会很贵。然而，每天开销10-30美元来周游列国也不是天方夜谭。除了旅费廉价，你还能够通过 在旅途中教英语或者给农场打工来赚钱。我遇见过不少人能够以每月1000多一点的旅费来旅行。我遇到过一个来自乌克兰的男子用300美元在埃及呆了一个月。 10) Culture matters.   10） 文化问题    Many of our ideas for rescuing other countries all depend on them having similar incentives, values and attitudes as people in the west. This is not always true. I am reminded of when I walked past a Burger King in Hong Kong that was full of flowers. It looked like someone was having a funeral at the restaurant. It turned out to be people sending flowers in celebration of their grand opening. Opening a business was a reason to celebrate. In Samoa, I had a discussion with a taxi driver about why there were so few businesses of any type on the island of Savai'i. He told me that 90% of what he made had to go to his village. He had no problem helping his village, but they took so much there was little incentive to work. Today the majority of the GDP of Samoa consists of remittances sent back from the US or New Zealand. It is hard to make aid policies work when the culture isn't in harmony with the aid donors expectations.    我们产生许多要援救其他国家的想法都是来源于他们和西方国家的人民有类似的做事动机，价值观以及生活态度。但是，当我在走过香港一家满是鲜花的汉堡王店时突 然觉醒事实并不总是如此。这看起来就好像有人在餐馆搞葬礼。但其实是人们送花来庆祝开业大吉。开业竟然是庆祝的一个缘由。在萨摩亚，为什么岛上没有什么萨 瓦伊的商业生意。他告诉我他90%的收入交要给他的村子。他要养活他的村民倒是没有问题，但是他们却因为拿太多而没有工作激情了。今天萨摩亚的主要GDP 是由美国或者新西兰发来的援助汇款组成的。当受援助地方的文化与援助方的期待不和谐的时候，援助政策也变得难以开展了。 11) Culture changes.   11） 文化变迁    Many people go overseas expecting to have an "authentic" experience, which really means they want to confirm some stereotype they have in their mind of happy people living in huts and villages. They are often disappointed to find urban people with technology. Visiting a different place doesn't mean visiting a different time. It is the 21st Century, and most people live in it. They are as likely to wear traditional clothes as Americans are to wear stove top hats like Abraham Lincoln. Cultures have always changed as new ideas, religions, technologies sprang up and different cultures mingled and traded with each other. Today is no different.    许多人去国外旅行期待有一个“真实的”体验，事实上，那是他们想要确认那些盘踞在脑海中的一些念头，对国外的一种想象，村庄炊烟冉冉，小屋中人们幸福地生 活。结果他们总是失望的发现现代化的都市人。旅游一个不同的地方，并不意味着旅游一个不同的时代。现在大多数的人都生活在21世纪了。他们可能穿传统的服装，就好像美国人要戴像 亚伯拉罕林肯那样的炉灶顶帽子。文化总是随着新的想法，信仰，兴起的科技变化着，不同的文化相互交融互换。今天没有什么不同。 12） Everyone is proud of where they are from.   12） 每个人为他们家乡自豪    When you meet someone local in another country, most people will be quick to tell you something about their city/province/country that they are proud of. Pride and patriotism seem to be universal values. I remember trying to cross the street once in Palau, one of the smallest countries in the world, and a high school kid came up to me and said, "This is how we cross the street in PALAU!" Even crossing the street became an act to tell me about his pride in his country. People involved in making foreign policy should be very aware of this.    当你在另一个国家遇到某人，多数人将会很快告诉你一些关于他们所在城市/省会/国家 的自豪之处。自豪和爱国主义似乎是全球普遍价值观。我记得一次在帛琉（帕劳）这个世界上最小的国家过街的时候，一个高中生走过来说：“在帛琉我们就是这么过街的！”即使是过街这样的寻常事也会成为这孩子向我表现对他祖国自豪的华丽演出。制定外交政策的人应该非常清楚这一点。      帛琉共和國（英語：Republic of Palau；帛琉語：Beluu er a Belau），是太平洋上的島國，位於菲律宾群島以東500公里。帛琉1994年從美國的託管統治下獨立。主要產業是漁業和旅遊業，主要宗教信仰是基督教和古老的Modekngei教派，70%人口属密克罗尼西亚人种的當地土著，其餘人口主要是菲律賓人。      13) America and Canada share a common culture.   13）美国和加拿大共享一种文化    This may irk Canadians, but we really do share a common North American culture. If you meet someone overseas, it is almost impossible to tell if they are American or Canadian unless they have a particularly strong accent, or they pronounce the letter "z." It is easier to tell where in England someone is from than it is to tell if someone is from Denver or Toronto. We would probably be better off referring to a "North American" culture than an "American" culture. What differences do exist (Quebec being the exception) are more like differences between states and regions of a similar country.    加拿大人看了这可能会有点生气，但是我只是想分享一种北美洲人所共有的文化特性。如果你在海外简单一个人，如果他没有非常强烈的口音的话你几乎很难分辨出他 到底是美国人还是加拿大人。可以说你想判断一个英国人来自英国的哪个城市都要比判断一个人到底是来自丹佛还是多伦多容易。所以我们最好称之为“北美文化” 而非”美国“文化（魁北克是个例外）。要说这之间真有差别的话，那也只是相似国家州与州之间的差别罢了。 14) Most people have a deep desire to travel around the world.   14）大多数人都对环游世界有一种深深的欲望    Not shocking, but every day I meet people who are fascinated by what I do and how I live. The desire to travel is there, but fears and excuses usually prevent people from doing it. I understand that few people can drop what they are doing and travel around the world for three years, but traveling overseas for even a few months is within the realm of possible for many people at some point in their lives.    没什么奇怪的，但是每天我都遇见那些因为我的存活处世之道而着迷的人。这其实就是想要旅行的欲望，但恐惧和借口总是阻止他们去做。我明白很少有人能够放下他们手头正在做的事情去花三年时间周游时间。但是短期出国旅游，甚至几个月对许多人的生活来说是可行的。 Even on an island in the middle of the Pacific, people who would probably never leave their home island talked to me of one day wishing they could see New York or London for themselves. I think the desire to explore and see new things is fundamental to the human experience.    即使生活在那些位于太平洋中部的岛屿上的人们，可能从来都没有离开过他们出生的岛屿，也告诉我他们想自己去看看纽约或者走走伦敦。我想渴望探索发现新的事物是人类获取经验的基本需求。 15) You can find the internet almost everywhere.   15） 你几乎可以在所有地方找到互联网    I have been surprised at where I've found internet access. I've seen remote villages in the Solomon Islands with a packet radio link to another island for their internet access. I've been at an internet cafe in the Marshall Islands that accessed the web via a geosynchronous satellite. I've seen lodges in the rainforest of Borneo hooked up to the web. I once counted 27 open wifi signals in Taipei on a rooftop. We truly live in a wired world.    我曾经为找到互联网接入点而惊喜。我曾经见识过所罗门群岛的村庄通过无线数据连接到另一个岛来进行互联网访问。我曾在马绍尔群岛上的一个网吧呆过，那里上网 是通过同步轨道卫星的。我见过婆罗洲雨林中的小屋挂在网上。我曾经在台北一个房顶接收到过27个开放的WIFI接入点信号。我们确实生活在一个数字世界。 16) In developing countries, government is usually the problem.   16) 在发展中国家，政府通常是个问题    I have been shocked at the level of corruption that exists in most developing countries. Even if it is technically a democracy, most nations are run by and for the benefit of the elites that control the institutions of power. Political killings, bribery, extortion and kickbacks are the norm in many places. There is little difference between the Mafia and the governments in some countries I've visited. The corruption in the Philippines was especially surprising. It isn't just the people at the top who are corrupt. I've seen cops shake people down on the street for money, cigarettes or booze.    我已经被存在于大多数发展中国家贪污腐败的程度深深震撼了。尽管从形式上来说是民主那么回事儿，但是大多数国家是在掌控权力机构的精英们的利益驱使下在缓慢运转着。政治谋杀，贿赂，勒索，回扣在这里如司空见惯的平常事一般。在我游历的一些国家中政府和黑手党没有太大区别。 17）English is becoming universal.   17）英语变得普遍    I estimated that there were at least 35 native languages I would have had to have learned if I wanted to speak with locals in their own tongue. That does not include all the languages found in Papua New Guinea or Vanuatu or regional dialects. It is not possible for humans to learn that many languages. English has become the de facto second language for the world. We are almost to a point where there are only two languages you need to know: whatever your parents speak... and English. English has become so popular it has achieved an escape velocity outside of the control of the US and UK. Countries like Nigeria and India use it as a unifying language in their polyglot nations. Other countries in the Pacific do all their schooling in English because the market just isn't there to translate textbooks into Samoan or Tongan.    在我的环球之旅中，如果我要用当地话来进行交流，那我至少要学35种母语。这还不包括所有的在巴布亚新几内亚 、瓦努阿图发现的语言或是方言。对人类来说不太可能学那么多种语言。英语已经成为名副其实世界范围内的第二外语。我去的地方几乎都是只有两种语言你需要掌 握：你父母讲的不管哪里的语言，还有就是英语。英语已经达到第二宇宙速度挣脱了英国美国的束缚向全世界各个角落飞去。像尼日利亚和印度这样的国家在他们的 多种语言中选择英语作为一种统一的语言。其他太平洋的国家都用英语来进行教学，因为市场不会再那里把课本翻译成萨摩亚语或者汤加语。 18）Modernization is not Westernization   18） 现代化不是西化    Just because people use electricity and have running water doesn't mean they are abandoning their culture to embrace western values. Technology and culture are totally different. Japan and South Korea are thoroughly modern countries, but are also thoroughly Asian. Modernization will certainly change a culture (see #11 above), but that doesn't mean they are trying to mimic the West.      人们的生活中有了电和流淌的自来水，不意味着他们放弃了自己的文化而去拥抱西方价值观。科技和文化从根本上是不同的。日本和南韩算是进化彻底的现代国家，但也是纯粹的亚洲国家。现代化将会在某种程度上改变文化（见上面#11），但是那不意味着他们试图去复制西方的文化。   19) We view other nations by a different set of criteria than we view ourselves.   19）我们在看其他国家的时候总是带着与看我们自己国家不同的标准。    On the left, people who struggle the hardest for social change, decry changes in other countries that they view as a result of globalization. On the right, people who want to bring democracy to other countries would be up in arms at the suggestion that another country try to institute change in the US. In both cases, other nations are viewed by a different set of rules than we view ourselves. I don't think most people around the world want the help or pity of the West. At best, they would like us to do no harm.      一方面，那些为了社会变革而倾尽全力的人们，会诋毁其他国家那些在他们看来是全球化带来的变化。另一方面，那些想把民主带给世界其他国家人民的美国人们，可能会因为别的国家试图改变美国的建议而愤怒不已。两种情况下，我们都是戴着有色眼镜用不同的标准去看其他国家的。我不认为世界上大部分人想帮助或者会怜悯 西方国家。他们顶多是希望我们不要做出伤天害理的事情。2   20) Everyone should travel. 20）每一个人都应该旅行 At some point in your life, whether it is after college or when you retire, everyone should take some extended trip outside of their own country. The only way to really have a sense of how the world works is to see it yourself.      在你一生中的某个时刻，不论是在大学毕业之后或是等到退休，经历一下那种走出自己国家的旅行总是好的。想要真正感受到这个世界是如何在运作的，就用你自己的眼睛来见证吧！