by Keith Sands凱斯?桑茲

I’m an English teacher working in Russia, and for some reason I really don’t like that classroom topic - Talk About Your Family. Perhaps it’s because everyone studied English from the same book at school. So all the students say, “My family consists of five members. Me, my mother, my father, my brother and my dog…” And so on. As if all families are exactly the same.
我是俄羅斯的一名英語(yǔ)教師，由于某些原因，我真的不喜歡班級(jí)討論的話題-比如介紹你的家庭。也許，這是因?yàn)槊總€(gè)人在學(xué)校里學(xué)的是同一本英語(yǔ)書(shū)。所以，所有的學(xué)生都會(huì)說(shuō)，“我的家庭由五個(gè)成員組成。我，我的媽媽?zhuān)业陌职郑业母绺绾臀业墓贰敝T如此類(lèi)。感覺(jué)所有的家庭是完全一樣的。

It’s such a shame, because our families are unique. All families have their stories, their dramas, their private jokes, nicknames and phrases. They’re the place where our personalities were made. How often have you heard someone with young children complain “Oh no, I think I’m turning into my parents…”?
這其實(shí)是很遺憾的一件事，因?yàn)槲覀兊募彝ザ际仟?dú)特的。所有的家庭有他們自己不一樣的故事，情節(jié)，笑話，昵稱(chēng)以及說(shuō)話方式。那是塑造我們性格的地方。你應(yīng)該經(jīng)常會(huì)聽(tīng)見(jiàn)某個(gè)有小孩的人抱怨：“噢，不，我的生活正變得像我父母那樣……”？

The other day I found myself turning into one of my grandparents. I was trying to get my daughter (1 year and 8 months old) to eat her dinner and I said “That’ll make your hair curl.” Now, I don’t think that green vegetables give you curly hair, or even that curly hair is a great thing to have. It’s just a phrase I heard from my Granddad a hundred times when I was small. It had stayed in my mind, half-forgotten, until the time I could use it myself. I wonder if he heard it from his own grandparents? How many other old-fashioned phrases like this stay inside families, when the rest of the world has forgotten them?
有一天，我發(fā)現(xiàn)我自己正變得像我祖父母那樣了。我正努力讓我女兒（1歲8個(gè)月）吃晚飯，我說(shuō)：“那會(huì)讓你的頭發(fā)變卷的。”現(xiàn)在，我認(rèn)為綠色蔬菜并不會(huì)讓你頭發(fā)卷曲，或甚至卷發(fā)并不是很棒的東西。這只是我小時(shí)候，聽(tīng)祖父說(shuō)了無(wú)數(shù)次同樣的話。這句話在我心里面，已被我忘記了一半，直到我可以自己用這句話。我很好奇這句話是否是祖父從他自己的祖父母那兒聽(tīng)來(lái)的。當(dāng)世界其它地方已經(jīng)忘記這樣的老式說(shuō)法，又有多少還保留在家族里面呢？

Shaking the family tree 搖搖族譜大樹(shù)

Talk about your family? “Well…they’re just there”, we say. Our families are so ordinary to us that we even think they’re boring. Not a bit of it! Families are the most exotic things on earth. If you dig enough in your own family, you’re sure to come up with all the stuff you could want for a great novel. Surprising characters, dramatic or funny stories passed down for generations, or a face from the past you recognise – maybe in your own. Someone or something unique to your family. Or, as genealogists like to say, “Shake your family tree - and watch the nuts fall out.”
談?wù)勀愕募彝ィ俊班拧麄兙驮谀莾骸?，我們說(shuō)。對(duì)于我們來(lái)說(shuō)，我們的家庭很普通以致讓我們覺(jué)得無(wú)趣。不過(guò)根本不是這樣的。家庭是地球上最吸引人的東西。如果你對(duì)自己的家挖掘得夠多的話，你一定會(huì)想到足以寫(xiě)成一本偉大小說(shuō)那么多的東西。家人那些讓人驚奇的性格特點(diǎn)，流傳一代又一代的戲劇性的或有趣的故事，或一張你熟悉的來(lái)自過(guò)去的臉-也許是你自己的事情。對(duì)于你家里面來(lái)說(shuō)，那些獨(dú)特的人或事情。或者，就像系譜專(zhuān)家喜歡說(shuō)的：“搖搖族譜大樹(shù)-看看掉下來(lái)的果實(shí)?！?/p>

My mother started tracing our family tree a few years ago, not expecting to get far. But, digging in old records and libraries she got back three hundred years. She turned up old stories and a few mysteries. What happened to the big family farm? Where did the family fortune go in the 1870s? More to the point – where is it now?
我媽媽幾年前就開(kāi)始研究我們的族譜，并不指望深度研究。在舊記錄，舊書(shū)庫(kù)里翻查后，她了解到了三百年的家族史,發(fā)現(xiàn)了不少老故事和神秘事件。家族的大農(nóng)場(chǎng)到底發(fā)生了什么事情？19世紀(jì)70年代的家族財(cái)產(chǎn)去了哪里？問(wèn)得更直接一點(diǎn)—這些財(cái)產(chǎn)現(xiàn)在在哪里？

I’m the traveller in my family, and I like to think I got it from a great-grandfather on my Dad’s side. He was an adventurous soul. My two favourite family heirlooms are a photo of him on a horse in a desert landscape (1897 in Patagonia) and a postcard home from Portugal complaining that his boat was late because of the Revolution in Lisbon. “Dreadful business, they seem to have arrested the King...” he says. If you look at your family, you open a window on the past.
我是家里最?lèi)?ài)旅行的那個(gè)，我覺(jué)得這是從我曾祖父身上遺傳下來(lái)的。他有一顆冒險(xiǎn)的心。我最喜歡的兩件傳家寶是他在荒野騎馬的照片（1897年攝于巴塔哥尼亞）和一張從葡萄牙寄回家的明信片，他抱怨里斯本在鬧革命，這導(dǎo)致他的班船晚點(diǎn)了?！翱膳碌氖虑?，他們似乎逮捕了國(guó)王……”他說(shuō)。如果好好看看自己的家族，你就能打開(kāi)通向過(guò)去的一扇窗戶。

History in miniature 歷史縮影

Start someone talking about their family stories and they might never stop. You’ll find the whole history of your country there, too. When my mother, still putting the family tree together, asked me for a few names from my Russian wife’s family, my wife got on the phone to her own mother. Just to check a name or two. But they were still talking an hour later, and she’d filled 5 pages of A4 paper. And so I was introduced to: someone who lived through the siege of Leningrad (but forgot how to read in the process), a high official in the Communist Party, and some rich relations who used to go to Switzerland for their holidays before the Revolution. There was also a black sheep of the family (or “white crow” as they say in Russian) who left his wife and children and disappeared in the Civil War – though nobody in the family knows which side he fought on. All these people seemed impossibly exotic to me.
讓某人開(kāi)始講他家的故事，很可能就永遠(yuǎn)停不下來(lái)。你可以從中發(fā)現(xiàn)你的國(guó)家的整個(gè)歷史。母親在拼湊族譜時(shí)，問(wèn)了我一些我的俄羅斯妻子家人的名字，我妻子打電話給她媽媽?zhuān)皇菃?wèn)到了一兩個(gè)人的名字。但一個(gè)小時(shí)過(guò)去了，她們還在電話里聊著，妻子最后做了5頁(yè)A4紙的記錄。然后，她就跟我介紹這些人：當(dāng)時(shí)某個(gè)生活在列寧格勒圍城的人（忘記他/她的名字怎么念了），一個(gè)共產(chǎn)黨高官，還有一些在大革命前常去瑞士度假的富親戚。其中有一個(gè)“黑羊（敗家子）”（俄羅斯語(yǔ)中稱(chēng)為“白烏鴉”），丟下他的妻子和孩子，在內(nèi)戰(zhàn)中失蹤了——盡管家族里沒(méi)人知道他為哪一邊而戰(zhàn)。這些人對(duì)我來(lái)說(shuō)簡(jiǎn)直像天外來(lái)客一樣。

Who wears the trousers? 誰(shuí)穿褲子？

To go back to that English class then, let’s get rid of the phrase “my family consists of…” and look at some more interesting ways to talk about families. English is rich in idioms to talk about family life. We’ve mentioned the black sheep of the family – that’s someone who didn’t fit in, or caused a family scandal. If you’re loyal to your family, you can say blood is thicker than water or keep it in the family. If you share a talent with another family member, you can say it runs in the family. You might have your father’s eyes or your mother’s nose. If you’re like one of your parents, you can say like father, like son or you can be a chip off the old block.
我們?cè)倩氐接⒄Z(yǔ)課堂，不談“我的家庭由……組成”，讓我們看看一些有趣的介紹家庭的方式。英語(yǔ)里，用于談?wù)摷彝サ牧?xí)語(yǔ)有很多。我們已經(jīng)提到了家族里的“black sheep”(敗家子）—就是那些不合群或讓家族蒙羞的人。如果你忠于你的家族，你可以說(shuō)“ blood is thicker than water （血濃于水）”或者“ keep it in the family（讓它成為家族的秘密）”。如果你和另一位家族成員有同樣的天賦，你可以說(shuō)“it runs in the family(一脈相承）”。你可能眼睛像父親或鼻子像母親。如果你長(zhǎng)得像父親或母親，你可以說(shuō)“l(fā)ike father, like son（有其父必有其子）”或“you can be a chip off the old block（和他們一個(gè)模子刻出來(lái)的）”。

Who wears the trousers in your family? (Who’s the head of your family?) You might affectionately talk about your bro, your sis or your folks (parents). Or if you like Cockney slang, what about her indoors or the missus to talk about your wife? Though both these phrases make feminists reach for their guns.
你家誰(shuí)穿褲子？（即，誰(shuí)是你家里的老大？）你可能會(huì)親切地談起你的兄弟，姐妹或你的親屬（父母）?；蛘吣阆矚g老倫敦的俚語(yǔ)，談?wù)撈鹉愕钠拮?，你可以用“her indoors（內(nèi)人）”或“the missus（太太）” 。盡管這些習(xí)語(yǔ)會(huì)讓女權(quán)主義者氣得想掏槍。

If you want to get more technical, you can discuss the benefits of the nuclear family: a small family, just parents and children living in the same house. If grandparents or other relatives live there too, then you have an extended family. In English we talk about the average nuclear family with the phrase 2.4 children.
如果你想深入使用一些術(shù)語(yǔ)的話，你可以談?wù)労诵募彝サ暮锰帲汉诵募彝ゼ词切〖彝?，只有父母和孩子同住一個(gè)房子里。如果祖父母或其他親戚也住在那兒，那么你就有一個(gè)大家庭。在英語(yǔ)中，我們用“2.4 children”來(lái)描述一般的小家庭。

Then there are idioms that have left the family (flown the nest) and gone on to have a life of their own. You can’t teach your grandmother to suck eggs. It means you can’t tell your elders anything they don’t know already. But why would anyone want to suck eggs anyway? Now here’s a really strange one. A Londoner is telling someone how to get a new passport. “Get four pictures taken, pick up a form in the post office, hand it in with your old passport and …Bob’s your uncle.” It means “the problem is solved”. But I’d love to know who the original Bob was, and why he was such a useful uncle to have.
另外還有一些習(xí)語(yǔ)，偏離了原有的意思，衍生出了另外獨(dú)立的意思。“You can’t teach your grandmother to suck eggs.”意思是別在長(zhǎng)輩面前班門(mén)弄斧。但為什么會(huì)說(shuō)“吃雞蛋”？接下來(lái)這句才是奇怪的習(xí)語(yǔ)。一個(gè)倫敦人告訴某人如何拿到護(hù)照?！罢照掌?，在警察局填好表格，表格和你的舊護(hù)照一起上交……問(wèn)題解決了?！薄癇ob’s your uncle.（鮑勃是你叔叔。）”意思是“問(wèn)題已經(jīng)解決了。”但是我想知道最初的鮑勃是誰(shuí)，為什么那個(gè)叔叔這么有用。