美国国家公共电台 NPR Living In America 101: When Refugees Arrive, What Do They Need To Learn?

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST: 

While the Syrian refugee crisis gets much of the attention these days, newcomers arrive every day in the United States from all over the world. And when they get here, there is a lot to learn - language, culture, the healthcare system. To figure it all out, there are teachers to try to help. Gabrielle Emanuel of the NPR Ed team reports.

GABRIELLE EMANUEL, BYLINE¹: I want to tell you about someone I met in the airport. I was standing² there in Washington-Reagan on my way back from a reporting trip, debating whether to buy a snack. That's when a tall guy with a round face approached me. In a thick accent, he asked me to help him find his bag. He told me he'd just taken his first plane trip. As we walked to baggage claim, I learned his name - Edward Murinzi - and that's he's a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo. He just arrived to begin his new life.

EDWARD MURINZI: How will I start? You get scared. How will I manage?

EMANUEL: From finding his bag to finding his apartment and finding a job, there was so much for him to learn. I remember he thanked me for being his airport teacher, but it seemed to me he needed a teacher for the rest of America.

CLAIRE MUKUNDENTE: My name is Claire Mukundente.

EMANUEL: Halfway³ across the country, in Chicago, I met a woman. And that could be her job description - not for Edward, but for many others. Claire works for the Pan-African Association and spends her days visiting new refugees and helping⁴ them adapt to a new country. Today, she's heading into a well-worn apartment building on the city's north side. On the second floor, Alexia Mukambalaga and six of her family members share a two-bedroom apartment. They arrived two weeks ago from Congo, by way of Rwanda and Niger.

(CROSSTALK)

EMANUEL: The family crowds around a folding table for lunch, some standing, others sitting.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (Foreign language spoken, laughter).

EMANUEL: They tell Claire, food in America tastes like pineapples; it's so sweet. She says, food is always one of the first lessons - how to get it, how to cook it and what's healthy. Claire helps this family figure out what goes in the freezer and the fridge and how to use a stove. Claire says many Congolese have spent more than a decade in refugee camps, so a lot of the stuff in a kitchen is brand new to them - grocery stores, too.

MUKUNDENTE: Shopping can be a big deal, especially for your own food.

EMANUEL: Then she moves on to other lessons - social norms and gender⁵ dynamics⁶, the banking⁷ system and school registration⁸.

MUKUNDENTE: We talk about almost everything.

EMANUEL: Claire says these families have learned a lot shuttling between countries and refugee camps. But when they get to a place like Chicago, many of those skills don't translate.

Do you think of yourself as a teacher?

MUKUNDENTE: I see them as my family. I see them like me when I came.

EMANUEL: Clair fled Rwanda during the genocide. And after traveling through seven countries, she arrived in Chicago. It was rough. She cleaned hotel rooms and scrambled¹⁰ to learn English and find daycare for her three kids. Ten years ago, she decided¹¹ to start teaching other refugees what she'd learned. But not all refugees have someone like Claire. Three months after I met Edward at the airport, I visited his one-bedroom apartment. It's about 30 minutes outside of Washington, and he shares it with four other refugees. He told me, soon after arriving, he realized he needed to be his own teacher, so he started observing everything.

MURINZI: I try to observe very silently.

EMANUEL: How to read a map and a bank statement - he taught himself a lot of that. But Edward says there was more. He calls it invisible lessons - ideas. The biggest one?

MURINZI: Time...

EMANUEL: Time.

MURINZI: ...Was paramount¹² to every success in America.

EMANUEL: Edwards says that during his 20 years in a refugee camp in Uganda, time had never been linked to money. Just being a person, you got a food ration⁹. But here, he got a job. He was paid hourly as a line worker. He told me things have been hard. America hasn't quite been the promised land he expected.

MURINZI: I remember the story in the Bible - the Exodus¹³.

EMANUEL: Back in the refugee camp, he always thought life would be easy in America, like the biblical land of milk and honey. But now, he finds himself remembering that the Israelites struggled as refugees and newcomers. Eventually, though, they learned to adapt to life in a new land, and he says he will, too. Gabrielle Emanuel, NPR News.

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

3 halfway   

adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途

参考例句：

• We had got only halfway when it began to get dark.走到半路，天就黑了。
• In study the worst danger is give up halfway.在学习上，最忌讳的是有始无终。

4 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

5 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

6 dynamics   

n.力学，动力学，动力，原动力；动态

参考例句：

• In order to succeed,you must master complicated knowledge of dynamics.要取得胜利，你必须掌握很复杂的动力学知识。
• Dynamics is a discipline that cannot be mastered without extensive practice.动力学是一门不做大量习题就不能掌握的学科。

7 banking   

n.银行业，银行学，金融业

参考例句：

• John is launching his son on a career in banking.约翰打算让儿子在银行界谋一个新职位。
• He possesses an extensive knowledge of banking.他具有广博的银行业务知识。

8 registration   

n.登记，注册，挂号

参考例句：

• Marriage without registration is not recognized by law.法律不承认未登记的婚姻。
• What's your registration number?你挂的是几号？

9 ration   

n.定量(pl.)给养，口粮；vt.定量供应

参考例句：

• The country cut the bread ration last year.那个国家去年削减面包配给量。
• We have to ration the water.我们必须限量用水。

10 scrambled   

v.快速爬行( scramble的过去式和过去分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞

参考例句：

• Each scrambled for the football at the football ground. 足球场上你争我夺。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• He scrambled awkwardly to his feet. 他笨拙地爬起身来。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

12 paramount   

a.最重要的，最高权力的

参考例句：

• My paramount object is to save the Union and destroy slavery.我的最高目标是拯救美国，摧毁奴隶制度。
• Nitrogen is of paramount importance to life on earth.氮对地球上的生命至关重要。

13 exodus   

v.大批离去，成群外出

参考例句：

• The medical system is facing collapse because of an exodus of doctors.由于医生大批离去，医疗系统面临崩溃。
• Man's great challenge at this moment is to prevent his exodus from this planet.人在当前所遇到的最大挑战，就是要防止人从这个星球上消失。