All about Americans

美国人面面观

 

How the Americans See Themselves

美国人怎样看自己

 

Americans are proud to be Americans but each individual will explain that he, personally, is not like the other Americans. He is better. Americans are proud to be different from each other, and from the world.

 

美国人很骄傲自己是美国人。但每个人又会说，就个人而言，自己是不同于其他美国人的，因为他比别人更好。美国人为互不相同、为自己不同于世界上其他的人而感到骄傲。

 

There’s no such thing as a plain American. Every American is a hyphenated-American. An American will say“I’m Polish”or“I’m Italian” because his great-grandparents were born in Poland or Italy.

 

真正意义上的美国人是没有的。每个美国人除了有美国国籍之外，还各有其祖籍。一个美国人会说“我是波兰人”或“我是意大利人”，因为他的曾祖父母是在波兰或意大利出生的。

 

A spirit of rugged individualism pervades virtually every aspect of American life. Americans’ heroes are outlaws, like wild west gunfighter Jesse James,or entrepreneurs, like Sam Walton, founder of the Wal-Mart chain of superstores. Every American worker has fantasies of one day going into business for himself.

 

一种不加掩饰的个人主义精神几乎渗透到美国生活的各个方面。美国人心目中的英雄是亡命徒，像剽悍不羁的西部枪手杰西·詹姆斯，或者是企业家，像沃尔玛连锁超市的创始者萨姆·沃尔顿。每个美国员工都幻想将来有一天自己能开办企业。