大家都在聊的间隔年，真的值得去吗？丨CD电台

Can you tell us what Gap Year is? What do people do during Gap Year?
能跟我们普及一下什么是间隔年吗？人们在间隔年里都干些啥？

A gap year is a year usually between college and working, but it might be between high school and college, where instead of just going on to the next thing you are expected to do, like going to college or into a job, you take some time off to just do whatever you want. Live your life before you get sucked into the corporate hellscape. Enjoy your youth while you are young!
间隔年通常是指年轻人在大学毕业进入职场，或者高中毕业进入大学之前，拿出一段时间来做自己喜欢的事情。在被万恶的公司剥削之前先小过一下自己的人生，趁年轻享受生活。

It sounds like a very romantic idea. It would give people a chance to get out of their familiar surroundings and explore the world. 
间隔年听起来很浪漫，让大家走出自己熟悉的圈子，体验不同的生活。

What do people do during gap year? Usually something they’ve always wanted to do but wouldn’t have time to do if they were working a standard job. Travel is the biggest one. Some people might also work on a pet project or something of personal importance to them, or teach themselves a skill, like photography, drawing or sewing. 
间隔年可以做些什么呢？通常是做一些自己一直想做、却又没时间做的事情。最流行的就是去旅行。也有人会利用这个时间发展一下自己的爱好，或者自学一门技能，比如摄影、画画或者缝纫。

There are also some non-traditional ways of doing a gap year.  Some colleges or institutions have gap year programs to provide internships, teaching, or volunteer opportunities abroad. Teaching languages are a big one, like my former Chinese teachers were from a program provided by Sichuan University. But these programs usually have a higher requirement for your skills, like you have to prove that you’re are capable of teaching.
也有一些非传统的间隔年，有的大学或者机构会有间隔年项目，提供一些去国外实习、教书或者当志愿者的机会。去国外当语言老师就是很常见的方式，像我之前的中文老师们就是通过四川大学的一个海外教职项目过来的。但这些项目通常都对个人能力有一定的要求，比如你得证明你会教书。

For science researchers who have PhD degrees, visiting scholar visas are available throughout most of the world, where they can spend one or two years in a lab abroad doing projects there. So in theory, they can also go travel and experience a different life if they have down time, but that’s a big if. Although this sounds like a perfect plan for a gap year, it might end up just switching the lab window scenery. In your recently popular internet language: they would feel like they got a fake gap year.  
有博士学位的科研人员则可以申请访问学者的签证，几乎每个国家都会提供这种签证，让外籍科学家花一两年在本国的实验室里工作，完成一些项目，达到学术交流的目的。理论上来说，科学家们也能趁这期间到处逛逛，体验一下不同生活。然而这只是个美好的假设，科研人员并没有什么休息时间，很有可能到最后你发现变化的只是实验室窗外的风景罢了。借用你们的网络用语，他们会觉得自己过了一个“假间隔年”。

Anyway, I would say that the traditional definition of gap year is still the real one, where you can just take a break. 
总体来说，我更认可传统的间隔年定义，即这是让你能够按下暂停键、自由支配的一年。

Will a gap year make you less competitive in the job market? Have you ever done or planned a gap year?
间隔年会让你在求职的时候缺乏竞争力吗？你曾经体验或者计划过间隔年吗？

It’s hard to say, I feel like people who are capable of taking a gap year are probably pretty well-off to begin with. You need to have money to travel if you are going to take a gap year anyway. A regular working Joe is not gonna have the money to spend on that because they just got out of college. 
很难说，首先我认为能够负担得起间隔年的人多半是有钱人，因为旅行一年是需要很多钱的，一个普通的打工族不大可能负担的起，因为他们才刚毕业而已。

So I feel like, if you’re wealthy enough to take a gap year, you probably already have the connections to get yourself a job when you come back. It probably won’t affect your job prospects that much. But maybe that’s just me being cynical. 
所以我觉得，如果你都有钱任性到能玩儿间隔年了，还能没点背景？有背景的话，回来找工作应该也不是什么难事，所以小小一个间隔年是不会影响求职的。不过也许这只是我个人的一些愤青观点……

The main place that it might affect you is if you are in the field that’s changing rapidly and taking a year off is going to make you become disconnected with your field. I could see that possibly being the case in a lot of science jobs right now, since things are advancing very quickly. 
说正经的，对于一些发展迅速、知识更新换代很快的领域来说，还是会受影响的。因为一年的时间足以让你落后很多了。很多科学方面的工作就有这样的特点。

So if you take a year off and you are not paying attention to what’s going on in science, then maybe you’ll be behind when you try to get back into the workforce. But for the most part, I don’t think it would matter that much. 
如果你休息整整一年，期间又没有关注科研的最新进展，找工作的时候可能就会落伍。但是对于其他大部分的工作来说，休一年应该没什么关系。

I discussed the gap year idea with my Chinese friends, a lot of them show great interest. But they're also concerned that a gap year will make them miss the opportunities in the job market though. Well, I kind of agree with them because the friends I have and me myself are all in the rapidly changing science field. So doing a gap year is not a great idea. But if you are in a field that requires more varied life experiences, like writers or journalists, I could image it might be a great idea to take a break to experience life. 
我也和我的中国朋友们讨论过这个话题。很多人表示对间隔年这种生活方式很感兴趣，但他们也不敢轻易尝试，因为担心这一年会让他们错过好的求职机会。我其实也是这样觉得的，因为我的这些朋友，包括我自己都处在变化很快的科研领域，所以间隔年不大现实。但如果你的工作是需要很多不同生活阅历的，比如作家或是记者，我觉得停下来体验人生就是个很棒的主意。

But what do I know? I’ve never done a gap year, so I’m just kind of making this up.  I’d like to take some time off after getting my PhD, but I’m not sure that can happen financially. I haven’t planned it for real ever. Honestly my only plan now is to just graduate ASAP and make real money.  
但是我知道的也不多啦，我从没亲自体验过间隔年，所以也是纸上谈兵而已。我挺愿意在博士毕业后能有一个间隔年，但不确定经济能否支撑，所以从来也没有真正计划过。说实话我现在唯一想做的，就是赶紧毕业赚钱。

Some comments refer to gap year as ‘privilege for the rich’. What are your thoughts about this? 
有一些人认为间隔年是“富人的特权”，你怎么看？

I think it’s definitely privilege for the rich because most people at that point in their lives probably don’t have the money to go travel or live without working, unless they are happily married to a rich person.
我很同意这个说法啊，像我们这样的普通群众，除非是嫁入豪门，否则应该没办法一整年不工作、没收入、还到处去浪吧……

I guess maybe you can manage a gap year if your husband or wife has a decent paying job and supports you. I know a friend who is a scientist, but instead of going straight into a science job, she spent two years learning photography. They were not rich but her husband was very supportive, so he did his best to save his salary to buy her a nice camera and lenses.
如果你的老公 or 老婆有一份收入还不错的稳定工作，并且也愿意支持你，那间隔年也是有可能实现的。我认识一个朋友，她本来是搞科研的，但是博士毕业后没有直接工作，而是花了两年时间来学习摄影。他们其实并不富裕，但是她老公很支持她，他尽最大努力省出工资给她买好的相机和镜头。

For a while they lived in a very poor area of the city, but they were still very happy. Now she is both a scientist and a photographer. This is a story that taught me about the importance of finding the right person who can support you when you pursue your dreams. 
他们有很长一段时间都住在环境不太好的“城中村”里，但他们依然过得很开心。现在我朋友主业搞科研，副业搞摄影。这个故事告诉我们找到一个真心爱你、并且愿意支持你实现梦想的人是多么重要哇~ 

Also it’s possible to travel on a very small budget. Like you can try to ask for free rides from strangers, and live in some cheap hostel where the host may also provide you food. This can be pretty sketchy though, since cheap places are usually cheap for a reason.
当然你也可以穷游，比如搭顺风车、住青旅、蹭吃喝。但条件也许会比较差，毕竟一分钱一分货。

And then there’s the idea of the working holiday, in which you are taking your gap year, but you get a special visa that you can work wherever you travel to. 

还有一种办法是“打工度假”。一些国家为了配合间隔年推出了打工度假签证（working holiday visa），允许你在一年的时间内一边打工、一边旅游。

So you need a little bit of money to get started, but then you make money along the way to pay for your continued travel. Actually my littlest sister is doing this in New Zealand. She is working various jobs, like she helped feed animals on a farm, worked in a hotel, and was a host at a winery. Maybe that’s a good way of getting life experience too if you’ve lived a kind of sheltered life. 
所以你只需要少量的启动资金，旅行途中没钱了就打个工，存够了再继续走。我最小的妹妹就正在新西兰干这个，她做过很多工作，比如在农场照看动物、在宾馆工作、在酒庄做招待等等。如果你的生活太单调，这或许是增加人生阅历的好办法。

It gets you out seeing the world, meeting new people, can get you out of your shell, which might be a good thing. But I have heard news about some employers who treat this kind of workers poorly: some workers are paid way below minimum wage; some get overloaded with tons of work; some get accused of crimes like stealing.  
打工度假能把你从你的壳里拽出来，看看这个世界，认识很多新的人，想象一下就很美好。但我也听说过一些负面的新闻，比如有些雇主对待年轻人态度恶劣：工资极低；工作强度巨大；还有的人甚至被奇葩老板诬陷偷东西。

And because they are in a foreign country, it’s harder to protect their rights. My sister seems to be having a wonderful time though, so I guess it just means you need to be careful when you go out traveling. If you’ve decided on this way of life, the first lesson to learn is how to protect yourself. So be prepared!
他们身在国外，想要维护自己的权益就很困难。不过我妹妹貌似过的还挺开心的，所以出门在外，自己长个心眼最重要。如果你决定了这样的生活方式，要学的第一课就是怎么保护自己，出发前要一定要做足功课。

Although the working visa provides a way for non-rich people to travel, for the most part I absolutely think Gap Year is a privilege for the rich because living is not cheap and neither is traveling. 
尽管打工度假签证让边旅游、边赚钱成为了可能，给不富裕的人们提供了一条可行之路，但是大多数情况下，我依然认为间隔年是富人特权，因为旅行很贵，而且生活本身也不便宜。