【老外说】美国的“香蕉人”

My dad, because he is in the military, his wife and his children have free education. So my tuition and my mother’s tuition was paid for. It’s very fortunate actually.

Yeah. He’s trying to enjoy life, but still struggling to pay his own bills, and he has five children in total.

I am the middle child. So I have two elder brothers and two younger sisters. So he just takes care of my younger sisters, drives them to school, comes back home and cooks. That’s it（就这样）.

I’m living alone at the moment. I moved out （搬出去） about...when I was 16 years old.

Yeah, when I was still in high school. I also studied abroad for about only six months. It’s really easy for me to live alone because I’m used to being alone. When I was in high school I lived with my parents until my third year, and then I was working already. I worked my first job as a waitress (服务员), and I decided that it was better for me to live alone, because I often argue with my parents, because we have very different ideals (理想标准). I told them I want to work and go to school at the same time. But my father really disapproved of me working, because he wanted to take care of me. So I chose to live alone. So that way I can prove to him I am OK. Kind of like a rebel (叛逆者).

Yeah, cause now I’m very independent and I’m helping him out with his living expenses. So I am repaying him for the benefits of my education.

black sheep，对应到我们中文是

“害群之马”或者“家族败类”

人们总会有意无意的带着有色眼镜来观察，依照主观心情来做判断。由于黑羊在一群白羊中显得特别刺眼，所以牧人一般不喜欢，就连黑羊的毛也没有白羊的毛值钱。甚至还有人认为黑羊是魔鬼化身，拿黑羊来比喻家庭中的不孝子弟或社会的害群之马。

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It’s funny that you say that. I’m the only black sheep. My two elder brothers, they actually still live with my parents. I’m the only child to leave the house so far. How did you learn the term “black sheep”?

It’s actually a very good one. Not a lot of non native speakers will know that term. So I found it funny.

I’m in my second year already.

I will probably go to medical school right after to pursue hopefully a Ph.D. It will be a long time before I finish school basically. So in the meantime, I’m still working as a waitress, so I have very long awkward days. Americans, they really focus on love and romance in comparison to (跟....比起来) a lot of Asian countries.

I do a lot of traveling, and every single time I tell them I have a boyfriend and we’ve been dating for 7 years. They’re always shocked because my parents...they’re like “wow, how did your parents agree.” But the truth is my parents did not agree. My parents are very traditional. I secretly dated him until finally at age 16, when we were arguing often I told my father. My father did not kick me out or anything. He just was very disappointed.

He just recently started going back to school. He first pursued working in office doing just a lot of phone calls, office work. But now he wanted to go back to school to pursue electrical engineering, to work on electric cars. So he will have a long way to go. He is actually a lot older than me. He is 25 years old, so 5 years difference.

I was at the park doing some exercise. My brother was there watching me and hanging out with his friends. And then my boyfriend, he saw me and he said “you have a very nice belt”. So I asked him “why do you say that?” It turns out he was wearing the same belt. And then I found out he was my brother’s friend. We continue to talk every single day after that.