美语情景对话 第1168期:Best Ages to Teach 最喜欢的学生年龄

Aimee: So your favorite age group is the junior high school age.

艾米：你最喜欢的学生年龄层是初中生。

Katie: Yeah.

凯蒂：对。

Aimee: Do you have much experience teaching younger children?

艾米：在教育小孩方面，你经验丰富吗？

Katie: Younger children like toddler age?

凯蒂：多大的小孩，幼儿吗？

Aimee: Well, how about elementary school?

艾米：比如，小学生？

Katie: Yeah, elementary school. I've been teaching for about five years, five or six years. They're fine. You just have to be a bit silly with those kids.

凯蒂：我有教育小学生的经验。我在小学任教了五六年的时间。学生们很好。和这些孩子相处时，你要顽皮一些。

Aimee: Yes.

艾米：好。

Katie: Have a good time. Can't really be too serious when you're teaching young kids because they're still kids.

凯蒂：要玩得开心。在教小孩时不能对他们太严厉，因为他们还是孩子。

Aimee: That's true. So how about younger than that? How about the kindergarten age? How are they for you?

艾米：没错。那再小一些的孩子呢？比如幼儿园的孩子？你怎么和他们相处？

Katie: They're probably my achilles heel. I'm not great with kindergarten students or younger than that because they don't respond to reason.

凯蒂：那可能是我的致命弱点。我不太擅长和幼儿园孩子或更小的孩子相处，因为他们不会做出反应。

Aimee: Right.

艾米：对。

Katie: Yeah. So they – I mean, yeah. They're difficult for me to teach. I prefer teaching older students. How about you? What kind of age range do you like teaching?

凯蒂：嗯，就是这样。对我来说，这么小的孩子很难教。我更喜欢教大一些的学生。你呢？你喜欢教哪个年龄段的学生？

Aimee: I think I appreciate all parts of all age groups. Every group has its pros and cons. Recently, I've been teaching university students, and I think I'm remembering how much I enjoy it because, you know, they are adults and you can teach them like adults. And you can still have a bit of silly, fun with them, too.

艾米：我想我喜欢所有年龄段的学生。每个年龄段都有其优缺点。我最近在教大学生。我要记住我有多享受，因为这些学生已经是成年人了，你可以像对待成年人一样对待他们。你也可以和他们玩闹。

Katie: Yeah.

凯蒂：对。

Aimee: So these days, I think I prefer teaching the older students, university age students. You can, you know, you can really go into topics quite deeply.

艾米：所以，最近我喜欢教大一些的学生，比如大学生。你知道，你可以和他们深入探讨一些话题。

Katie: Yeah.

凯蒂：对。

Aimee: And you can get some interesting answers from some students. Other students, of course, you can't.

艾米：你可能会从有些学生那里得到有意思的回答。当然，从其他学生那里得不到。

Katie: Everyone is different, right?

凯蒂：每个人都是不同的，对吧？

Aimee: Yes. You just have to find a way of teasing, teasing their potential, of all of them, I think.

艾米：对。我认为你要找到激发所有人潜能的方法。

Katie: Is there a group that you don't like teaching?

凯蒂：你有没有不喜欢教的年龄层？

Aimee: I'm not used to junior high school children, junior high school students. I don't have any experience with them. So that would make me nervous, I think.

艾米：我不太习惯教初中生。我没有教初中生的经验。我认为那会让我很紧张。

Katie: How do you think they would be different to university students?

凯蒂：你认为初中生和大学生有什么不同？

Aimee: I think, from what I mentioned before, the teenagers, the hormones. I think that would be different. There's, you know, it's bubbling inside them, all of these changes of feelings and emotions. And they have so many things to deal with; pressure of growing up. And I think that can be more challenging. But I think it's important as a teacher to try to remember what it was like when you were that age.

艾米：我之前提到过，青少年荷尔蒙分泌旺盛。我认为那就是不同点。他们体内在沸腾，这会改变他们的感受和情感。他们有很多事情要处理，还有成长的压力。那更具挑战性。不过我认为对老师来说，重要的是要尽力回忆起自己在那个年龄时的样子。

Katie: Yeah.

凯蒂：对。

Aimee: I think that's the biggest thing that will help you.

艾米：我认为这最能帮助你。

Katie: Absolutely. So what do you think about teaching younger children like babies? How are you with that?

凯蒂：完全正确。那你怎么看教育婴儿？在这方面你做得怎么样？

Aimee: I do really enjoy that. Babies are awesome. They have their own set of needs. But usually, the very young classes come with, you know, the parents are there, too. So it's kind of a group-led situation, teacher-led group. And yeah, it's good fun for me. They're very cute and squishy. And very – not uncontrollable – what's the word?

艾米：我很享受。婴儿非常棒。他们有自己的需求。通常来说，在给婴儿班上课的时候，家长会在一旁陪同。那有点儿像教师主导的课堂。对我来说那很有趣。婴儿很可爱。不是无法控制……那个词是什么来着？

Katie: Unpredictable?

凯蒂：无法预测？

Aimee: That's it. Completely unpredictable. You know, one day they can be in the best mood ever, and then the next day, they're just a nightmare.

艾米：没错。完全无法预测。你知道，前一天他们可能情绪很好，而第二天，他们可能就会成为你的噩梦。

Katie: I think that's why I'm terrified of them, because they're so unpredictable. I don't like it.

凯蒂：我认为那就是我害怕教婴儿班的原因，因为他们无法预测。我不喜欢这种感觉。

Aimee: Yeah. That's true. And the bodily functions too, you know.

艾米：对，没错。还有身体机能问题。

Katie: Yeah, no thanks.

凯蒂：对，我不喜欢。

Aimee: There's all of that.

艾米：有各种情况。

Katie: Yeah. I'm not prepared to deal with that. No, thank you. No, thank you. No bodily functions.

凯蒂：对。我没有为应对这种情况做好准备。谢谢，谢谢你，我不希望处理身体机能问题。

译文属仅供学习交流使用，未经许可请勿转载

重点讲解：
1. Achilles heel 阿喀琉斯的脚踵；致命弱点；
例句：Horton's Achilles heel was that he could not delegate.
霍顿的软肋在于他不懂得放权。
2. pros and cons 利弊；正反两方面；优缺点；
例句：They sat for hours debating the pros and cons of setting up their own firm.
他们在一起坐了数小时，讨论自己创办公司的利弊。
3. be used to sth./doing sth. 习惯于；
例句：Lawyers are used to weighing the evidence of witnesses.
律师们习惯于权衡证人提供的证据。
4. be prepared to do sth. 愿意（做…）的；
例句：He's prepared to have a bash at discussing it intelligently.
他已经准备好尽量巧妙地讨论这个问题。