家外之家 2021
San Pedro is a small town in The Philippines and the fun fact is: Xiamen is represented by egrets and in San Pedro, our mascot is a chicken. There’s a huge statue of a chicken with an egg under it. When I left San Pedro, I was like the chicken and now I’ve evolved to become an egret.圣佩特羅是菲律賓的一個(gè)小鎮(zhèn)。有趣的是，廈門以白鷺為代表，而在圣佩德羅，我們的吉祥物是一只雞。有一座巨大的雕像，是一只雞，下面有一顆雞蛋。我離開圣佩德羅時(shí)，我就像一只小雞，現(xiàn)在我已經(jīng)進(jìn)化成一只白鷺了。
家外之家 2021
Do you want to hear my love-story with China? Okay! I was 22 years-old when I got a letter from the Embassy of China in Antananarivo. Antananarivo is the capital city of Madagascar, the country where I was born and raised. A country that I’d never left, not even once. This is how the house where I used to live looks like. Too old and out of date, isn’t it?
你想知道我和中國(guó)的“愛情故事”嗎？聽我給您道來。22 歲那年，我收到中國(guó)駐塔那那利佛大使館的來信。塔那那利佛是馬達(dá)加斯加的首都，我在那里出生長(zhǎng)大。我從未出國(guó)，一次也沒有。我兒時(shí)住的房子是這樣的，太破舊了，對(duì)吧？
家外之家 2021
I can still remember watching a TV program on China and Chinese culture about 20 years ago when I was still very small. In the background, I heard melodious strains of Chinese music and I can still remember how the program featured key places of Chinese cultural interest and famous Chinese icons like The Great Wall. As I was just nine years old, this program formed such a deep impression in my mind that the longing to visit China one day was a longing that was present in my subconscious mind from that day onwards. I still remember 3 years ago; my editor called me into his room and asked me whether I would like to undertake a visit to China. He also added that the visit would last 10 months. I couldn’t believe what I heard. I was overjoyed. I could only mutter ‘yes sir’ because I was still suffering from the shock of having my childhood dream of going to China coming true.
我還記得大約 20 年前，那時(shí)候我還很小，看過一個(gè)電視節(jié)目，是關(guān)于中國(guó)和中國(guó)文化的，背景音樂是悠揚(yáng)的中國(guó)傳統(tǒng)音樂。我仍然記得這個(gè)節(jié)目介紹了中國(guó)的文化名勝和標(biāo)志性建筑，如長(zhǎng)城。那時(shí)我才 9 歲，但這個(gè)節(jié)目已經(jīng)在我腦海中留下了深刻的印象。有朝一日我要去中國(guó)，這種渴望，自那天起便成為我潛意識(shí)的一部分。我還記得 3 年前，編輯把我叫到他的房間，問我是否愿意去中國(guó)。他還補(bǔ)充說，這次旅程將持續(xù) 10 個(gè)月。我簡(jiǎn)直不敢相信我的耳朵，欣喜若狂。因?yàn)閮簳r(shí)的夢(mèng)想終于要成真了，我激動(dòng)得話都說不出來，只能咕噥一聲“是的，我愿意”。
家外之家 2021
My journey in China began back in 2018, when I saw a flyer at my university to study abroad for one semester. At that time, I recently won a prize to receive a free passport through a drawing so it just made sense to apply. When I applied I wasn’t thinking I’d actually get selected but come fall semester 2018 I was on the plane to Harbin, China with 11 other students from my school.
我的中國(guó)之旅始于 2018 年，當(dāng)時(shí)我在大學(xué)看到了一張傳單，內(nèi)容是出國(guó)留學(xué)一個(gè)學(xué)期的項(xiàng)目。那時(shí)，我抽獎(jiǎng)獲得了免費(fèi)護(hù)照，所以我才申請(qǐng)了這個(gè)項(xiàng)目。我申請(qǐng)的時(shí)候，萬萬沒想到真的會(huì)被選中。到了 2018 年秋季學(xué)期，我和同校的 11 名學(xué)生搭上了飛往中國(guó)哈爾濱的航班。
家外之家 2021
“Maybe you were a Chinese person in your past life.”
Over the 8 years that I have been living in China this is the, somewhat corny, jokingly way some of my Chinese friends replied to my enthusiastic accounts of my experiences here. And while I don’t believe in reincarnation, I do think that some of us are blessed with the chance to enjoy a second life, and sometimes if we are lucky, it might be as good a life as the one I enjoy in China.
“也許你前世是個(gè)中國(guó)人?！?
我生活在中國(guó)的 8 年里，一些中國(guó)朋友對(duì)我的經(jīng)歷就是這樣描述的，有點(diǎn)老套，打趣的措辭。雖然我不相信輪回，但我確實(shí)認(rèn)為有些人有幸享受第二人生。有時(shí)候想想，如果我們足夠幸運(yùn)的話，就能來中國(guó)享受精彩的人生。
家外之家 2021
* Was it every time I visited a new big city as a child and declared I’d live there someday?
— In hindsight, “big” is a relative term, since we considered them big, but most of them had a population smaller than Xiamen does now. Still, I was always drawn to cities.
*?小時(shí)候是不是每次去一個(gè)新的大城市，都會(huì)說總有一天我會(huì)住在那里？
——如今看來，“大”是相對(duì)的，只是我們認(rèn)為它很大，但大多數(shù)城市的人口都比現(xiàn)在的廈門少。盡管如此，我總是被這些城市所吸引。
我在中國(guó)的家
Home away from home is a collection of the unique stories written by foreigners in China and compiled by Master Translations Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "MTS"), Babel Tower Translation Service Co., Ltd. and Moze (Beijing) Technology Communication Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Moze"), aiming to explore the unique stories of approximately 100 foreign friends who came to China from all over the world.《家外之家》是一本外國(guó)人在中國(guó)的獨(dú)特故事集，由外國(guó)人撰寫，廈門精藝達(dá)翻譯服務(wù)有限公司（以下簡(jiǎn)稱“精藝達(dá)”）、巴別塔（深圳）翻譯有限公司、墨責(zé)（北京）科技傳播有限公司（以下簡(jiǎn)稱“墨責(zé)”）面向全國(guó)共同征集匯編。
我在中國(guó)的家
I’m French and a Hunanese daughter-in-law! I’ve been attracted to China’s history, cuisine and language since I was a child… But what first made me fall in love with China was the giant pandas. My nickname is actually Panda because I have dark circles under my eyes, just like my dad. Now that I’m a grown-up, he still calls me that! When I was little, my dad showed me pictures of pandas for the first time and I fell in love and wanted to learn more about them.我是法國(guó)人，湖南媳婦！我從小就被中國(guó)的歷史、美食和語言所吸引……但讓我愛上中國(guó)的首要原因是大熊貓。我的外號(hào)就是熊貓，因?yàn)槲业难劬ο旅嬗泻谘廴?，我爸也這么叫我。現(xiàn)在我長(zhǎng)大了，他還這么叫我！小時(shí)候，爸爸第一次給我看大熊貓的照片，我就愛上了它們，并且想更加深入地了解它們。
我在中國(guó)的家
I love Shaoxing because there’s water and canals everywhere which fascinates me! Everyone always calls Shaoxing the “Venice of China” and I would see why it could be described in that way! The canals and waterways actually inspired me to build my own boat but I elaborate on that later on.我愛紹興，那里到處都是水和運(yùn)河，讓我著迷！紹興被譽(yù)為“中國(guó)的威尼斯”實(shí)至名歸！運(yùn)河和水道激發(fā)我造船的想法，我稍后會(huì)詳細(xì)說明。
我在中國(guó)的家
I was a Spanish, English and Chinese translation major in my undergrad years. After 4 years of part-time Chinese learning, I could translate written texts, but could barely utter a few Chinese sentences with the tones all mixed-up… Luckily, the chance to visit China came with a scholarship from the Confucius Institute of the University of Granada, Spain. My classmates and I enjoyed our first China-experience at Beijing University in 2014, and that encouraged me to learn Chinese in Xiamen for 10 months. Then, after a year of work in Spain, I chose to pursue a Master’s Degree in Chinese translation at Xiamen university which led to working at MTS, and here I am!?我本科主修西班牙語、英語和漢語翻譯。斷斷續(xù)續(xù)學(xué)了4年漢語，我可以翻譯書面文字，但卻說不了幾句漢語，聲調(diào)是混亂的……幸好西班牙格拉納達(dá)大學(xué)孔子學(xué)院提供獎(jiǎng)學(xué)金來華游學(xué)。2014 年，我和同學(xué)來到北京大學(xué)，那是我第一次來中國(guó)，然后我到廈門學(xué)習(xí)了 10 個(gè)月漢語。接著，在西班牙工作一年后，我選擇在廈門大學(xué)攻讀漢語翻譯碩士學(xué)位，之后我選擇在精藝達(dá)工作，也就是我現(xiàn)在工作的地方！
