Milena与她的好朋友Tommy

Two cultures, one friendship

两种文化，一份友谊

MilenaSemeniuk/文  颜流霞/译

I came to China in July. Thefirst month of my living here wasn’t the best because after work I was alwaysalone. At that time, I didn’t have neighbors who could speak English even just
a little bit, so my free time I spent on walking around the community and onreading books. Hopefully, the situation changed when Tommy has arrived toBeijing. He is my close neighbor who became (very fast) one of my best twofriends in China.

我是7月份来到中国的。在中国的第一个月，我过得并不好，因为我的邻居中没有一个会说英语。下班后我老得一个人呆着，没有个伴，独自在小区里闲逛或者是看书成了我业余时间的主要消遣。但是，值得开心的是，Tommy来到了北京。他成为了我的邻居，并很快成为我在中国最好的两个朋友之一。

At the beginning, Tommycouldn’t speak English well. My Chinese wasn’t good also so we decided to teachourselves in the evenings. It was one of the best decision because after sometime Tommy, thanks to his constipation and motivation to work, speaks Englishreally better. My Chinese (even if it is a basic level) has improved too.Thanks Tommy’s patience, I know how to write properly Chinese characters. To behonest, I didn’t know that it can be easy when you just remember some basicrules how to do it. Nowadays, when we meet new people, I introduced him in thisway:“ 这是我的朋友和我的中文老师。”And Tommy’s matter is: “她也是我的老师。她是我的英语老师。”When people hearit, they smile and wish us good luck

起先，Tommy的英语说地并不好，我的中文也不好，于是我们两个决定利用晚上的时间相互学语言。这是我做的最成功的决定之一。由于Tommy积极主动地坚持学习，英语说得越来越好。我的中文，虽然仍只是幼儿园水平，但是也大有进步。感谢Tommy的耐心，我知道了如何写汉字。之前我还真是不知道，只要记住了一些基本规则，写汉字会变地如此容易。现在，只要我们遇到新朋友，我总是这样介绍Tommy：“这是我的朋友和我的中文老师。”而Tommy也会这样介绍我：“她也是我的老师，她是我的英语老师。”当人们听到我们这么介绍时，往往会相视而笑，并会祝福我们。

Oh, by the way our learning:when we talk and Tommy doesn’t know the English word which I have used, I searchfor it in his dictionary on mobile phone. After it, Tommy always saves thewords in the phone’s memory. That is why, the list of the new words is quiteimpressive now ;)

哦，至于说我们俩相互学习语言，一旦Tommy对我说的单词不明白的时候，我会用他手机上的字典查找单词，然后，Tommy会把这些单词存在他的手机上，如此一来，Tommy总对这些新单词印象深刻。

Thanks to our commoneducation, we can get to know better each other all the time. In our free timewe also talk a lot. I talk about my country, Polish customs and history. Andthanks to Tommy I can easier understand the Chinese culture. Sometimes, Ithink: What? Why? How? But Tommy tells me then: “Milena, take it easy, it’snormal. It’s just the Chinese style” ;) Moreover, we also watch English movieswith Chinese subtitles and we read books together (of course Tommy is readingthe Chinese ones and I – Polish or English ;)

由于我们的教育背景，我们能够彼此很好地沟通。我俩总是有说不完的话。我会聊我的国家，波兰的文化和历史。感谢Tommy的帮助，我能够较为容易地了解中国的文化。有时候，我会想：这是什么？为什么？怎么做？但是Tommy会告诉我说：“米莲娜，别担心，这很正常，这是中国方式。”我们也一起看带中文字幕的英语电影，一起阅读，当然Tommy读的是中文，我读的是波兰语或者是英语。

Every morning we go to theoffice so people in our community can see us together very often. Actually,they even started to tell us -hello- and smile. And when I’m going alone, theyask me where is Tommy or they are very curious why we meet so often… Thiscauses a smile on my face every time ;)

每天早晨当我们一起去办公室的时候，小区里的人们总是会看到我们俩。事实上，他们已经开始跟我们打招呼了。而当看到我孤身一人的时候，他们会问我说Tommy去哪里了呢，或者他们会很好奇为什么我们俩老是形影不离的。每天只要一想到这些，我就很开心。

I’m glad that I met such abrave and smart young man. I want to think  that our friendship will notcome to an end when I leave China, only it will go on and on. Of course, aftermy coming back to Poland, our contact will be on-line but I hope that in thefuture I will visit China again.

我很高兴能遇到一个如此勇敢和聪明的男孩。我想我们俩之间的友谊不会随着我的离开而画上句号，这段友情会长存的。当然，当我回到波兰后，我们两将会通过网络联系，我希望能早日重访中国。