dialogue 1
N: if you can choose, will you marry a foreigner or a Chinese?
如果让你选的话，你是愿意嫁给一个中国人还是一个外国人?
S: why? Did tom pop the question?
为什么这么问，汤姆向你求婚了吗?
N: not yet. But I wonder if I can get my parents’ consent.
没有，我怕父母不同意。
S: let me guess, your parents want you to marry a Chinese man, right?
我猜猜，你父母一定是想你嫁一个中国人，对吗?
N: you are right. It is giving me a real headache. I feel like I’m between a rock and a hard place.
是啊，我正头疼呢，我觉得左右为难。
S: I used to have the same problem when I was with my ex.
我和以前的男朋友谈恋爱时，也遇到了同样的问题。
N: oh, how did you deal with it?
那你怎么解决的?
S: I just let it go and continued dating with my Korean boyfriend. But finally we broke up.
我就顺其自然，继续和我的韩国男朋友约会，但是后来我们还是分手了。
N: oh, it’s a pity. What was the matter?
太可惜了，为什么啊?
S: simple. We had personality clashes and there were too many cultural differences.
很简单，我们性格不合，双方文化也有很多不同之处。
N: like what?
比如呢?
S: he hoped to live in the Korean way and asked me to give up working and stay at home to take care of the family.
他希望我过韩式的生活，要求我放弃工作，安心待在家里。
N: Oh, I see. In their culture women should put family first.
这样啊，在他们的文化里，女性应该以家庭为重。
S: yes, he said it would be batter for me and for the whole family. But I simply can not quit working.
是啊，他说这样对我，对整个家庭都好。但是我就是不想辞掉工作。
N: so that's why it’s hard to have a happy marriage with a foreigner.
所以和外国人结婚，很难幸福。
S: not really. There are many successful mixed marriage around us.
也不一定，我们周围不也有很多成功的例子嘛。
dialogue 2
N: more and more Chinese are marrying foreigners.
越来越多的中国人嫁给了外国人。
S: that's true. But I have a low opinion of those women who go out with foreigners.
是啊，但是我挺鄙视那些和外国人在一起的女人的。
N: oh, why?
啊?为什么啊?
S: I think some Chinese wonem marry foreigners for money while others just want to live abroad. There is no true love between them.
我觉得有些人嫁给外国人是为了钱，有些人是为了去国外定居，反正他们之间没有真爱。
N: I wouldn't say that's totally true. I've met many happy intercultural couples.
也不全是吧。我见过很多幸福的跨过夫妻。
S: well, then why aren't there many East-West couples where the man is a Chinese and the woman is a Westerner?
N: I guess it's because the Chinese women are more attractive to Western men.
那为什么没有多少夫妻，男方是中国人，女方是外国人呢?
S: or because they are less attractive to to Chinese men.
可能是因为中国女人对外国男人更有吸引力吧。
N: what do you mean?
怎么说?
S: you know, usually the woman is in her thirties and she is a left girl.
这些女人大约三十多岁，是剩女。
N: a left girl? What's that?
剩女?什么意思啊?
S: they're called that because they're left behind on the shelf. They're also known by their three H's---high diploma, high salary, and high degree.
这么说，因为他们是别人挑剩下的。她们有三高:高文凭，高工资，高学位。
N: and they're also known as the three S's—single, stuck, and born in the seventies.
还有人说她们有三难:单身，高不成低不就，出生在70年代后。
S: definitely! So most of these women go for Western men.
的确!所以这些人就把目标转向了外国人。
N: you have a point here, but I believe some mixed marriages are based on true love.
也许吧。但是有些跨国婚姻还是有真爱的。
S: that' for sure but very few.
那是，不过很少。
