第3届21世纪杯全国英语演讲比赛冠军梁励敏演讲Crossing the Sea（prepared speech）

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第3届•北京

演讲主题：从东方到西方——如何面对两种文化的冲撞？

1998 Session, Beijing Topic: The East and the West: Can We Live in Two Cultures?

冠军：梁励敏，北京外国语大学

Champion: Liang Limin, Beijing Foreign Studies University

演讲题目：穿越海洋

Title：Crossing the Sea

第3届21世纪杯全国英语演讲比赛冠军梁励敏演讲稿

Crossing the Sea

梁励敏： 北京外国语大学选手，第3届21世纪杯全国英语演讲比赛冠军。

资料来源：21世纪英语网，并由Victor（微信号：victorbund）编辑、整理、校对 。

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.The title of my speech today is "Crossing the Sea" . An English poet by the name of Rudyard Kipling once wrote in this poem "We and They"  :
下午好，女士们先生们。我今天演讲的题目是“穿越海洋”。一位名叫吉卜林的英国诗人曾在这首诗中写道：“我们和他们”
All the people like us are We
像我们这样的人都是我们
and everyone else is They
其他人都是
We live over the sea
我们住在海边
While They live over the way
他们住在陆地上
We eat pork and beef with cow horn-handled knives
我们用牛角刀吃猪肉和牛肉
They who gobble their rice off a leaf
从叶子上狼吞虎咽地吃米饭的人
Are horrified out of their lives.
被吓坏了。
When these lines first caught my eyes,I was shocked--how could two peoples remain so isolated and ignorant of each other in the past? Today's society, of course, is an entirely different picture. Those people who used to eat with cow horn-handled knives might be very skillful in using chopsticks, and those people who used to gobble their rice might be as well  taking to fish and chips.
当这些台词第一次吸引我的目光时，我感到震惊——两个民族怎么会在过去如此孤立和无知呢？当然，今天的社会完全不同。那些曾经用牛角刀吃饭的人可能很会用筷子，那些曾经狼吞虎咽地吃米饭的人也可能会吃鱼和薯条。
Indeed, just take China as an example; Our modern life has been influenced by Western style of living  in so many ways that it's no longer surprising to see teenagers going crazy about rock-and-roll, whole families dining out at McDonald's and even rather elderly people dressed in Apple  Jeans.
事实上，就拿中国为例吧；我们的现代生活受到西方生活方式的影响如此之多，以至于看到青少年疯狂摇滚乐、全家在麦当劳就餐，甚至看到穿着苹果牛仔裤的老年人也就不足为奇了。
However, these are only some expressions of the cultural changes taking place in our society today. What isreally going on is a subtle but significant restructuring of the nation's mentality. Just look  around.
然而，这些只是当今社会文化变迁的一些表现。目前正在进行的是一次微妙而重大的国家心态重组。看看四周。
How many college graduates are ready to compete aggressively for every job opportunity, whereas  not long ago they were asked just to sit idle and wait for whatever was to be assigned to them by the  government?
有多少大学毕业生愿意为每一个就业机会展开激烈竞争，而不久前，他们被要求无所事事地等待政府分配给他们的任何工作？
How many young people are now eager to seek for an independent life whereas only two decades ago  they would rely totally on their parents to arrange for their future? Ask anyone who participates in  today's speech contest. Who has not come with a will to fight and who has not come determined to achieve self-fulfillment in winning the game? And I'm quite certain that if Confucius had lived to see today's China, he would have been horrified to see young lovers kissing each other in public places in an unreserved expression of their passion.
现在有多少年轻人渴望独立生活，而仅仅在20年前，他们会完全依赖父母来安排自己的未来？问问参加今天演讲比赛的人。谁没有斗志，谁没有决心在赢得比赛中实现自我实现？我敢肯定，如果孔子活着看到今天的中国，看到年轻恋人在公共场所接吻，毫无保留地表达他们的激情，他一定会感到震惊。
It is therefore evident that we as descendants of an ancient Eastern civilization are already  living under strong influence of the Western culture. But it is not only in China that we find the  incorporation of the two cultures.
可见，我们作为一个古老东方文明的后代，已经生活在西方文化的强烈影响下。但我们不仅在中国发现了这两种文化的融合。
Take the United States as an example: During the 1980s, in face of the overwhelming competition from  Japan, many American companies such as the Ford began to adopt a team work management from their rivals,  the essence of which, lay at the very core of Eastern culture.
以美国为例：20世纪80年代，面对来自日本的压倒性竞争，福特等许多美国公司开始从竞争对手那里采用团队合作管理，其精髓就在于东方文化的核心。
Take the Chinese acupuncture as another example: This traditional treatment of diseases is finally  finding its way to the West and hence theunderlying notion that illness has resulted from the imbalance between yin andyang within the body--an idea which would strike any Westerner as  incredible in the past!
再以中国针灸为例：这种传统的治疗疾病的方法终于在西方找到了出路，由此产生了一种潜在的观念，即疾病是由体内阴阳失衡造成的——这种观念在过去会让任何西方人感到不可思议！
Ladies and Gentlemen, we live in agreat epoch when the obal integration of economy and the  information have brought cultures of the world closer than ever before. We live in a particular era when countries, East and West, find themselves in need of readjusting their traditional  values. We live, at the sametime, at a critical juncture of our evolution because such problems as  ethnic conflicts and regional unrest are increasiny posing a threat to the peace and happiness of the  whole human race.To cope with such an era and to embrace an even brighter future, we need to learn to live more harmoniously in a world community which is becoming smaller and smaller. My dear fellow students, our command of the Enish language renders it possible for us to gain an  insight into Western culture while retaining our own cultural identity.
女士们，先生们，我们生活在一个农业时代，经济一体化和信息革命使世界文化比以往任何时候都更加紧密。我们生活在一个特殊的时代，东西方国家都需要调整自己的传统价值观。我们同时生活在人类发展的关键时刻，因为民族冲突和地区动荡等问题日益严重，威胁着全人类的和平与幸福，为了应对这样一个时代，迎接更加美好的未来，我们需要学会在这样一个国际社会中更加和谐地生活变得越来越小。亲爱的同学们，我们对伊尼语的掌握使我们有可能在保留自己的文化身份的同时深入了解西方文化。
Therefore, it is our sacred responsibility to promote the cultural exchanges and hence the mutual understanding between China and the rest of the world.
因此，促进中国与世界的文化交流和相互了解，是我们的神圣职责。
It is my happiest dream that new generation of Chinese will not only grow up drinking Coca cola and  watching Hollywood, but also be blessed with the far-reaching benefits of multiple cultures; benefits  that our forefathers had never, ever dreamed of.
我最快乐的梦想是，新一代的中国人不仅会在喝可口可乐、看好莱坞的成长过程中成长，而且会受益于多种文化的深远影响；我们的先辈从未梦想过的利益。
To end my speech, I would like to quote Rudyard Kipling again:
在结束我的演讲时，我想再次引用鲁德亚德·吉卜林的话：
All the people like us are We
像我们这样的人都是我们
And everyone else is They
其他人都是
But once you cross over the sea
但一旦你横渡大海
You will end by looking on We
最后你会看到我们
As only a sort of They.
只是其中的一种。
Thank you.
谢谢您。