美語情景對話 第329期:Ambitions 志向

I have a few main ambitions at the moment. I think the first and foremost ones, seeing as I'm in Japan at the moment studying Japanese, would to be actually to be able to speak the language, but I think that's pretty far fetched ambition at the moment at the rate I'm going. I think to actually learn this language properly you'd have to live here and be studying at least a year to get to know the language and then another year to get fluent, get the speed up, get the slang in, so I mean I think that's one of my life ambitions is to learn Japanese. I can't speak any other languages so just to be able to speak another language would be amazing. I think English, English speaking people have, well, a sort of bad arrogance that everyone else speaks English and so why bother to learn another language. It's not like people in other European countries where, like from a very young age they learn English. They can speak English, maybe French, Spanish, and Italian. Once you got one language under your belt it seems to be a lot easier to pick up other languages. So that's one of the things I'd like to do. My other main wish at the moment, which I hopefully I'm going to turn into a reality when I return home is to actually get a job in the animation industry. I did my degree in that and it's been something that I've, you know, I've been waiting to actually get to the job stage, the job stage for so long now. Before I came to Japan, I was working, but in a graphic design job which is not what I'm actually wanting to do, so I think my, you know, number one wish at the moment, apart from the Japanese, is to actually be there in the industry I want to be working in, working the way I want to work, you know doing what I do for fun, as a job. That's my sort of number one ambition. I mean obviously making money is nice but I think at the moment the most important thing in a job is, you know money shouldn't be the first thing, you should really enjoy what you're doing. I've always said I'd never want to work in an office where you have to wear a suit, where you have to be constricted and constrained. You know I want to have my offices, sort of I mean, the environments I've, the work environments I've seen so far through friends and what I've worked in myself is pretty similar to how I think it should be: a group of more friends than colleagues working together on something they're passionate about. I think that has to be my main aim in life.

目前我有一些偉大的志向。首先，我現在正在日本學習日語，我希望我能講日語，但是以我現在的進度來說，我想這是非常不切實際的目標。我認爲要完全學會日語，你就要生活在日本，至少學習一年的時間，來了解這門語言，之後再用一年的時間可以說流利的日語，語速加快，融入俚語，我是說，我認爲我生活中其中一個雄心就是要學會日語。我不會其他的語言，所以我認爲要學會其他語言很令人不可思議。我認爲英語，說英語的人很傲慢，其他說英語的人不理解爲什麼要費力去學其他語言。不像歐洲其他國家的人，他們在非常小的年紀就學習英語。他們可能會說英語、法語、西班牙語和意大利語。一旦你學會了一種語言，看起來再學習另一門語言會容易得多。所以這是我喜歡做的事情之一。我現在還有一個志向，我希望我可以將這個志向變成現實，我希望在我回到家鄉的時候我可以在動畫業找到工作。我獲得了動畫業的學位，我一直在等待能在這個領域找到工作，我等待了許久。我來日本之前有在工作，但是我做的工作是平面設計，那並不是我真正想做的工作，所以我想，你知道，現在除了學會日語之外，我最大的願望就是想進入動畫領域工作，做我想做的工作，在工作中享受樂趣。這就是我最大的願望。我認爲，當然賺錢是不錯，但是現在對我而言，工作方面最重要的事情是……其實賺錢不應該是首要的事情，你要真正的享受你所做的事情。我曾經說過，我完全不想在那種要穿套裝又受限制的窄小辦公室裏工作。你知道，我想擁有自己的辦公室，目前我朋友們工作的環境，還有我工作的環境類似於我希望的那種環境：和熱衷於所從事工作的同事們一起共事。我認爲這是我人生中的主要目標。

重點講解：
1. first and foremost
首先；首要的是；
eg. It is first and foremost a trade agreement.
這首先是一個貿易協議。
eg. I see myself, first and foremost, as a working artist.
我首先還是把自己看作一名藝術工作者。
2. far fetched
穿鑿附會的；不切實際的；牽強的；
eg. The storyline was too far-fetched and none of the actors was particularly good.
故事情節太離譜，演員表演也沒有出彩的。
eg. No, I usually find them too far-fetched, impossible to believe.
不，我通常覺得這些電影太牽強了，簡直叫人難以置信。
3. under one's belt
已經取得（或完成）；
eg. Clare is now a full-time author with six books, including four novels, under her belt.
克萊爾現在是全職作家，著有6本書，其中有4部小說。
eg. And for the A- listers of tomorrow, you don't have to have a whole load of films under your belt. All you need is the World Wide Web.
而對於明天的一線演員來說，你不必曾拍攝大量的電影。你需要的只是全球互聯網。