EW449 – Welcome to the Family我们是一家人

Hello and Welcome once again to English World.

        英语世界，欢迎你的收听

We are your radio friends:  Mark and Wen-Jie.

        我们是你的广播朋友马可和文洁

Wen-Jie, how was your holiday?

        It was great. A very relaxing time. 我的假期很悠闲 How about for you?

Oh, I got to meet up with my big family.  And we had a great time.

        Wonderful! 马可和他的家人全家大团圆

You know, I have one brother. three sisters. 

马可大哥有一个兄弟, 三个姊妹

Right. But add to my family list are: several in-laws, nieces, nephews, and a ton of grandchildren.

        大家族里还有公婆，岳父母，外甥，一大堆的孙儿等等

So that’s a lot of people when we all gathered.

        当全家族凑在一起时人口众多

Wen-J, do you come from a big family?

Well, I have only two brothers. 我只有两个兄弟，不算大家庭

We call this a “nuclear family”.

西方人称这为核心家庭Nuclear family  

It’s also called the traditional family.

也有人称这为传统的家庭Traditional family

But if there are more generations of a family living in the same household,

        如果家里有好几代的成人住在一起

We call it an “extended family:.

就叫做extended family数代同堂的大家庭I do miss the big family gathering. 我很想念大家庭团聚的时光呢

 

Vocabulary 123生词点滴 Family, f-a-m-i-l-y (family家庭) Nuclear family(nuclear family核心小家庭), Extended family(extended family几代同堂大家庭) Family name (family name姓) , family tree (family tree家谱), family circle (family circle关系密切的家庭圈子) Family, (family家庭)

 

Coming up next, we are going to hear someone’s sharing.

        接下来，我们来听一个朋友的分享

Her name is Jenn. And she comes from a big family.

这位朋友Jenn 来自一个大家庭

Her mother’s side of the family is Mexican.

她妈妈那头的家族是墨西哥人

And her father’s side is American.

        而她父亲那头的家族，则是美个人

Our friend Jenn loves Chinese people.

        我们这位朋友Jenn 很喜欢跟华人作朋友

So she spent a year teaching in China.

        也因此，她曾花一年的功夫在中国教书

We are going to hear her talk about her thoughts on the holidays.

        我们来听听她对节期的一些想法

Listen carefully. Wen-Jie will first explain the meaning for you.

        仔细听，我先帮助你了解内容

 

The holiday season has always been a big deal in my family. The holiday festivities begin at Thanksgiving and continue on through Christmas, New Years, and generally finish with my sister, Jamie’s birthday on January 6^th. 

一直以来，节期假日在我家庭里是件很盛大的事。节期的庆祝从感恩节开始，过了圣诞节，新年，大概持续到我姊姊的生日一月六日才算告一段落。

 

Growing up at home I always loved spending the holiday times with my extended family.  I remember each family would take turns hosting different gatherings at each other’s houses. All of the time we spent together celebrating brought us very close as a family. 从小长大，我总是爱和我的大家族一起度过假期时光。我记得，每个家庭会轮流在自己家里主办聚会。那些欢庆聚集的时光使我们家族大家感情融洽亲蜜

 

This past year while I was teaching in Northeast China, I didn’t get the chance to go home and spend the holidays with my family, or celebrate my sister’s birthday.  However as the holidays began to approach, I was still so excited about celebrating them. 过去这一年，当我还在中国的东北教书时，我没能够回家和家人一起过节，也没能庆祝我姊姊的生日。但是当节期来临时，我还是很兴奋想好好庆祝一番

 

I discovered that my students and several other teachers from various different countries were also looking forward to celebrating the holidays. So, for my students, I shared with them several different holiday traditions and had some parties.  我发现我的学生，还有来自不同国家的同校老师，她们也很期待要来庆祝节期。所以，我跟我的学生分享了好多个不同的节期传统，也有几次的庆祝会。

 

And for the teachers we all decided to come together and be each other’s “family” for the holidays. We planned out parties, shared our different holiday traditions. 至于和同校的老师，我们决定要团聚一起，在假期时成为彼此的亲密家人。我们筹画了欢庆会，参与了各自不同的假期传统

 

On New Year’s Eve, we sang, and danced, played different group games, and at midnight we toasted the beginning of a new year and the continuance of our good friendships. 在除夕夜那晚，我们唱歌、跳舞、玩团体游戏。夜半12点时我们也举杯，庆祝新的一年的开始，也相互祝福我们的友谊能延续长久

 

Looking back on it now, if I had chosen to keep to myself, the holidays would not have been nearly as fun or meaningful, but because all of us were willing to share with each other and be the “families” for each other, we had a wonderful holiday season and a very memorable start to the new year. 现今回头一想，如果当时我选择自己一个人单独过节，那段节期时光就不会那么有趣和有意义了。但因为我们所有的人都愿意把自己分享出去，成为彼此的家人，我们有了一个很美好的假期，也有了值得回忆的一年的新开始。

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Wen-Jie, in this sharing, Jenn talks about family a lot.

        这段分享里，Jenn多次谈到family家庭

Like, extended family, be each other’s family

        好比，大家族extended family,         成为彼此的家人be each other’s family

I can understand what she means. When I was a foreign student here, 记得当我还作留学生时，my host family welcomed me into their home during the holiday time. 我的美国家庭会接待我到他们家去过节

So, they were like family to you.

        对了， 他们就像是我的家人一样

And now, you also open your home to many students.

        是阿，现今我也开放家里给许多学生来

That’s great.  Well, shall we listen to Jenn’s sharing once again?

        Sure. 我们再次来听一回Jenn的分享

 

The holiday season has always been a big deal in my family. The holiday festivities begin at Thanksgiving and continue on through Christmas, New Years, and generally finish with my sister, Jamie’s birthday on January 6^th. 

Growing up at home I always loved spending the holiday times with my extended family.  I remember each family would take turns hosting different gatherings at each other’s houses. All of the time we spent together celebrating brought us very close as a family.

This past year while I was teaching in Northeast China, I didn’t get the chance to go home and spend the holidays with my family, or celebrate my sister’s birthday.  However as the holidays began to approach, I was still so excited about celebrating them. I discovered that my students and several other teachers from various different countries were also looking forward to celebrating the holidays. So, for my students, I shared with them several different holiday traditions and had some parties.  And for the teachers we all decided to come together and be each other’s “family” for the holidays. 

We planned out parties, shared our different holiday traditions. On New Year’s Eve, we sang, and danced, played different group games, and at midnight we toasted the beginning of a new year and the continuance of our good friendships. 

Looking back on it now, if I had chosen to keep to myself, the holidays would not have been nearly as fun or meaningful, but because all of us were willing to share with each other and be the “families” for each other, we had a wonderful holiday season and a very memorable start to the new year.

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Verse for Life 生命经文 “You are no longer strangers and foreigners,   你们不再作外人、和客旅、 You are citizens along with all of God's holy people.   与圣徒同国、 You are members of God’s family.”   是神家里的人了． Ephesians 2:19 以弗所书

 

The concept of “family” began from God.

        “家庭” 这个观念，是从神而来的

Family is blessed and valued by God.

        神祝福也重视家庭

In the Bible, the word “family” can mean a big extended family.

        圣经里，family这个字可以表示一个大家族

It can also mean a group.  -------------

        也可以表示一族，或一门的人

Here it even expands to include all the believers.

        这里，甚至涵盖了所有的信徒

You and I can be citizens of God’s kingdom.

        你和我能成为神国度里的公民

We are members of God’s household.

        我们是神家里的一员

That means we are in God’s family.

        这表示我们在神的大家族里

God is our Father.

        神是我们的父亲

We are brothers and sisters to each other.

        我们彼此是弟兄姊妹的关系

We are related spiritually.

        在属灵层面上，我们彼此相关相连的

For all those who believe in Jesus’ salvation,

        所有凡相信耶稣救恩的人

Welcome to the family!

        我们欢迎你，加入这个大家庭

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Our time is up. It’s time to say goodbye.

        时间差不多了，又要说再见

Our lesson today was: Welcome to the family.

        我们这课叫做：我们是一家人

Since we are family, we want to hear from you.

        既然是一家人，我们希望听到你的回音

Please write and tell us about yourself.

        请来信向我们介绍你自己

Don’t forget to review the lessons on the website.

        别忘了上网来复习我们过去教过的内容

Engworld.org.   e-n-g-w-o-r-l-d.org

Until next time in English World,

        We are your friends Wen-Jie and Mark.

Happy New Year!

        Good – bye.

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Mark, our work family is big, with people from everywhere.

You are right. Nancy is from Argentina, Sergei from Russia,

Nzuzi from Africa. Untung from Indonesia…

It’s like we are in the United Nations.

        Better yet, we are in God’s Family.