The|《我在中国的家》故事1｜ALAIN:我的心灵之旅故事传记|The|always|that|photo|中国

作者：Alain Thirion
【The|《我在中国的家》故事1｜ALAIN:我的心灵之旅】翻译：Ouattara Nanfro (fr_en)、何羽婷(fr_zh)
校对：Luz、Joanne

文章图片
△The Great Wall in Shanhaiguan in 1990|photo credit: Alain

It is always by chance that we fulfill our destiny.

总是在不期然之中成就自己的命运。

Just as I have always preferred mixtures and alloys: mixing flavors in cooking or alloying materials in general, I have always felt a little cramped in my culture. So, in order to add a little salt to the caramel of my life in Belgium, I felt like going “elsewhere”.
我一直对融合菜和混合菜情有独钟：味道的融合或者多种材料的混合，我感觉自己一直局限在民族文化的小小角落里。因此，为了在我比利时生活的焦糖里面加少许盐，我有了到“别处”游历的想法。
After having visited many countries I realized that the best place to live was China, and this after having walked the length and breadth of the country for three months at the end of the last century.
在游历了许多国家之后，我意识到，对我而言，最理想的居住地是中国，这是上世纪末的三个月里，我从东到西、从南到北考察之后得出的结论。
Back in my flat homeland, I made the decision to learn Mandarin. It was the best idea of my life, because although I didn’t manage to learn this language, it allowed me to meet the woman of my life: my Chinese teacher.
回到地势平坦的故乡之后，我决定学习普通话。这是我一生中最绝妙的想法，因为虽然我没有能学会这门语言，但却让我邂逅了我生命中的女人：我的中文老师。
A year later we were married and jumped over the Great Wall hand in hand. We landed in Xiamen, because it was in this charming city that her mother lived.
结婚一年后，我们携手爬上了长城。随后我们在厦门落地，因为我的岳母就居住在这座魅力之城。

文章图片
photo credit: Alain

Lasting happiness does not come from the acquired, but from perpetual change.

长久的幸福并不来自于所拥有的，而来自于不断求变。

After spending a few years in the art business between Belgium and China, I was offered to teach French. I was surprised by this proposal because I had no teaching background, but on further reflection I thought it might be an experience worth trying.
在经历了比利时和中国之间数个寒来暑往的商业贸易之后，有人建议我去教授法语课程。完全没有教学背景的我，对此感到惊讶。但考虑之后，我对自己说，这或许值得一试。
I was right to do so, because I quickly realized that this interaction of brain to brain, very different, was exciting. Having said that, I had already realized how enriching these intercultural exchanges of ideas were during the discussions I had, and still have, with my wife.
在这个过程中，我很快意识到，这种思想与思想的碰撞，因人而异，是非常激动人心的。我这样说，是因为我已然了解，这种跨文化的思想交流是如何丰富我的头脑，我一直在这么做，特别是与我的妻子交流。
Another major advantage of “face-to-face” teaching is the fact that you can communicate with a real person, whereas the vast majority of people today, with their eyes permanently glued to their phones, are busy scrolling through nonsense. But hey, that’s called progress and I think it should be universal.