幸福感
Concepts of happiness
Hello. Welcome to 6 Minute English, I'm Neil.
大家好。欢迎收听英语六分钟，我是尼尔。
This is the programme where in just six minutes we discuss an interesting topic and teach some related English vocabulary.
在这个节目中，我们将在六分钟内讨论一个有趣的话题，并教授一些相关的英语词汇。
And joining me to do this is Rob.
和我一起搭档主持节目的是罗伯。
Hello, Neil.
你好，尼尔。
Now Rob, you seem like a happy chappy.
罗伯，你看起来很快乐啊。
What's the point of being miserable?
痛苦有什么意义呢？
Well, that are many things that could make you feel down in the dumps – a phrase that means 'unhappy'.
嗯，有很多事情会让你垂头丧气——这个短语的意思是“不开心”。
But what are the things that keep you feeling happy, cheerful and chirpy, Rob?
但是是什么让你感到快乐，开心和愉快呢，罗伯？
Oh many things, like being healthy, having good friends, presenting programmes like this with you, Neil!
哦，很多事情，像是健康，有好朋友，像是和你一起做这个的节目，尼尔！
Of course – but we all have different ideas about what makes us happy.
当然——但是对于什么能让我们快乐，我们有不同的想法。
And that can vary from country to country and culture to culture.
那可能会因国家和文化的不同而有所不同。
It's what we're talking about today – concepts of happiness.
那就是我们今天要讨论的——幸福感的概念。
Now Neil, you could make us even happier if you gave us a really good question to answer.
尼尔，如果你能给我们设置一个很好的问题来回答，你甚至会让我们感到更幸福。
Here it is.
这就是问题。
Happiness is an emotion that actually gets measured.
幸福感是一种实际上能衡量的情感。
The World Happiness Report measures "subjective well-being" - how happy the people are, and why.
《世界幸福报告》对“个人幸福感”进行衡量
——人们有多幸福以及为什么幸福。
But do you know, according to a United Nations agency report in 2017, which is the happiest country on Earth?
但你知道根据2017年联合国机构报告，哪个是地球上最幸福的国家？
Is it… a) Norway b) Japan, or c) New Zealand?
是a)挪威b)日本，还是c)新西兰？
WeIl, I think they're all very happy places but the outdoor life of many New Zealanders must make New Zealand the happiest place.
好吧，我认为它们都是非常幸福的地方，但是一些新西兰人的户外生活肯定使新西兰是最幸福的地方。
OK, we'll see. I'll reveal the answer later on.
好的，我们会看到答案是什么。稍后我将揭晓答案。
But now back to our discussion about happiness around the world.
现在回到我们关于世界各地幸福感的讨论中来。
Happiness can be hard to define.
幸福很难定义。
Research has suggested that while personal feelings
of pleasure are the accepted definition of happiness in Western cultures,
研究表明，在西方文化中，个人愉悦感是幸福认可的定义，
East Asian cultures tend to see happiness as social harmony and in some parts of Africa and India it's more about shared experiences and family.
而在东亚文化中，人们倾向于将幸福视为社会和谐，在非洲和印度一些地区，幸福更多的是关于共同的经历和家庭。
It's something author and journalist Helen Russell has been looking at – she's even created an 'Atlas of Happiness'.
这是作家兼记者海伦·拉塞尔一直关注的问题——她甚至还创作了一本“幸福地图集”。
Her research focused on the positive characteristics of a country's population
她的研究关注于国家人口的正面特征
– and guess which country she found to be one of the happiest?
——猜一猜她发现哪个国家是最幸福的国家之一？
New Zealand?
新西兰？
Actually no. It was Japan.
事实上不是。是日本。
Here she is speaking on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour programme.
这是她做客BBC广播4频道《女性时间》。
What concept – or belief – is it that promotes happiness?
什么概念或观点促进了幸福感？
Millennials and perhaps older people are better at remembering wabi-sabi – this traditional Japanese concept around celebrating imperfection,
千禧一代，也许年纪大一些的人能更好得记住侘寂——这一关于庆祝缺陷的日本传统观念，
which I think is something so helpful these days, especially for women.
我认为现在它是如此有用，尤其是对女性来说。
It's...this idea that there is a beauty in ageing, it's to be celebrated rather than trying to disguise it, or trying to cover up the scars instead you gild them with kintsugi.
这个观点是说美人迟暮是要庆祝而不是试图掩饰，或尽量掩饰伤痕而不是用金缮修复。
If you break a pot instead of chucking it away, you mend it with gold lacquer, so the scars, rather than being hidden, are highlighted in pure gold…
如果你打破一个罐子，没有把它扔掉，反而用金漆修补，那么伤痕会因为纯金色突显出来而不是被掩盖起来。
We all have laughter lines and rather than being ashamed of them, they're something to be celebrated.
我们都有笑纹，与其为之羞愧，还不如为之庆祝。
So in Japan, there is a belief that people should celebrate imperfection.
所以在日本有一种观点是人们应该庆祝缺陷。
Imperfection is a fault or weakness.
“Imperfection”是缺点或弱点。
So rather than hiding something that's not perfect, we should celebrate it.
所以我们应该庆祝不完美的事物，而不是隐藏它。
Getting old, for example, is not something to be ashamed of.
例如变老并不是一件羞耻的事情。
Don't hide your wrinkles or laughter lines – these are the creases you get as you skin ages or even you get from smiling too much!
不要隐藏你的皱纹或笑纹——这些是随着皮肤老化你所产生的皱纹，或者是你笑得太多而产生的。
Rather than spending time being ashamed of our faults, we should accept what and who we are.
我们应该接受我们是谁，是什么，而不是花时间为自己的缺点感到羞愧。
This concept is something that Helen feels, is particularly being celebrated by Millennials and older people.
这个概念是海伦觉得千禧一代和年纪大一些的人所推崇的。
Yes, and Helen compared this with the process of kintsugi – where the cracks or scars on broken pottery are highlighted with gold lacquer.
是的，海伦将此同与金缮修复过程进行了比较——用金漆修复破碎陶器而使裂缝或伤痕突显出来。
This is called gilding.
这叫做镀金。
So we should highlight our imperfections.
所以我们应该突显我们的缺陷。
This concept is something that maybe English people should embrace more because according to Helen Russell's research, they are not a very happy population.
也许英国人应该更多地接受这个概念，因为根据海伦·拉塞尔的研究，英国人不是一个非常幸福的人口。
Here she is speaking on the BBC's Woman's Hour programme again.
这是她在BBC《女性时间》节目中再次谈到的。
What word does she use to describe people like me and you?
她用什么词来形容像我和你这样的人？
In England what we have is 'jolly', which many of us now associate with this kind of 'jolly hockey sticks' or maybe an upper-class thing,
在英国我们有“愉悦的”这个单词，现在我们一些人会把它与“上层社会女子好交际”或者可能是一种上流社会的东西联系起来，
but actually it's something that really plays through a lot of British culture in a way that we may not think of so much.
但实际上它真的以一种我们可能想不到的方式在诸多英国文化中发挥着作用。
So there's this sense that in a lot of our comedy, in a lot of our approach to life, you just sort of…
所以在我们很多的喜剧中，我们诸多生活方式中就有这种意味，你只是……
you get out there, you go for a dog walk, you have a boiled egg and soldiers ['soldiers' in this case are small slices of toast that you can dip into your egg and eat],
你走出去，遛遛狗，吃个水煮蛋和烤面包片(“soldiers”在这种情况下指的是小片烤面包，你可以蘸着鸡蛋吃)，
and we do sort of get on with things – it's a coping mechanism, it's not perfect but it's worked for many Brits for a while.
我们确实做了一些事——这是一种应对机制，它并不完美，但对很多英国人来说它已经运用一阵子了。
In the past we would use the phrase 'jolly hockey sticks' – a humorous phrase used to describe upper-class school girls' annoying enthusiasm.
在过去，我们会用“jolly hockey sticks”这个短语——一个幽默的短语，用来形容上层社会女子过分热情而让人讨厌。
But Helen now thinks 'jolly' describes an attitude that is used as a coping mechanism – that's something someone does to deal with a difficult situation.
但是海伦现在认为“jolly”描述的是用作一种应对机制的态度，即某人在处理困难处境时所采取的态度。
We smile, do everyday things – like walking the dog – and just get on with life.
我们微笑着处理日常琐事——像是遛狗——从容面对生活。
I guess she means carry on without complaining.
我想她的意思是不抱怨地生活。
Well, here's something to make you happy, Rob – the answer to the question I asked you earlier,
好吧，罗伯，这里是让你高兴的事情——我早些时候问你的问题的答案，
which was: according to a United Nations agency report in 2017, which is the happiest country on Earth?
问题是：根据2017年联合国机构报告，哪个是地球上最幸福的国家？
Is it… a) Norway b) Japan, or c) New Zealand?
是a)挪威b)日本，还是c)新西兰？
And I said c) New Zealand.
我说是c)新西兰。
The answer is a) Norway.
答案是a)挪威。
The report has been published for the past five years, during which the Nordic countries have consistently dominated the top spots.
该报告已经发表五年了，在此期间，北欧国家一直占据榜首。
OK, now it's time to remind ourselves of some of the vocabulary we've mentioned today.
好了，现在是时候回顾一下我们今天提到的一些词汇了。
We mentioned the phrase down in the dumps – which is an informal way of describing the feeling of unhappiness, sometimes with no hope.
我们提到了“垂头丧气”这个短语，这是形容不开心，有时没有希望的一种非正式的表达。
The next word was imperfection, which is a fault or weakness.
下一个单词是“缺陷”，那是一个缺点或弱点。
You won't find any imperfections in this programme, Rob!
罗伯，在这个节目里你找不到任何缺陷！
Glad to hear it. Maybe we should gild this script – to gild something is to cover it in a thin layer of gold.
很高兴听你这么说。也许我们应该给这个剧本镀金——就是给某物涂上一层薄薄的金。
We also heard about the word jolly which means 'cheerful and happy'.
我们还听到了“jolly”这个词，意思是“开心愉悦的”。
And being jolly can be used as a coping mechanism - that's something someone does to deal with a difficult situation.
快乐可以作为一种应对机制——那是人们在处理困难处境时所做的事情。
If something doesn't go well, you just smile and
carry on.
如果事情进展不顺利，你只需要微笑着继续进行下去。
Well, there's no need to do that in this programme.
在这个节目中没有必要那么做。
Now there's just time to remind you that we have a website with lots more learning English content. The address is bbclearningenglish.com.
现在是时候提醒你，我们有一个有着更多英语学习内容的网站。网址是bbclearningenglish.com。
Thanks for joining us and goodbye.
感谢你的参与，再见。
Goodbye!
再见！