Quora精選：歐洲人住在美國最受不了什麼？

I stayed in California for a while, specifically in 『Silicon Valley』 and the biggest culture shock to me was the huge disparity of wealth in the San Francisco area.

我在加州待過一段時間，具體說是在矽谷，對我來說最大的文化衝擊就是舊金山地區巨大的貧富差距。

As someone coming from a country whose homelessness is amongst the highest in the U.K., I still couldn』t believe the sheer volume of homelessness in the San Francisco Bay Area.

我來自流浪人口位居首位的英國，但仍然對舊金山灣區的流浪人數之多感到難以置信。

On the other side of all this homelessness, I saw frivolous wealth. 20–30 year olds with more money than they knew what to do with. All of them were in the software development sector and across the board, all of them behaved like 「The Valley」 was one big youth club that they were a part of. Money meant nothing to most of the people I met.

和這些流浪人群形成鮮明對比的是輕浮的財富。20-30歲的年輕人錢太多都不知道怎麼花，他們都在軟體開發部門工作，而且他們所有人都表現得好像矽谷就是個大的年輕人俱樂部，而他們就是其中一員。對我所見到的大部分人來說錢都不算什麼。

There was no denying there is a chasm in the bay area. To me it didn』t even seem to have a middle class, you were either in a tech industry or you were poor, there was no in-between.

不可否認的是舊金山灣區的貧富差距很大，我覺著在那兒都沒有中產階級，要麼從事技術產業，要麼就是窮人，沒有中間人群。

I lived in America from the mid eighties to 2003 and was fortunate in having a good job to go to in San Francisco, which quickly became my favourite city in the whole world.

80年代中期至2003年之間我一直住在美國，很幸運在舊金山有一份好工作，這裡很快就成為了這個世界上我的幸運城市。

One of the main things I noticed was how positive people were. In the UK people tend to be a bit negative and suggest things may be difficult whereas in America people would say 「Go for it」 or 「you can do that」 which I found very refreshing. Also, it was very easy to make friends. Americans seem to assume you will be a nice person to know. My friends were a mixed lot of white Americans, black Americans, Asian Americans and ex pats from all over the world, as well as all sexual orientations. But that, of course is San Francisco, which is not representative of all the US.

引起我注意的主要事情之一就是人們的正能量。在英國人們有點消極，遇事都有畏難情緒，而在美國人們會說「去試試」或者「你能行」，我覺得這些話很能讓人精神振奮。在美國也很容易交到朋友，美國人似乎覺著別人都是可以認識的好人。我的朋友里有美國白人、黑人、亞裔和來自世界各地的移民，什麼性取向的都有。但當然是在舊金山這樣，並不代表全美國。

The only things I couldn』t understand were how really, really bad most television was, how crooked many of their politicians appeared to be, and why it was so hard to find good cheese.

我唯一不能理解的是電視節目的確很糟糕、很多政客都很虛偽、還有為什麼很難找到好乳酪。

I came to the U.S. in 1965 as a young adult. Since I have been here longer than in my home country, my perspectives have changed over the years.

1965年我來美國時還年輕，因為我在美國比在祖國待得久，這些年我的看法有所改變。

On the drive to my new home, I was amazed at the monotony of the suburbs, with the pastel-colored cookie cutter houses. After six months it was the pride of freedom of speech while being extremely intolerant of thoughts that were different. Another thing was the obsession with cleanliness. Everybody here had a bathtub or shower - and still people worried about how they smelled!

去新家的路上，我驚訝於郊區的單調，全都是千篇一律的色彩柔和的房子。六個月以後我又驚訝於言論自由的自豪感，然而又對不同的思想零容忍。另外一件事就是潔癖，在這兒每個人都有一個浴缸或淋浴，然而人們還是擔心自己身上味道不好。

The religiosity and conservatism of the population as a whole still amaze me to this day. Although social norms have changed over the years, at the same time there seems to be more extremism on all fronts.

人們整體上的虔誠和保守直到今天還讓我震驚，雖然近些年社會準則改變了，但同時在各個方面人們好像更極端了。

But after five decades in the U.S., I can honestly say the biggest culture shock came from two issues that are just as relevant today: Racism and the obsession with guns; the resulting violence of the combination of the two is something I will never get 「used to」.

但在美國待了50年之後，我能誠實地說最大的文化衝擊來自現在仍相關的兩件事：種族主義和槍支的困擾，這兩件事共同導致的暴力是我永遠習慣不了的。

What remains to be mentioned is the friendliness and generosity of the American people. For that alone, I love America!

我還要提的就是美國人的親切和慷慨。就憑這一點，我愛美國！