2006年NPR美国国家公共电台一月-Getting Used to a New Name and New Identi（在线收听） |
| What’s in a name? When commentator Taunya English got married, she found it wasn’t so easy to adjust to a new one or the new identity that went along with it. Lately, when someone asks my name, I hesitate just for a second. My brain rifles through its Rolodex,which me should I turn over to that waiting pencil tip? Taunya English is a journalist, who's always wanted to write children`s books. My student loan bills arrive ,addressed to her. The married me is Taunya Washington. After Gordon and I got married, our health insurance card for Taunya Washington showed up in the mail. My new passport also says I’m Taunya Washington. I’ve got big plans for that passport. But right now it seems a little empty without all the colorful custom stamps I collected during my twenties. These days every new introduction acquires quick calculations. I try to make a good first impression. But I must seem dizzy or may be shifty in the seconds it takes for me to decide who you are to me and who I want to be to you. At the dry cleaners, when I stumble over my name, the counter lady narrows her eyes as if I am trying to claim someone else’s husband’s lightly starched shirts; at journalism conferences, I deliver a firm handshake but then flub my name. The name Taunya Washington is one of the biggest adjustments of my shiny new marriage. And my gratitude for an easy-going husband doesn’t soothe the itchy irritation of a name that doesn’t suit me. Besides, someday I'll actually write that children’s book, and when I go to the library, looking for my book, I'll betray the little-girl dreamer in me if Taunya Washington’s name is on the cover. When my husband Gordon and I got engaged, he suggested a destination wedding, something on the beach with a few friends willing to travel to Belize or maybe Costa Rica. That didn’t work for me. To feel married, I needed a little gospel music and the blessing of a Baptist preacher. I needed my mother on the front row wearing one of her huge church-lady hats, and I needed raspberry color tulips and bridesmaids dresses that matched. More than the marriage certificate, those details registered our marriage on my soul. For Gordon, it’s different. When I asked him why he wanted me to change my name, he said “it makes us family”. That detail mattered to him. I could spend years strong-arming a longer explanation out of him, but he wants what he wants, and there's something about Gordon’s quiet answer that screams at me, pay attention. Now I’m not gonna change my byline, I worked hard to see the name Taunya English in print. But I do think about the details that make my husband feel married. And I oblige when they can. When I call ahead for carry-out for the third time this week, I'll use my married name. And the pizza guy will say, " see you in twenty minutes, Mrs.Washington. " Sometimes, though, it takes a second to remember, that’s me. Taunya English is a freelance journalist living in Baltimore where both her last names are on her mailbox. NEW WORDS & EXPRESSIONS: stumble over 给...绊倒, 结结巴巴地说 flub take a mistake or do something badly tulip 郁金香 bridesmaid 女傧相 Belize 伯利兹城(洪都拉斯首都) Baltimore 巴尔的摩, 美国马里兰州的一城市 |
| 原文地址：http://www.tingroom.com/lesson/NPR2006/40764.html |