Kelly 自言自语： 在国内，因为代表公司跟很多外国企业谈合作，然后又在珠海航展帮公司做翻译，很多人问我是不是英语专业的，问我的英语怎么学的，我不是英语专业的，我只是敢讲而已。学任何语言，不开口永远学不好，我大学毕业去到珠海，半年会说流利的粤语，就是大胆开口讲。来到加拿大，我才知道我的英语其实一般，但我还是大胆跟外国人讲，有口音不怕，语法错误不怕，老外能够理解，我在这里也经常跟老外谈合作，他们看的是你的自信和你能够给他们带来的合作成果。回流中国5年，因为在中外合作办学的UIC，开会写报告都必须用英文，与全世界的学校的来访者交流也是很多的，所以英文没丢，甚至比回温哥华用的还多。我带孩子们2013年回到温哥华后，第一份工作是教育顾问，帮新移民的孩子们申请学校，处理学业还跟一些想学好英语的家长沟通，就让他们大胆讲，只会️单词就说那个单词，不要考虑语法和成句，结果好几个妈妈现在口语很流利了。
关于这段讲话，英语爱好者可以选择背诵，她的演讲真的是各种有深度的词汇以及语法构造都在里面，学习语言的另外一个法宝就是背诵好的文章，当你真正能流利背诵很多的时候，语感就有了，特别对没有英语环境的学习者很有用。
这部分里有句话震撼到我了，
Climbing out of poverty by your own efforts, that is something on which to pride yourself, but poverty itself is romanticized only by fools.
特别是最后一句，但贫穷本身只是被愚人浪漫化。
作者: J.K. Rowling
翻译：众多英语爱好者
President Faust, members of the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers, members of the faculty, proud parents, and, above all, graduates:
The first thing I would like to say is “thank you.”
Not only has Harvard given me an extraordinary honor, but the weeks of fear and nausea I have endured at the thought of giving this commencement address have made me lose weight.
A win-win situation!
Now all I have to do is take deep breaths, squint at the red banners and convince myself that I am at the world's largest Gryffindor reunion.
Delivering a commencement address is a great responsibility; or so I thought until I cast my mind back to my own graduation.
The commencement speaker that day was the distinguished British philosopher Baroness Mary Warnock.
Reflecting on her speech has helped me enormously in writing this one, because it turns out that I can't remember a single word she said.
This liberating discovery enables me to proceed without any fear that I might inadvertently influence you to abandon promising careers in business, the law or politics for the giddy delights of becoming a gay wizard.
You see? If all you remember in years to come is the “gay wizard” joke, I've come out ahead of Baroness Mary Warnock. Achievable goals: the first step to self improvement.
Actually, I have wracked my mind and heart for what I ought to say to you today.
I have asked myself what I wish I had known at my own graduation, and what important lessons I have learned in the 21 years that have expired between that day and this.
I have come up with two answers.
On this wonderful day when we are gathered together to celebrate your academic success, I have decided to talk to you about the benefits of failure.
And as you stand on the threshold of what is sometimes called ‘real life', I want to extol the crucial importance of imagination.
These may seem quixotic or paradoxical choices, but bear with me.
Faust 校长，哈佛集团的董事们，各位教职工，各位骄傲的父母，当然还有最重要的，我们的毕业生们：
首先我最想说的是：谢谢你们！
哈佛不仅给予了我非凡的荣誉，还让我遭遇了连续数周的恐惧和恶心，这都是因为这场毕业典礼演讲，而且我还减了肥。（笑声）
真是一场双赢之局啊！（大笑）
现在我不得不深呼吸，眯一眼这个红色条幅，然后自我催眠：我正在全世界最盛大的格兰芬多聚会上呢！（大笑）
发表毕业演说责任重大；这让我不由自主地想到了自己的毕业典礼。
那次的演讲人是杰出的英国哲学家Baroness Mary Warnock。回顾她的演说帮了我写这次的演讲稿大忙，因为结果是她说的一个字我都不记得了。（笑）这项令人舒心的发现使我能继续下去，而非唯恐我无意中影响了你们去放弃商业、法律和政治上的大好前途，轻率又愉快地成为了一个同志巫师。（大笑）
你们瞧？如果未来几年里你们还记得这个“同志巫师”的笑话，那我就算是超过了Baroness Mary Warnock啦。一个可行的目标是自我提升的第一步呢。
实际上，为了今天要对你们说的话我可是绞尽脑汁。我扪心自问自己当年想在毕业典礼知道些什么，从那一天至今的这二十一年里我又学到了什么金科玉律。
我想出了两个答案。
在这个欢聚一堂庆祝你们成功结业的美妙日子里，我决定和你们谈谈失败的益处。
还有当你们站在所谓的“现实生活”的门槛上时，我得赞美一下想象力的重要性。
这些选择也许看起来不切实际或者自相矛盾，不过请耐心听我说完吧。
commencement address毕业演讲
extraordinary adj.非同寻常的，特别的
nausea n.作呕，恶心
endured v.持续，持久，坚持下去，容忍，忍耐
commencement n.开始，发端，毕业典礼
baroness n.男爵夫人，女男爵
squint v.斜视 n.斜视眼，倾斜的，偏移的
banners n.横幅，虹彩，旗，旗帜
liberating v.解放，释放
inadvertently adv.不经意地，不经意的
giddy v.眼花，眩晕 adj.眼花缭乱的，头晕的
wracked n.失事船只，破坏
expired adj.到期的（动词expire的过去式和过去分词形式）
threshold n.门槛，开端
extol v.赞美，称赞，颂扬
crucial adj.关键的，决定性的
quixotic
cast ones mind back to 回想起
wrack my mind and heart绞尽脑汁，费劲心思
after all 尤其，首先，特别是
graduate into 渐渐变为
graduate away 渐渐消逝
Part 2
Looking back at the 21-year-old that I was at graduation, is a slightly uncomfortable experience for the 42-year-old that she has become.
Half my lifetime ago, I was striking an uneasy balance between the ambition I had for myself, and what those closest to me expected of me.
I was convinced that the only thing I wanted to do, ever, was to write novels.
However, my parents, both of whom came from impoverished backgrounds and neither of whom had been to college, took the view that my overactive imagination was an amusing personal quirk that would never pay a mortgage, or secure a pension.
I know the irony strikes with the force of a cartoon anvil now, but . . .
So they hoped that I would take a vocational degree; I wanted to study English Literature.
A compromise was reached that in retrospect satisfied nobody, and I went up to study Modern Languages.
Hardly had my parents' car rounded the corner at the end of the road than I ditched German and scuttled off down the Classics corridor.
I cannot remember telling my parents that I was studying Classics; they might well have found out for the first time on graduation day.
Of all the subjects on this planet, I think they would have been hard put to name one less useful than Greek mythology when it came to securing the keys to an executive bathroom.
I would like to make it clear, in parenthesis, that I do not blame my parents for their point of view.
There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction; the moment you are old enough to take the wheel, responsibility lies with you.
What is more, I cannot criticize my parents for hoping that I would never experience poverty.
They had been poor themselves, and I have since been poor, and I quite agree with them that it is not an ennobling experience.
Poverty entails fear, and stress, and sometimes depression; it means a thousand petty humiliations and hardships.
Climbing out of poverty by your own efforts, that is something on which to pride yourself, but poverty itself is romanticized only by fools.
impoverished 1 poor 2,increative
quirk n,1,怪癖，怪事odd，2,急转 3, 偶发事件
ditch vt get rid of, abandon
scuttle v, 1, walk or run quickly 2, 凿沉
scuttle off 漫游……
an expiry date on doing sth 是……时候了
steer v operate,indictive
steer sb in the wrong direction 误导某人
hardship n.困难
回顾我21岁毕业时的场景，对于42岁的自己来说，是一段颇不自在的经历。
我的前半生，都在试图平衡自己的雄心壮志和最亲近的人对我的期望。
我坚信自己迄今唯一想做的事，就是写小说。
但是，我的父母都有着赤贫的背景，没有人上过大学。他们认为我过于活跃的想象力只是自己可笑的怪癖，绝无可能偿还贷款，负担养老金。
我知道现在看来，这讽刺像动画里的铁砧一样，但是...
他们希望我能有一个有职业保障的学位；而我想学语言文学。
妥协达成，内省的结果无人满意，我去学了现代语言学。
在我深挖德语，在经典著作的走廊中漫游时，我父母的车从未出现在街角等我。
我不记得是怎样告诉父母我学习古典文学的了；也许他们是在我的毕业典礼那天才发现。
在这个世界上的所有学科中，想要有一个自己的独立浴室，他们也许找不出一本比希腊神话更无用的书。
我想要说的是，括号，我不会因为父母的观念而抱怨他们。
当你想要抱怨父母掌舵使你驶向错误的方向时；那就是你已成熟到足以自己掌舵，是为自己负责的时候了。
此外，我不能挑剔父母希望我永不经历贫困。
他们自己经历过贫困，我也历经贫困，我很是同意，贫困时期并不是使人高贵的一段经历。
贫瘠带来恐惧，压力，有时甚至沮丧；它意味着上千次不起眼的耻辱还有苦楚。
凭一己之力脱离贫困，是使自己引以为豪的经历，但贫穷本身只是被愚人浪漫化。
