The power of introverts | Susan Cain | TED · TED
通过讲述夏令营经历，Susan Cain揭示内向者在社交文化中的困境与价值。适合练习听力理解与口语表达。
When I was nine years old, I went off to summer camp for the first time.
我九岁的时候，第一次参加了夏令营。
And my mother packed me a suitcase full of books, which to me seemed like a perfectly natural thing to do.
我的母亲给我准备了一个装满书籍的行李箱，对我来说，她这么做再自然不过了。
Because in my family, reading was the primary group activity.
因为在我家里，阅读是主要的集体活动。
And this might sound antisocial to you, but for us it was really just a different way of being social.
这听起来可能有些反社会，但对我们来说，这其实只是一种不同的社交方式罢了。
You have the animal warmth of your family sitting right next to you,
你的家人就坐在你身边，他们身上散发着那种温暖、亲切的气息（就像动物一样）。
but you are also free to go roaming around the adventureland inside your own mind.
不过，你也可以自由地在自己内心的“冒险乐园”里四处探索、冒险。
And I had this idea that camp was going to be just like this, but better.
我原本以为夏令营会和现在这样，只不过会更好一些。
I had a vision of 10 girls sitting in a cabin cozily reading books in their matching nightgowns.
我想象到这样一个场景：10个女孩坐在小屋里，穿着配套的睡衣，舒适地坐着看书。
Camp was more like a keg party without any alcohol.
那个营地更像是一场没有酒精的“啤酒派对”罢了。
And on the very first day, our counselor gathered us all together
就在第一天，我们的辅导员把我们所有人召集到了一起。
and she taught us a cheer that she said we would be doing every day for the rest of the summer to instill camp spirit.
她还教了我们一句口号，说在整个夏天里我们每天都要喊这句话，以此来培养营地的氛围和团队精神。
And it went like this: "R-O-W-D-I-E, that's the way we spell rowdie.
事情是这样的：“R-O-W-D-I-E，这就是‘rowdie’（捣乱者）的正确拼写方式。
Rowdie, rowdie, let's get rowdie."
吵闹吧，吵闹吧，让我们一起大声喧闹起来！
Yeah.
是的。
So I couldn't figure out for the life of me why we were supposed to be so rowdy,
我实在想不明白，为什么我们非得这么吵闹不可。
or why we had to spell this word incorrectly.
或者，为什么我们不得不把这个单词拼写错误……
But I recited a cheer.
但我还是喊出了一句鼓励的话语。
I recited a cheer along with everybody else.
我和所有人一起大声喊出了口号。
I did my best.
我已经尽了最大努力。
And I just waited for the time that I could go off and read my books.
然后我就等着那个可以独自去读书的时间。
But the first time that I took my book out of my suitcase,
但第一次我从行李箱里拿出我的书的时候……
the coolest girl in the bunk came up to me and she asked me, "Why are you being so mellow?"
宿舍里最酷的女孩走过来问我：“你为什么表现得这么淡定、这么从容呢？
-- mellow, of course, being the exact opposite of R-O-W-D-I-E.
——当然，这种风格非常“柔和”（mellow），与“愤怒、暴力、仇恨”（R-O-W-D-I-E）完全相反。
And then the second time I tried it,
然后第二次我尝试的时候……
the counselor came up to me with a concerned expression on her face
那位辅导员面带担忧的表情走向我。
and she repeated the point about camp spirit and said we should all work very hard to be outgoing.
她再次强调了团队精神的重要性，并表示我们应该共同努力，让自己变得更加外向、更善于与人交流。
And so I put my books away, back in their suitcase, and I put them under my bed,
于是我把书收好，放回原来的行李箱里，然后把行李箱放在床底下。
and there they stayed for the rest of the summer.
整个夏天，它们都待在那里。
And I felt kind of guilty about this.
对此，我感到有些内疚。
I felt as if the books needed me somehow, and they were calling out to me and I was forsaking them.
我觉得那些书在某种程度上需要我；它们仿佛在向我发出呼唤，而我却在抛弃它们。
But I did forsake them and I didn't open that suitcase again until I was back home with my family at the end of the summer.
但我确实放弃了它们；直到夏末我与家人一起回到家中时，我才再次打开那个行李箱。
Now, I tell you this story about summer camp.
现在，我给你们讲一个关于夏令营的故事。
I could have told you 50 others just like it --
我还能再给你讲另外五十个类似的例子呢。
all the times that I got the message that somehow my quiet and introverted style of being was not necessarily the right way to go,
每次我都收到这样的信息：我的安静、内向的性格方式似乎并不一定是正确的选择……
that I should be trying to pass as more of an extrovert.
我应该努力让自己看起来更像一个外向的人。
And I always sensed deep down that this was wrong and that introverts were pretty excellent just as they were.
在内心深处，我一直觉得这样做是不对的；内向的人本身就非常优秀，他们完全有资格以自己的方式生活。
But for years I denied this intuition, and so I became a Wall Street lawyer, of all things,
但多年来我一直否认这种直觉的存在；结果，我竟然成了一名华尔街的律师。
instead of the writer that I had always longed to be --
而不是成为我一直渴望成为的那种作家……
partly because I needed to prove to myself that I could be bold and assertive too.
部分原因是我需要向自己证明：我同样有能力表现得大胆、果断（即有自信地表达自己的观点）。
And I was always going off to crowded bars when I really would have preferred to just have a nice dinner with friends.
我总是去那些人满为患的酒吧，而其实我更愿意和朋友一起享用一顿美味的晚餐。