煩人的甜蜜負荷
Mindy and Wes are chatting in a cafe.
敏蒂與魏斯在咖啡廳聊天。
Wes: How was your Lunar New Year holiday? The weather was nice in southern Taiwan right?
魏斯：你的年假過得如何啊？南部天氣很好吧？
Mindy: Yeah, it was almost like summer. But I could hardly relax because my relatives kept bombarding me with annoying questions like “Do you have a boyfriend?”, “Are you getting married this year?” and “Don’t you want a kid in the future?”
敏蒂：是啊，天氣像夏天一樣，但我沒法放鬆，我親戚們一直狂問煩人的問題，像是「你有男朋友嗎？」、「你今年要結婚嗎？」還有「你以後不想要個小孩嗎？」
bombard(v.)連續砲轟，bombard sb with sth拿⋯⋯圍攻；（尤指）向⋯⋯大量提問
Wes: Wow, I guess they are pretty traditional. Many young people nowadays choose to stay single to live more freely. Marriage is too confining.
魏斯：哇，我想他們滿傳統的。現在很多年輕人都選擇單身，活得比較自在，婚姻太沈重了。
confine(v.)侷限
Mindy: I agree. I read some article about young people in South Korea. Many refer to young Koreans as the “sampo generation”, which literally means “giving up on the three things”: dating, marriage and children.
敏蒂：我同意，我讀了一些關於南韓年輕人的文章。許多人會稱年輕的南韓人為sampo generation，意思就是放棄三件事：約會、結婚、生小孩。
refer to sb稱呼某人literally(adv.)逐字翻譯地
Wes: I believe I read the same article as well. Since getting married is viewed as a social responsibility and heavy burden that one needs to shoulder in order to “carry on the family bloodline,” many young Koreans are leaving marriage behind.
魏斯：我想那篇我也有讀到，因為結婚被視為是社會責任、傳宗接代，許多南韓年輕人漸漸不把結婚當成一個人生選項。
burden(n.)負擔shoulder(v.)承擔責任bloodline(n.)血統
Mindy: The article mentioned that over 50% of married women in South Korea envision their lives without children.
敏蒂：新聞提到，有超過5成的已婚南韓女性不想要小孩。
envision(v.)預想
Wes: I guess many people are now pursuing a “childless” life, huh?
魏斯：我想大家都想追求單純的兩人世界吧。
pursue(v.)追求
Mindy: That’s my ideal as well. I don’t need the so-called “sweet burden”.
敏蒂：那也是我的理想，我不需要所謂的「甜蜜的負荷」。
ideal(n.)理想so-called(adj.)所謂的burden(n.)負擔
Wes: I can understand that. Forget about those Confucian values on marriage and social responsibility! We should just focus on what we want in life.
魏斯：我能理解，忘掉甚麼儒家婚姻價值還有社會責任！專注在追尋我們想要的人生吧。