根据霍尔马克卡片的销售量，似乎可以看出，中国、日本、韩国的具有浪漫色彩的消费者的数量正在上升。这一现象并不令人吃惊，因为霍尔马克贺卡已成为一种绝妙的克服情感拘谨的好办法，而情感拘谨在亚洲许多国家仍然很普遍。

Becoming Don Juan without losing face

既作唐·璜式的风流才子，又不失脸面。

The problem in Eastern societies is that cultural norms and romance often run into a dilemma: how do you tell a girl that you fancy her without putting yourself in a position in which you could \face\In China, for example, because of cultural norms, men will perhaps never be mistaken for Shakespeare's Romeo. Romance, of the Western variety, is simply not a Chinese man's cup of tea. So, how do you overcome this dilemma? To sidestep possible pitfalls of cultural impropriety, the Chinese Don Juan goes and buys his sweetie a Hallmark card for Valentine's Day. Thus, he can express his emotions through a pre-made message on paper, rather than through uncomfortable sweet talk in person.

东方国家的人们由于文化的准则与浪漫的爱情常常陷入两难的境地，那就是：你怎样才能告诉一个女孩你喜欢她，但又不至于使自己“丢面子”呢？比如在中国，由于文化准则的缘故，中国男性大概永远不会被误认为是莎士比亚笔下的罗密欧，而西方的风流逸事也决不会成为中国男人茶余饭后的话题。因此，怎么克服这种两难窘境？为了避免文化习俗上的失误，中国的唐.璜们购买情人卡送给他们的心上人。这样，他可以通过卡片上事先印制好的文字来表达他们的感情，而不用当面说一些令人尴尬的甜言蜜语。

In Japan and Korea, the rules are somewhat different. Here men generally tend to be much less inhibited about their emotions and romantic interests. To assess just how emotional Japanese men can be in all walks of life, just recall the occasional news feature of a top Japanese or Korean CEO apologizing in tears for the weak performance or bankruptcy of his company in front of his nation's TV cameras.

在日本和韩国，文化准则又稍有不同。总的来讲，日本和韩国男人对自己的感情和浪漫情趣较少抑制。评价日本男人在生活的各个方面是如何易动感情的，只需回忆一下一个日本和韩国的上层首席执行官在国家电视台的摄像镜头前，泪流满面地为公司的不良运作和破产而道歉的新闻特写的情景就足够了。

In Japan and Korea, it is the women that are more emotionally inhibited than the men. So, in order for them to display some affection in a suitable manner, women will send out the Hallmark Valentine cards to the object of their affection. But, if you think Hallmark cards need to be translated into the different Asian languages to enable lovers to exchange tender words, think again.

在日本和韩国，女人要比男人更加克制自己的感情。因此，为了用恰当的方式表白自己的爱情，女性往往喜欢送霍尔马克卡给她们爱慕的对象。但是，假如你认为应该把霍尔马克卡片上的英文翻译成亚洲各国的语言以便使情人们能相互交换爱慕的话语，你不妨再想一想。

Love talk is global, and no language skills are required.

谈情说爱是世界相通的，不需要任何语言技巧。

Since most of the Hallmark cards bought in Asia are produced within country, it seemed only natural that Hallmark cards would be translated into the local vernacular. To accommodate customers throughout the world, Hallmark prints greeting cards in 30 different languages. 由于在亚洲出售的大多数霍尔.马克卡片是在当地国家生产的，因此，把卡片的英文译成当地文字似乎是很自然的。为了适应全世界消费者的需要，霍尔马克用30种不同的语言印制贺卡。

Thus, cards are now actually being printed in Mandarin and Japanese with plans to extend the translations to various Indian languages, such as Hindi, Gujarati and Tamil. Customer surveys, however, revealed that this effort was not really necessary.

因此，霍尔马克卡片正在使用汉语和日语印制，并计划扩大语言范围，如印度语，吉吉拉特语，泰米尔语。然而，对顾客的调查却发现，这种努力没有真正的必要。 英语就是这种时髦语言。 English is the hip thing

You see, if you really want to impress your Chinese girlfriend or your Japanese boyfriend, don't send them a Japanese or Mandarin language card. This is a turn-off. Contrary to Hallmark's expectations, it turns out that Asian lovers prefer to give their sweeties English-language cards even when they speak little or no English. It is just the hip thing to do. 如果你真的想给你的中国女友或日本男友留下深刻的印象，不要给他们送日语或汉语贺卡。否则这会令人乏味。与霍尔马克（卡片）公司的预料相反，亚洲的情人们更喜欢给他们的心上人送英文贺卡片，哪怕他们基本不懂或根本不懂英文。送英文贺卡是一件很时髦的事。

And upon learning of this cultural preference, Hallmark reacted quickly. Even though Chinese and Japanese descendants of Romeo and Juliet are now able to buy greeting cards in their native language, Hallmark has made sure the supply of greeting cards in English is plentiful. Thus, their customers can achieve both a display of their hip cosmopolitan flair, while also sending their sweetie that all-important message of love at the same time.

在了解了这一文化偏爱后，霍尔马克（卡片）公司做出了快速反应。尽管中国和日本的当代罗密欧与朱丽叶们现在能够买到印汉语和日语的贺卡，霍尔马克（卡片）公司还是确保供应大量的英文贺卡。这样，既展现了顾客的时髦的世界性的品位，同时又能向他们的心上人表达至关重要的爱恋信息。

1.无论我们遇到什么样的困难，我们都应该想办法克服它。(overcome)

No matter what difficulties we come across, we should try our best to overcome them. 2. 尊老爱幼是中华民族传统的美德。(traditional)

Respecting the old and caring for the young is a traditional Chinese virtue.

3. 今天，各行各业的人都在努力提高自己的知识水平以便跟上时代的发展。(all walks of life) Today, people from all works of life are trying to acquire more knowledge to keep pace with the development of our times.

4. 孩子们特别喜欢卡通片。(have a fancy for; take a fancy to) Children take a fancy to cartoons.

5. 考虑到他们缺乏经验，这工作他们做得不错。(given that)

Given that they are lacking in experience/inexperienced/green hand, they have done a good job.