Dialogue 1 Year of the Chicken or Year of the Rooster?
對話1 雞年是Chicken 還是 Rooster？

Jingjing: Long time, no see, Mark. Happy Year of the Rooster!
京晶：馬克，好久不見！雞年快樂！
Mark: It's great to see you, Jingjing. Happy New Year! Thanks for covering my extended vacation.
馬克：見到你很高興，京晶。新年快樂！謝謝在長假期間幫我代班。
Jingjing: I just hope you had a good chance to travel and relax during the holiday.
京晶：我只是希望你能利用假期好好旅游和放松一下。
Mark: For sure. By the way, I'm wondering if you think it's right to call it the year of the rooster or the year of the chicken.
馬克：那必須的。對了，我想知道你認為應該稱雞年為“the year of the rooster”還是“the year of the chicken”。
Jingjing: Well, I've heard both in English. Of course, in Chinese, it's 雞年(jīnián), which translates directly to chicken year.
京晶：哦，兩種英文說法我都聽說過。當然，中文是雞年(jīnián)，直接翻譯成英文就是chicken year。
Mark: That's true for all 12 of the animals on the Chinese zodiac, isn't it? It's just the basic word for the animal.
馬克：對中國十二生肖的動物來說都是直接這樣翻譯的，不是嗎？只是翻譯成該生肖在英文中對應的簡單詞。
Jingjing: Yes. It doesn't specify male or female. 公雞 (gōngjī) is the Chinese word for rooster. But we don't say 公雞年 (gōngjīnián).
京晶：是的，并不具體指出是公的還是母的。rooster的中文是公雞 (gōngjī)，但是我們并不說公雞年 (gōngjīnián)。
Mark: A lot of people think you should go with the word that sounds more majestic, like rooster, ram, or boar.
馬克：許多人認為應該使用更雄偉一點的詞，比如rooster（公雞），ram（公羊）或者boar（公豬）。
Jingjing: Don't you think so also?
京晶：難道你不也這么認為嗎？
Mark: I would, but a lot of the animals are just called by their basic names. It's kind of a stretch to look for a different word for a chicken that sounds majestic, when the same process would get people mixed up between a rat and a rabbit.
馬克：我是這樣認為的，但是很多生肖只是以簡單的名字稱呼。找一個更正式雄偉的詞來稱呼雞似乎有點言過其實，因為這樣做的話會讓人搞混鼠和兔。
Jingjing: A male rabbit is called a buck, right?
京晶：公兔在英文中是buck，對嗎？
Mark: Yeah, but nobody uses that word, unless they're breeding rabbits. If I said I saw a buck in the forest, people would think I saw a male deer.
馬克：是的，但是沒人用這個詞，除非他們是繁殖兔。如果我說我在森林里看到一只buck，人們會認為我看到的是一只公鹿。
Jingjing: So, we should just stick with the basic names for animals.
京晶：所以，我們可以只用生肖的通俗名。
Mark: Yeah. Call a chicken a chicken.
馬克：是的，稱雞為雞。

Dialogue 2 The Chinese Zodiac Abroad
對話2 外國人也知道中國十二生肖嗎？

Jingjing: I was wondering, Mark, do people outside of Asia use the Chinese zodiac very much?
京晶：馬克，我想知道亞洲之外的其他國家的人經常使用中國十二生肖嗎？
Mark: Most people know their own animal year.
馬克：大部分人知道他們自己的生肖年。
Jingjing: Do you remember when you learned yours?
京晶：你記得你是什么時候知道你的生肖年的嗎？
Mark: Yeah. I was in a Chinese restaurant in Vail, Colorado. We were waiting for our food and looking at the placemats, which had been printed with the Chinese zodiac.
馬克：記得，那時我在在科羅拉多州韋爾的一家中國餐館，我們一邊等著上餐，一邊看著餐具墊，中國十二生肖就印在餐具墊上。
Jingjing: Were you excited to learn about your animal year?
京晶：你知道了自己的生肖年時興奮嗎？
Mark: I was, because I'm a dragon. I was with my family. Some of my relatives were like, “oh, I'm a monkey,” or, “I didn't know I was a pig.”
馬克：當然，因為我屬龍。當時我和家人在一起，我的一些親戚當時都是，“噢，我是屬猴的”或者“我都不知道我是屬豬的。”
Jingjing: Hold up. Monkeys and pigs are not seen as good animals in America?
京晶：等等。猴和豬在美國不被看作好的動物嗎？
Mark: We don't have the legend of the Monkey King from Journey to the West there.
馬克：我們那里沒有西游記齊天大圣的傳說。
Jingjing: What about pigs?
京晶：那豬呢？
Mark: They're thought of as sloppy and lazy. But I understand that in China it's good fortune to be born in a year of the pig.
馬克：他們被認為是粗心和懶惰的象征。但是我知道，在中國，出生在豬年象征著有福氣。
Jingjing: You got it. You can expect to see a lot of pregnant ladies when the year of the pig rolls around.
京晶：你懂的。當豬年到時，你會看到很多孕婦。
Mark: I can picture it now: dozens of soon-to-be mothers rolling around the shopping mall.
馬克：我現在就可以想象到那場景：許多準媽媽們扎堆兒逛著商場。
Jingjing: You might steer clear of the shopping mall that year, unless you're expecting.
京晶：那一年你可能想避開商場，除非你也懷孕了。
Mark: Yeah. It'll be a good year for online shopping!
馬克：是的，那一年比較適合網購。