编者按： “双语视窗”栏目从2006年开办，至今已经走过了2年的历程，这些由在华外国友人撰写的小文章，以他们在华所见所闻为切入点，生动具体地反映出东西方观念、习俗的异同，也向我们提出了一个个既有趣又值得深思的问题。栏目一再连载得益于读者反馈中的正面回应。
“不识庐山真面目，只缘身在此山中”，换一个角度，从外国友人目光的折射中审视一下自己，更有助于我们全面地了解自身。同时，本栏目采用英汉对照形式，这些原汁原味的英文不仅有助于加深对作者原意的理解，也是一本学习现代英语的鲜活教材。
不久前在北京举行了一个很有意思的讲座，内容是关于住在中国的老外们的心理问题。主讲人是瑞典的一位心理学家，她在中国已经工作好几年了。讲座之后，来自世界各国的听众就各自的问题自由发言。
让我感到惊奇的第一件事就是参加这一讲座的人数之多，以及主讲人讲话时大厅里那出奇安静的气氛。而形成对照的是，允许提问的时间一到，很多人都举起了手要求发言，好像这儿的每个老外要么自己有心理问题，要么认为某个老外有心理问题。我曾在北京的一家国际诊所工作过，听说很多外国人酗酒或找其他方式来发泄心中的烦恼与不快。在诊所我也见到过因发泄方式不当引起的某些后果。当然，只有极端的案例才会在医院出现，你看不到老外们日常生活中的不自在。
使我受到震动的第二件事是所提问题的质量相当高。显然，很多人早就对他们的困惑进行了思考与分析。参加讲座的多数人是女性，我认为这是因为这里的女性也是妻子和母亲，因此要关心全家的安康，并且要了解子女或配偶身上所显示出来的令人不安的举止。而在北京的外国男人通常很忙，投身于工作之中，他们的妻子留在家里来应付日常生活问题：孩子们在学校的表现还行吗？他们结交了新朋友吗？……妻子们常有时间与普通的北京人打交道，很多人在学中文，并学着与出租司机与售货员聊天。做每天例行的事时，她们知道自己受到好奇眼光的注视，并且经常受到“嘲笑”，而这些加重了她们的心理负担。
我注意到的第三件事，是来自不同国家的人所提的问题迥然不同，这反映了他们硬着头皮在中国环境中生活的能力也不同。自然，所有的问题都是用英文提问，但从不同的口音很容易区分出她来自哪里，就算听不出来，很多人在开始发言时都会介绍自己的国籍。来自北美的老外与来自欧洲的老外所存在的问题看来就很不一样。
我猜想多数中国人认为白人老外就是美国人。乘出租车与司机聊天，你就可以了解很多普通百姓在这方面所持的偏见及模式化的看法。只要我一说“你好”，用中文告诉司机我要去哪儿，他们就会用传统的带有夸张的方式来称赞你的中文。之后，他们就会问我是不是美国人，而我说不是，这显然使他们很失望：不知为什么，我作为一个法国女人，好像就不算是百分之百的老外。在中国人眼里，欧洲人或非洲人居何种地位？这对于理解外国人在中国的境遇和他们的感受是至关重要的。
但我重点想讲的，正如我感觉到的，则是欧洲人与美国人的区别。欧洲人有着一种共享的文化，一种共同的基础，在此之上又加上了特殊的层面（比如说法国文化，德国文化）。有文化的欧洲人通常对历史、艺术、哲学很感兴趣，对不同的文化和语言有好奇心，对文化上的冲突也不觉得新鲜。因为欧洲国家乐于宣称自己国家的文化与邻国是多么不同。对于欧洲人来说，问题是彼此的差别有多大，而差别本身并非是问题。
相比之下，美国人来自一个说一种语言、共享一种基础文化的大国。你所看到的住在美国东海岸与西海岸的人们的差别，并不像不同欧洲文化之间的差别那样大。美国是个年轻国家，历史很短，美国文化不像欧洲文化那样清晰，美国文化容易受外界的影响，自身不太稳定。我认为这就是为什么在北京的美国人特别容易有心理问题的原因，他们不具有像欧洲那样清晰、能够抵制外来作用的文化来与中国文化抗衡，他们的社会特征不太稳固。他们常常把自己封闭起来，在人们心目中成为美国电影里夸大了的怪人。
我相信，对中国人来说，要看出这些差别是很困难的，而对外国人来说，这些差别则是很明显的。由于语言障碍及缺少接触途径，几乎没有几个中国人真正“了解”各类的外国人。中国人需要长时间的开放，以及与外国人进行各个层面的密切接触，才能获得这方面的感知力。
（本文作者24岁，法国姑娘，现在北京工作，嫁给了一位中国小伙子。本文原文是英文。）
原文：
Not long ago a very interesting lecture on the psychological problems that occur among foreigners living in China was given in Beijing. The speaker was a Swedish professional psychologist who has worked here for several years. After the lecture the audience, drawn from countries all over the world, could talk freely about specific cases.
The first thing that astonished me was the number of people attending and the profound silence that reigned in the lecture hall while the psychologist was speaking. As soon as the question-and-answer period arrived, in contrast, many people raised their hands to talk. It seemed as if every laowai in town either had a psychological problem or knew someone with one. I had been working at an international clinic in Beijing and so had heard about the many expatriates who drink or find other ways to deal with their anguish or unhappiness in China. In the clinic I had also seen some of the results.
Of course, only the extreme cases turn up in medical facilities; you don’t witness the everyday uneasiness felt by many foreigners living in China. The second thing that struck me was the quality of the questions.
It was obvious that many people had already been pondering and analyzing their difficulties for some time. The great majority of the people at the lecture were women, but I presume that this is because such women are also wives and mothers, hence concerned about their family’s well-being and aware of worrisome behavior manifested by their children or their spouse
Foreign men living in Beijing are typically very busy and absorbed in their work. Their wives are left to cope with the day-to-day problems:Are the kids doing okay in school, have they formed new friendships, etc.The wives often have time to interact with ordinary Beijingers. Many study Chinese and learn to hobnob with taxi-drivers and cashiers. They know that they are watched, that they are frequently laughed at as they go about their daily routines, and this can weigh on their spirit.
The third thing I noted at the lecture was the huge difference in the questions coming from people of different nationalities, reflecting very different capacities to come to terms with living in a Chinese environment.Naturally the questions were all being asked in English, but accents made it easy to tell who was from where, and in any case many people identified themselves by nationality when they began to speak.The North Americans seemed to have problems rather unlike those reported by continental Europeans.
I gather that most Chinese assume white foreigners are Americans.Taking taxis and chatting with the drivers, one learns a lot about the many prejudices, preconceptions and stereotypes held by ordinary Chinese.
As soon as I say hello and tell them where I want to go in Chinese, they reply with the conventional exaggerated praise.
They then ask if I’m American, and my negative answer plainly disappoints them: Somehow as a Frenchwoman I don’t rate as a 100-percent foreigner. What position do Europeans or Africans occupy in Chinese eyes?This is crucial to understanding what they meet with in China and how they feel here.
But what I would like to focus on is the difference, as I perceive it, between Europeans and Americans. Continental Europeans have a strong shared culture, a common base onto which a more particular layer (of specifically French culture, say, or German) is added
Educated Europeans are usually quite interested in history, art and philosophy; they are curious about different cultures and languages.They are also used to cultural confrontation, as European countries are quick to assert how distinct their national culture is from that of their neighbors. For Europeans the question is how great the difference is; the difference is not in itself a problem.
Americans, in contrast, come from a big country with one language and one shared basic culture. The differences you notice between the inhabitants of the US east coast and west coast are not as big as the gap between different European cultures. The country is new, the history shorter.American culture is not as strongly defined as European cultures; it is more open to outside influences and less stable. I think that this is why Americans in Beijing are particularly prone to psychological difficulties: They do not have such a strongly defined and resistant culture to oppose to Chinese culture. Their identity is less stable. They too often withdraw into themselves and become exaggerated caricatures.
It is, I believe, very hard for Chinese to detect these differences, many of which are obvious to a foreign observer. Few Chinese, hampered by the language barrier and lack of access, ever actually “know” a foreigner of any kind. They will need a long period of openness and intense contact at many levels of experience to acquire this sensitivity.省略）
责编：周瑾