【雅思课外精读】因为教中国孩子英语，我可能面临牢狱之灾（上）

　　【雅思课外精读】因为教中国孩子英语，我可能面临牢狱之灾*注：本文摘自9月3日《NPR》

　　They Teach Chinese Kids English Online. Now They're Caught In Trump's War On TikTok

　　他们在网上教中国孩子学英语，现在却被卷入特朗普与TikTok的战争中

　　1. Kristie Hunter is a former public school teacher who for the past two years has made most of her money teaching children in China how to speak English online.

　　克里斯特·亨特曾是公立学校的一名老师。两年来，她的收入大多来自在网上教中国孩子学英语。

　　2. "I've been a stay-at-home mom with our three children, and as they were getting older, I missed the professional side of my life," said Hunter, 42, who lives in the Columbia, South Carolina area. "So this has helped me reconnect with my career and have flexibility."

　　亨特现年42岁，住在南卡罗莱纳州的哥伦比亚，她说，“我曾是一名家庭主妇，在家照顾我的三个孩子。等孩子们慢慢长大，我也想回去工作了。这帮助我重新回到我的工作岗位，而且这种在线教育的方式也很灵活。”

　　3. Hunter works for GOGOKID, a one-on-one English language tutoring service owned by Chinese tech giant, ByteDance, which is the parent company of the hugely popular short-form video app TikTok.

　　亨特在GOGOKID工作，这是一家一对一的英语语言辅导服务机构，隶属于中国国科技巨头字节跳动公司，广受欢迎的TikTok就是字节跳动开发的。

　　4. "I used to think, 'We work for ByteDance, this huge company. They own TikTok. That's pretty cool, right?'" Hunter said. But now, the cool factor has morphed into something else: the threat of her job disappearing.

　　亨特说：“我曾经觉得，我们在字节跳动工作，这是一家大公司。他们还是TikTok的母公司，多酷啊。”但如今，这份很酷的工作已经变了：她面临失业的风险。

　　5. President Trump's Aug. 6 executive order, which was aimed at TikTok, outlawed American business with not just the video-sharing app, but with all of ByteDance's subsidiaries. That hasthrown the future of Hunter and nearly 4,000 other American teachers contracted to work with GOGOKID into real peril.

　　特朗普8月6日针对TikTok发布的行政命令，不仅禁止美国企业与TikTok合作，也禁止与字节跳动所有子公司的合作。这一禁令还对与GOGOKID签约的近4000名教师产生了影响。

　　6. "It's been a very scary, confusing, highly stressful time," Hunter said.

　　亨特坦言，“现在正处于可怕，困惑，压力巨大的时期。“

　　7. Under Trump's order targeting TikTok, "any transaction" between U.S. citizens and ByteDance would be banned. Violating the directive could result in a $300,000 fine, or even criminal prosecution. The order, which is being legally challenged by TikTok, is set to take effect on Sept. 20.

　　特朗普针对TikTok的行政命令称，美国公民与字节跳动之间的“任何交易”都将被禁止。违反该禁令可能面临30万美元罚款甚至是刑事诉讼。这一遭到TikTok起诉的行政命令将于9月20日生效。

　　8. "I could be put in jail for teaching a five-year-old how to say hello from across the computer," Hunter said. "We've got families that could potentially lose their homes and lose their savings because of this broad stroke of the pen because of this 'national security risk.'"

　　亨特说：“我可能会因为隔着屏幕叫一个五岁的小孩如何说”hello“而入狱，由于这种所谓的“国家安全风险，”很多家庭会因为他大笔一挥失去住房和存款。“

　　9. Brian Fleming, a former Justice Department lawyer who focused on enforcing economicsanctions, said Trump's order does not specify what subsidiaries or transactions with ByteDance will soon be outlawed. As a result, he said it is possible that GOGOKID instructors will be impacted.

　　专注实行经济制裁的前司法部律师布莱恩弗莱明称，特朗普的命令没有具体说明禁止与字节跳动的哪些子公司合作，也没有说明禁止与字节跳动的哪些合作，因此，GOGOKID的教师可能会受到影响。

　　10. "The language of the order is extremely broad," Fleming said. "It is theoretically possible that it could reach interests that are completely divorced from TikTok," he said. "From the way it's written, nothing is off the table, especially with this administration."

　　弗莱明说，“这一命令的用词很模糊。理论上讲，与TikTok的所有合作都可能被禁止，从这一命令的内容来看，没什么不可能，尤其是在特朗普政府执政的情况下。”

　　11. At the same time, Fleming said since the action was in response to TikTok, the administration could grant a carve-out for ByteDance services such as GOGOKID, but a guarantee is far from certain. He said it would be surprising if Trump officials sought to enforce the order before it is more clearly defined by the Department of Commerce.

　　"For teachers, I wouldn't say it's a risk-free situation," Fleming said. "But it's probably low risk." The Department of Commerce did not return a request for comment.

　　与此同时，弗莱明说，由于这一行动是针对TikTok, 政府可能会允许分割字节跳动旗下的GOGOKID等服务，但目前还不确定。他说，如果特朗普政府试图在商务部给出更明确的界定之前就强制执行该命令，那会令人措手不及。

　　弗莱明说，“对这些老师的情况，我不敢说完全没有任何风险，但我肯定风险是很低的。”美国商务部没有回复记者的置评请求。

　　12. The Trump administration's push to ban TikTok in the U.S. is the latest confrontation withChina in a long-running standoff with the country over issues including trade policy, intellectual property and technology. It has prompted Trump to sign a separate order forcing ByteDance to sell its U.S. assets to an American buyer in 90 days or be banned.

　　特朗普政府在美国禁止TikTok，这是美国与中国在贸易政策、知识产权和技术等问题上长期僵持的最新对抗。特朗普签署了一项单独的命令，迫使字节跳动在90天内将其美国资产出售，否则将会被全面禁止。

　　13. White House officials fear the troves of data TikTok is collecting on Americans could be shared with China's authoritarian regime and used for espionage or blackmail.

　　白宫方面担心，TikTok收集到的大量美国方面的数据可能会被中国政府用于间谍活动或敲诈。

　　14. TikTok has forcefully denied this suggestion, saying the company stores data the mobile app collects on Americans on servers in the U.S. and Singapore. TikTok says its U.S. operations are closed off from Beijing-based ByteDance.

　　TikTok坚决否认了这一说法，称该TikTok收集到的有关美国方面的数据都是存储在新加坡和美国的服务器上，TikTok的美国业务与北京字节跳动公司是分开的。

　　15. In the midst of the U.S. standoff with TikTok, GOGOKID teachers who have come to rely on income from the teaching service are feeling jittery.

　　在美国与TikTok的对峙中，依靠在GOGOKID教英语而获得收入的教师们一直紧张不安。

　　16. "We're collateral damage. It's frustrating to see this continued battle going on around us, and nobody knows that we exist," said GOGOKID teacher Lindsey Jacobs, 40, who lives east of Oklahoma City.

　　40岁的林赛·雅各布斯住在俄克拉荷马城东部，她说“我们被间接伤害到了。看到这场斗争持续进行，却没人知道我们存在，这真的很让人寒心。”

　　17. Jacobs is a Navy veteran and stay-at-home mom raising two children with her husband, who has a job with the federal government.

　　雅各布斯是一名海军退伍军人，也是一名全职妈妈，她和丈夫一起抚养两个孩子。她的丈夫在联邦政府工作。

　　18. She said her family has used the money she earns from teaching English about 30 hours a week to support her 16-year-old son's competitive swimming club and occupational therapy for her younger son, who has special needs.

　　她说，她每周教学30小时挣来的钱要用来支付她16岁的大儿子在竞技游泳俱乐部的费用，还要支付有特殊需求的小儿子的职业治疗费用。

　　19. "If I don't have that income, how does my son swim? How does my youngest son have therapy?" Jacobs said.

　　“如果我没有了那笔收入，我的大儿子怎么能游泳？我的小儿子怎么能接受治疗？”雅各布说。

　　20. A spokeswoman for GOGOKID would not say how the company believes Trump's executive order will affect teachers in the U.S.

　　GOGOKID的发言人没有就特朗普的行政命令对美国教师的影响发表看法。

　　21. "We are committed to the thousands of teachers that offer global learning opportunities through our platform every day," the spokeswoman said. "We recognize the economic value this program brings teachers and the educational impact for students, and we're taking every possible step to support all involved."

　　这位女发言人说:“我们致力于让成千上万的教师每天通过我们的平台提供全球学习机会。我们知道这个项目能给教师带来收入，对孩子们的教育产生影响，我们正在竭尽全力帮助所有参与其中的人。”

　　22. For ByteDance, GOGOKID is just one piece of a large and growing investment the company has made in recent years in education technology in China and abroad, said John Lee, a Berlin-based analyst at the Mercator Institute for China Studies.

　　柏林墨卡托中国问题研究所分析师John Lee说，对于字节跳动来说，GOGOKID只是该公司近年来在国内外教育技术领域进行的一项规模巨大且不断增长的投资中的一部分。

　　23. "It's not surprising to me, since ed tech is a growing sector in China," Lee said. "It makes sense that ByteDance, with its large war chest, would be seeking to expand into this area and preempt its rivals Tencent and Alibaba."

　　“这对我来说并不奇怪，因为教育科技在中国一直不断发展，” John Lee说。“字节跳动拥有巨额资本，也想要抢在竞争对手腾讯和阿里巴巴之前进入这一领域，这是合理的。”

　　24. ByteDance, a company valued at $100 billion, makes most of its money from Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok. But as the coronavirus forced lockdowns and led to widespread remote learning in China, ByteDance doubled down on investments in education.

　　字节跳动公司估值1000亿美元，其大部分收入来自抖音(TikTok中国版)。但由于新冠封锁，远程教育在中国迅速普及，字节跳动加大了在教育方面的投资。

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