Unit 131Travel has always appealed to young people Carla Power et al. with means. But American kids are now on the move abroad in greater numbers than any previous generation. And these voyagers-mostly in their twenties and early thirties-aren‟t just doing a grand tour on Mommy and Daddy‟s credit card. Neither slackers nor disaffected dropouts, they defy the stereotypes of Generation X. And they disprove the conventional wisdom that the post-cold-war crop of Americans doesn‟t care about the rest of the world. They may not want to be foreign-policy geeks, but they are intensely interested in other cultures and languages, in the kind of go-go job opportunities available in fast-growing foreign economies and in going overseas as a way of finding themselves. Call them Generation G, for Global. One of their unofficial mottoes: “Do it. Be it. Live it”.旅游总是以种种方式吸引着像Carla Power et al的年轻人。
然而，美国当代年轻人出国旅游的人数比之前任何一代都多。
这些游子---大多数都是二十几或三十几---并不是拿着父母的信用卡出国大巡游/游学( a grand tour)。
他们既不是懒家伙，也不是反叛的辍学者。
他们蔑视人们对X一代人(generation X)的定式思维。
美国的传统观念认为，后冷战时期的美国一代不关心世界大事(自私，除了关心自己，其它一概不管), 他们(以实际行动)证明这一传统观念是错的。
他们或许不想当政客小丑，但他们对他国语言文化极为感兴趣，对在经济上快速崛起的新兴国家短期工作感兴趣，也对通过出国的方式来寻找自我极为感兴趣。
权且称他们为G一代吧(G指global)。
他们的一句非正式座右铭是：“做你想做的事，作你想做的人，过你想过的生活”。
2Even some of the most aimless of today‟s young t ravelers want to put their journeys to good use eventually. “I‟m hoping somewhere along the way, some voice will say, … Here‟s where you should be, here‟s what you should be doing‟,” says Brian, a twenty-something kid who is bicycling through Asia without an itinerary ( and won‟t give his last name for fear of worrying his mom). Many Gen-G travelers like Brian find their answer along the way. Beaux Walker, 30, gave up a six-figure income selling bonds on Wall Street and started his own computer business in China, where he makes much less money. “ This is so worth it,” he says in Shanghai. “This is the real deal.”即便是最漫无目的的游子最终都希望能充分利用自己的旅行。
“我希望在我行程的某一段，有个声音对我说: …这个地方你没白来，这件事情你做对了‟ ,” Brian如是说。
Brian是个二十出头的小伙子，他骑着脚踏车在亚洲各国旅行，手头也没有什么行程安排。
（他也不愿透露他姓啥，以免母亲替他担忧）。
许多像Brian以一样的G 一代年轻游子都在旅途中解开了心结。
Beaux Walker, 30岁，放弃了在华尔街从事债券销售，薪水高达6位数字的工作，来到中国开了一家属于自己的电脑公司，收入少多了。
“我觉得值”，他在上海如是说，“这才是我真正想做的事儿”。
3Many young people discover their interest in the outside world by participating in study-abroad programs, which increased in number by about a third between 1991 and 1996. Coffee was hooked as a 16-year-old Rotary Club exchange student in France. Jennifer Lewellyn, a law student at a prestigious university in North America, did an internship last summer with South Africa‟s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which is trying to close the books on the horrors of the apartheid era. “ It‟s easy to sit and theorize about the idea of justice,” she says, “but when you walk into a black township and see what it means for these people to forgive, it becomes a very in-your-face concept.”许多年轻人出国留学，留学人数从1991到1996年几年间增加了大约三分之一。
他们在国外找到了自己的兴趣所在。
Coffee就是一个16岁留学法国的交换生。
他特别热衷于“扶轮国际”驻法分社的活动。
Jennifer Lewellyn，一所北美知名大学法学学生，去年夏天去了南非真理与和解委员会实习。
该组织致力于终结种族隔离时代的恐怖行为。
“坐下来将法律公正的概念理论化很容易，”她说，“但是，当你真正置身于黑人城镇，亲眼所见哪些黑人的宽恕意味着什么时，（你会觉得）给法律公平下定义就变得极富挑战了。
”4There‟s plenty of work for young professionals overseas. Most emerging economies are short of computer specialists, bankers, engineers and other professionals. Dean Carignan, 28, a native of Alaska, already has his own business in akarta, the Indonesian capital. Last year he started a firm that designs computer presentations for corporate customers. He thinks he may sell the company eventually and return to the United States to study for an M.B.A. “Now that I‟ve seen how business really works on the ground, I want to look at the theory,” he says, reversing the usual sequence.在国外有很多工作都适合年轻的专业人员。
大多数发展中国家都急需电脑专、银行、工程以及其它方面的专业技术人员。
Dean Carignan，28岁，是一个土生土长的阿拉斯加人。
他现在印度尼西亚首都雅加达有自己的营生。
去年他开设一家专门为各大公司设计电脑显示板的公司。
他想他最终还是会将公司转让，回到美国继续深造学习工商管理硕士课程。
“由于我已弄明白生意究竟是怎么做的了，我想学习理论知识了。
”他说，正好跟别人的经历倒过来。
5Serious work can be done in some of the most sybaritic places on earth. Prague is one of the most beautiful cities on the youth circuit. Some young Westerners go there just to hang out. B ut many others “are coming with a purpose,” says Scott Roger, 32, who has lived in the Czech capital for five years and was a founder of the Globe Bookstore and Café, the unofficial headquarters of the American expat community in Prague. “ They‟re coming h ere to do graphic design, to write. They‟re here to do serious things,” he says. “They came because they heard from people who came over on the first or second wave that Prague is still great.”人们可以在世界上最奢华享乐的地方从事严肃的工作。