如果你在中国遇见一个挎着吉他、戴着牛仔帽、留着花白胡子的文艺老外，不妨大胆地喊一声“Mark”，肯定会收到对方的微笑致意。
他就是我们这次采访的对象——马克·力文(Mark Levine)，一位美国老教授。来华16年间，他见证了中国的大事小情，并把它们谱成了乡村音乐，唱给世界听。
今年，老先生则当了一回观众：他应邀担任第 二届“用英语讲中国故事”活动全国终选评委，放下了手中的吉他，倾听孩子们的表达。
清除杂音，感受中国
放下吉他、把自己调成“静音模式”，这既表达了自己的尊重，也能更清楚地听到对方的声音。
马克·力文认为，评委也好，去了解中国也好，这个看似浅显的道理都适用。
One of the things that I have generally encouraged other foreigners coming to China is to try to forget whatever you have heard about China, and allow China to speak for itself. And if you do, you're going to have an amazing time here.
我通常鼓励其他外国人来中国时做的一件事：试着忘记你所听到的关于中国的任何事情，让中国为自己代言。如果你这样做，你会在这里度过一段美妙的时间。
And much as you're probably aware, media and the government in many Western countries, in particular my country, don't generally have anything good to say about China.
可能如你所知，许多西方国家的媒体和政府，尤其是我的国家，通常不会说中国的好话。
一些在中国人看来很荒唐的传言或失实报道，不明就里的外国人却可能信以为真。因此，只有屏蔽了脑中先入为主的杂音，才能为客观、真实的信息腾出容纳的空间。
很大程度上讲，正是那些对中国抱着好奇与平和心态的外国人，为马克·列文赴华提供了机缘。
马克·力文向来是关注社会事业的活跃分子，他之前在美国“低收入工人组织”工作了近30年。听闻朋友们对在华经历的客观、正面的描述，他对北京奥运乃至中国产生了浓厚兴趣。I had several friends and people I worked with who had come in the previous years and they had very good experience. This was in the years building up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. And China was planning to be a gracious host.
我有几个朋友和同事之前来过中国，他们都有非常好的体验。那时恰好是2008年北京奥运会筹备几年，中国想成为一个亲切的东道主。
And in order to do that they realized they're going to have to have more and more people being able to speak some English. So people were learning in schools and in other places as well. So some of my friends had come and gone to a summer camp to teach primary school kids and middle school kids in Southern China. A couple of others were going to Langfang in Hebei Province.
为此，越来越多的中国人有了学习英语的意愿，开始在学校和其他教育机构中学习英语。我有一些朋友来到中国南部在一个夏令营，给小学生和初中生上课，还有几个人去了河北省的廊坊市。
And I decided, well, why don't I come and see what I can do.
然后我就想，我要不也来中国看看能做点什么。
就这样，在他57岁那年，来到了这个素昧平生的东方古国，教授英语课程。马克·力文坦言，初期他本打算待1年，然而自2005年至今，他还在这里。
(China is a)Friendly place. Very friendly place, very peaceful place, much opportunity, wide variety of different things.
中国是一个友好的地方，非常友好的地方，非常和平的地方，而且天地广阔，大有作为。
打乱他归期的原因就是这样简单且有说服力。
从讲故事到教人讲故事
和绝大多数外国人的来华路线不同，马克·力文的第 一站并没有选择那些“地标性”的城市，而是在江南古城淮安落下了脚。
面对大家的疑问，这位对中国小有研究的学者给出了自己的答案。
I knew some of our 20th century Chinese history, but I didn't really know about geography. And I got a number of job offers from a variety of different places.
我知道一些20世纪的中国历史，但我其实并不真 正了解中国地理。
And the thing that most impressed me was the letter from the teachers' college in Huai'an, Jiangsu Province, said Huaiyin Teachers College is located in the city of Huai'An, which is proud to be the hometown of the first premier of The People's Republic of China, Zhou Enlai.
我收到了一些来自不同地方的工作机会。给我留下印象深的是一封江苏省淮安市师范学院的信。信中说淮阴师范学院位于淮安市，是中华人民共和国第 一任总理周 恩 来的故乡。
So I figured, okay, that's the decision, that's where I should go. Cuz I knew some of Zhou Enlai, so I'm very happy that I went there.
我想，这是这里了!这就是我应该去的地方。因为我了解过一些关于周 恩 来的故事，所以我很高兴我去了那里。
从这个开国功勋故里开始，16年间，马克·力文的足迹遍布中国29个省份。他把中国的风土人情，以及日常邂逅的故事，编辑成一封封的邮件，发给了家乡的亲人和朋友。
随着对中国了解的深入，以及对中国情感的日益深厚，他越发觉得单纯的文字略显苍白，无法展现缤纷多彩的中国故事。思考过后，马克·力文决定动员一下身上的“艺术细胞”，尝试一种新的叙事方法——音乐。
When writing the first 11 or 12 songs, I was very hesitant. People say, oh you are song writer. And I said not really. Cuz I wasn't planning to write this song. It was just the feeling came to me, and the words came to me, and I wrote them.
在写初期的11或12首歌曲时，我挺犹豫的。每当大家都说：“啊，你是作曲家”。我都会回答他们：“我不是，因为我并没打算写这首歌。只是感觉来了，他们才自然水到渠成了”。
And sometimes they would come as I'm walking down the street. Sometimes I would just be playing my guitar and not thinking about music and not singing or anything, and suddenly words would appear in my mind. I would write them down, and then the next thing you know I had a song.
有时我走街上，灵感就会出现。有时我只是在弹吉他，没有想音乐的事儿，也没唱什么，突然歌词就突然蹦出来了。我把它们落实在纸上，然后一首歌就出来了。
After the first dozen of songs, I became someone who could consciously (say), "oh I'm going to write a song today about this and I write a song about that and so on."And then I could plan on it, but it wasn't my intention.
写完初期的十几首歌，我就可以有意而为之了："好，我今天要写首歌说这事儿，写一首歌说那事儿"。然后，我再基于这些想法来做规划。但是在起初，写歌纯属无心插柳。
伴着吉他的旋律，马克·力文成了一位名副其实的吟游诗人，四处传唱他的中国故事，并把自己的经历汇编成了一本书——《唱响我的中国故事》(Sing My China Stories to the World)。
然而，并不是所有的故事讲述者都具备音乐天赋。意识到这一点的马克·力文决定再次回归文字，把讲故事的心得与窍门汇编成讲义，带进了大学课堂，供同学们学习借鉴。
无论上课还是考试，“马老师”都看重“实用”二字。
I teach a lot of classes on public speaking. And the final exam is a speech and they have to pretend that they're writing a book for foreigners about China.
我教过很多公共演讲的课程。我通常把期末考试设成一场演讲：他们须假装自己在为外国人写一本关于中国的书。
And they say in my in my book about China I will talk about these three things. And I don't give any limits. They can be abstract thing. They can be material things. And usually what occurs is students, first of all, they have to learn more about them.
学生们要提到：“在这本关于中国的书中，我要讲三件事。”至于哪三件事，我不设限，抽象的也好，具体的也罢;总之学生们首先要做的，是去更多地了解他们要讲述的事物。
So first they have to become familiar with those things themselves before they can communicate them to others.
因此，他们给别人讲一件事之前，他们自己就得搞明白。
这件事上，马克·力文好像故意想给学生们找麻烦：他强烈建议大家从自己不陌生的领域挑选话题。这看似徒增考试难度的无用之举的背后，则是他的良苦用心。
一来，马克·力文想让同学们能够借此锻炼调研能力、拓宽自己的知识面;
二来，他很清楚，在国际交流的实践中，时常会有“超纲”话题绕着自己熟悉的内容走，因此过硬的沟通能力不在于冠冕堂皇的话术，而是灵活的应变能力。
对于学习者而言，年轻就意味着可塑性。马克·力文十分期待能有更多的中国青少年在实践中，切实提升自己的双语交流能力，而这单凭自己任教的大学讲台是难以达成的。
正当此时，“用英语讲中国故事”活动发起人、新航道国际教育集团董事长胡敏教授的一次拜访，则让他眼前一亮，对这个用双语传播中华文化的创意燃起了兴趣。于是，他欣然受邀，成为了第 二届活动全国总决选小学低年级组的评委。
执教大学生多年的“马老师”，这次和天真烂漫的小选手们来了一次近距离接触。让世界听到中国的声音
活动的全国总决选围绕英文朗诵、主题演讲和才艺展示这三大环节展开。舞台上，小选手们尽情展现自己的才华与智慧，给评委席上的马克·力文留下了深刻印象。
Some of the students were particularly particularly good.
有些学生的表现特别特别好。
There was one young girl, who one of the other judges said, she looked like she was on an American Comedy Show, sitcom, and just the confidence in the way she is, as a 8 year old girl.
我记得有一个小女孩，有一位评委说她看起来就像在表演美国情景喜剧，体现了她作为一个8岁女孩的强大自信。
So, as one of the other judges said, there is no lack of self-confidence here. All of these kids, no matter how they did, no matter what are their scores and matter how they did on any particular part, they were all extremely confident.
就像那位评委说的，登上这个舞台的选手都是有自信的。这些孩子们，无论怎么表现，无论分数多少，无论他们表现如何，他们都非常自信。
凭借16年间自己在中国的所见所闻，马克·力文认为，他从选手身上看到的自信并不是一个孤例。
When I first came to China, and at this point it's 16 years ago, but I saw lots of students at the University level who weren't particularly confident about China. You know one of the stories that I tell is that when the iPhone came out, people would hold them up and say, "Look! It says assembled in China, designed in California. When is it gonna be designed in China!" And nobody says it anymore.
我16年前初到中国时，在大学里看到很多学生对中国并不很自信。我常常讲的一个故事是，每当iPhone发布新机，人们都会举着它说，"看!它在中国制造，但却在美国加州创造。什么时候中国也能创造!" 而现在已经没人这么说了。
And now people talk about not only China's past but the things China's doing today, contributing in many different fields including science and economic development and poverty alleviation and numerous numerous areas.
现在人们不仅会骄傲地谈论中国的历史，也会谈论中国政府在当今的科学、经济发展、扶贫和无数的众多领域所正在做出的贡献。
马克·力文不希望自己是孤独的，他盼望有越来越多的外国人，能够像自己那样通过多彩的故事，去了解中国、喜爱中国。
而中国故事的主要讲述者，正是那些满怀自信的中国新一代。
I think it (the competition) is good. It's a very important thing. I try to tell Chinese stories, but obviously Chinese people need to tell Chinese stories in a variety of different languages, in order to be able to communicate not only with English speakers, but with Russian speakers and speakers of numerous languages. So I think it's a good thing for people to do.
我认为这个活动很好，讲好中国故事非常重要。我正在尝试去讲好它，而中国人当然还要用英语、俄语等各种不同的语言讲好，让语言不再是中国沟通世界的障碍，让中国故事得以更好地传播。
愿在跨文化交流的舞台上，既有马克·力文弹奏的吉他旋律，也有中国年轻人自信的欢声笑语。
