Luciana de Oliveira considers herself transnational. That means she is more than one nationality. de Oliveira grew up in Brazil, but she moved to the United States for her studies. She became a U.S. citizen in 2017.
卢西亚娜·德·奥利维拉 (Luciana de Oliveira) 认为自己是跨国公司。这意味着她有不止一种国籍。德奥利维拉在巴西长大，但她移居美国求学。她于2017年成为美国公民。
de Oliveira has some strong feelings about national identity. She believes speaking a country’s majority language is a very important part of one’s national identity. de Oliveira speaks both Portuguese and English.
德奥利维拉对民族认同有着强烈的感情。她认为说一个国家的主要语言是一个国家身份的一个非常重要的组成部分。德奥利维拉会说葡萄牙语和英语。
A new study found that most people around the world share those feelings about language and national identity.
一项新研究发现，世界上大多数人对语言和民族认同都有同样的感受。
The Pew Research Center carried out the study and released the results last month. Pew’s study centered on people’s ideas about national identity. It included answers from people in more than 20 countries.
皮尤研究中心开展了这项研究，并于上个月公布了结果。皮尤研究中心的研究重点是人们对国家认同的看法。其中包括 20 多个国家/地区人们的回答。
Pew researchers asked study participants about four aspects, or parts, of national identity: language, traditions, birthplace and religion. They found that language is by far the most valued aspect of national identity.
皮尤研究中心的研究人员向研究参与者询问了民族认同的四个方面或部分：语言、传统、出生地和宗教。他们发现语言是迄今为止国家认同中最有价值的方面。
In fact, a median of 91 percent of people across 21 countries said that speaking a country’s most common language is “important for being considered a true national.”
事实上，21 个国家/地区中 91% 的人表示，会说一个国家最通用的语言“对于被视为真正的国民非常重要”。
Traditions and customs are also key to national identity, the study found. Beliefs about the other two aspects – birthplace and religion – were more divided.
研究发现，传统和习俗也是国家认同的关键。关于其他两个方面——出生地和宗教——的信仰则更加分歧。
VOA Learning English spoke with several people who live in countries that were included in the study. Among them is Jorge Catalan. He has lived in Mexico most of his life. The Pew study found that 93 percent of respondents from Mexico said that speaking the country’s main language – Spanish – is important to national identity.
美国之音英语学习频道采访了居住在该研究所涉及国家的几位人士。其中包括豪尔赫·加泰罗尼亚。他一生大部分时间都住在墨西哥。皮尤研究发现，93% 的墨西哥受访者表示，说该国的主要语言——西班牙语——对民族认同很重要。
Catalan said he agrees that speaking Spanish is very important. But he added that it is regrettable.
加泰罗尼亚人说他同意说西班牙语非常重要。但他补充说，这令人遗憾。
He said, “Mexico is a place where we have around 68 spoken languages besides Spanish.” He noted that the government has pushed Spanish as the main language throughout history and has turned it into a “must-have tool.”
他说：“墨西哥除了西班牙语之外还有大约 68 种语言。”他指出，政府在历史上一直将西班牙语作为主要语言，并将其变成“必备工具”。
Agatha Janzen was born and raised in Canada. Pew researchers found that more than 80 percent of Canadians say that speaking the country’s language is important to national identity. In Canada, both French and English are official languages.
阿加莎·詹森 (Agatha Janzen) 在加拿大出生和长大。皮尤研究中心的研究人员发现，超过 80% 的加拿大人表示，说本国语言对于民族认同很重要。在加拿大，法语和英语都是官方语言。
Janzen said that “speaking one of the official languages is important to being Canadian for practical reasons.”
詹森说，“出于实际原因，说一种官方语言对于成为加拿大人来说很重要。”
Traditions and customs are also a central aspect of national identity, the study found. Results showed 81 percent of people believe sharing their country’s customs and traditions is somewhat or very important to national identity.
研究发现，传统和习俗也是国家认同的一个核心方面。结果显示，81% 的人认为分享自己国家的习俗和传统对于民族认同有一定程度或非常重要。
The Pew study found that 67 percent of Brazilians consider practicing customs and traditions an important part of national identity. That is the fourth lowest percentage of all the countries included in the study.
皮尤研究中心的研究发现，67% 的巴西人认为践行习俗和传统是民族认同的重要组成部分。在该研究纳入的所有国家中，这一比例排名第四低。
But customs and traditions are important to de Oliveira. To feel closer to her Brazilian identity, she said she wears jewelry and shoes from Brazil and follows and supports Brazilian soccer.
但习俗和传统对德奥利维拉来说很重要。她说，为了更接近她的巴西身份，她佩戴来自巴西的珠宝和鞋子，并关注和支持巴西足球。
Mexico is tied with the highest percentage of respondents who answered that customs and traditions are an important aspect of national identity. But for Catalan, they are not so important. He noted that Mexican traditions have changed over time. He added that he does not take part in many Mexican traditions, “but I still feel proudly Mexican.”
回答“习俗和传统是国家认同的一个重要方面”的受访者比例最高的是墨西哥。但对于加泰罗尼亚语来说，它们并不是那么重要。他指出，墨西哥的传统随着时间的推移而发生了变化。他补充说，他不参与许多墨西哥传统，“但我仍然为自己是墨西哥人感到自豪。”
Beliefs about the two other aspects of national identity – birthplace and religion – were more mixed. A median of 58 percent of respondents from 23 countries said that being born in a country is important to national identity. An even lower number of respondents – 42 percent – said that being a member of the country’s main religion is important to national identity.
对民族身份的其他两个方面——出生地和宗教——的信仰则更为复杂。来自 23 个国家/地区的受访者中位数为 58% 表示，出生在一个国家对于民族认同很重要。更少的受访者（42%）表示，成为该国主要宗教的成员对于国家认同很重要。
Respondents from Mexico and Indonesia had the strongest feelings about the importance of birthplace as central to national identity, at 91 percent.
来自墨西哥和印度尼西亚的受访者对出生地作为国家认同核心的重要性的感受最为强烈（91%）。
Calatan, who was born and lived most of his life in Mexico, agrees somewhat. “If you are born outside of Mexico and never lived in it, it would be difficult to get a real sense of what being Mexican means.”
卡拉坦在墨西哥出生并度过了大半生，他在某种程度上同意这一观点。 “如果你出生在墨西哥以外的地方并且从未在墨西哥生活过，那么就很难真正理解作为墨西哥人意味着什么。”
But Janzen, the Canadian, said, "Being born in Canada has nothing to do with being Canadian.” For her, Canada is a melting pot and offers refuge to those who need it.
但加拿大人詹森表示，“出生在加拿大与成为加拿大人没有任何关系。”对她来说，加拿大是一个大熔炉，为有需要的人提供庇护。
These ideas match the results of the study. Countries where immigrants make up a smaller share of the population tend to see birthplace as a more important aspect of national identity. Countries with a greater share of immigrants are more willing to accept those born outside of the country as true nationals.
这些想法与研究结果相符。移民占人口比例较小的国家往往将出生地视为国家认同的更重要方面。移民比例较高的国家更愿意接受在国外出生的人作为真正的国民。
Less than half of people in most of the countries in the study do not feel religion is important to national identity. All of those who spoke with Learning English said they agreed that religion is not an important part of national identity.
在这项研究的大多数国家中，只有不到一半的人认为宗教对国家认同不重要。所有接受 Learning English 采访的人都表示，他们都同意宗教不是国家认同的重要组成部分。
Christine Huang is a research associate at the Pew Research Center. She is one of the writers of the study. She told Learning English, “This question of belonging in a country is related to other work we have done to measure how connected people feel to each other.”
克里斯汀·黄 (Christine Huang) 是皮尤研究中心的研究员。她是该研究的作者之一。她告诉《学习英语》，“这个国家归属感问题与我们为衡量人们彼此之间的联系程度所做的其他工作有关。”
Huang added, “When looking at how people relate to others in their community, in their country, and all over the world, people most frequently report feeling close to others in their country.”
黄补充道：“在观察人们如何与社区、国家和世界各地的其他人建立关系时，人们最常表示与自己国家的其他人感觉亲密。”