英文报道 || 为什么要生孩子?

分享发过的外刊笔记内容，之前有小伙伴说想看。我连结婚的意义都没悟出来，别说娃儿了。尤其是看痘印和微博那些新闻，不婚不育保平安呀。

需要知道我怎么获取外刊以及get我的连载笔记（有小🍠发过的那些齐全版）后台回复「报道」

📰 这里是BBC的原文：

标题

south korea records world’s lowest fertility rate again

韩国创下世界最低出生率

💡 词汇敲敲门之fertility：

我们先来看看它的形容词fertile，词根时间：fer=ferre=to bear, to carry，-ile=ible，意思是“能产出的”，故为“多产的，肥沃的”。

标题里的生育率除了fertility rate，也可以是birth rate。

名词fertility既可以表示富饶；丰产，也形容能生育性：

the fertility of the soil/land

土壤的肥沃；地皮的丰饶

fertility treatment

不孕症治疗

你觉得什么花花最能象征多子，该当是向日葵吧🌻

北美州据说是向日葵的诞生地。向日葵种子最早是在墨西哥被发现的，在十六世纪时传入欧洲，现时则有过半的向日葵被种植在欧洲及俄罗斯，并成为乌克兰（ukraine）的国花。

美国南方如乔治亚（georgia）等州，皆满布各式向日葵花田。向日葵花期相对较短促，从六月中盛开至七月中，而他们会在这一个月中，尽情展现生命力。

向日葵种子可用来提炼葵花油（sunflower oil），并且有多种疗效。同时，因为它们向光的特性，常被视为繁殖力（fertility）、正能量（positivity）、力气（strength）以及忠诚（loyalty）等意义象征，可说是最鼓舞人心的一种花。

这里是正文

south korea has again recorded the world’s lowest fertility rate with the number sinking to a new low.

the rate in the country first dropped lower than one child per woman in .

but on wednesday， figures released by the government showed the figure had dropped to 0.81 – down from 0.84 the previous year， and a sixth consecutive decline.

in comparison， the average rate across the world’s most advanced economies is 1.6 children.

countries need at least two children per couple – a 2.1 rate – to keep their population at the same size， without migration.（国度为了在没有移民的情况下维持人口规模，需要每对夫妇至少生育2名子女。但韩国只有不到1人。）

fertility rates have “declined markedly” in the past six decades says the oecd – organisation for economic co-operation and development.

but the trend has been particularly pronounced（显著的；很明显的；表达明确的） in south korea， where family sizes have reduced in the span of a few generations. at the start of the 1970s women had four children on average.

a declining population can put a country under immense strain. apart from increased pressure on public spending as demand for healthcare systems and pensions rise， a declining youth population also leads to labour shortages that impact the economy.

in there was widespread alarm in south korea when it recorded more deaths than births for the first time.

In recent years, economic pressures and career factors have been key considerations for people deciding on children, experts say.

For the figures, experts cited higher living costs, a spike in house prices and the impact of the Covid pandemic as factors discouraging them from having children.

A crisis is brewing. If South Korea’s population continues to shrink, there won’t be enough people to grow its economy, look after its aging population, and conscript into its army.

Politicians have known for years this is coming but have been unable to fix it. They have thrown billions of dollars at trying to convince people to have children and are still scratching their heads as to why this hasn’t worked.

Money of course is a factor. Raising children in South Korea is expensive, and many young people are sinking under astronomical housing costs. But this is also about opportunity.

Women in South Korea are highly educated, yet far from equal in the workplace. The country has the highest gender pay gap of any rich country. Most of the housework and childcare in South Korea still falls to women and it is common for women to stop work after having children or for their careers to stagnate.

Essentially, many women here are still forced to choose between having a career and having a family. Increasingly they are deciding they don’t want to sacrifice their careers.

As one woman put it to me: “we are on a baby-making strike”.

时间有限，我把博主的翻译搬运一下哈：

大致翻译

英国广播公司（BBC）于当地时间25日报道说，韩国不仅创下世界最低出生率，还再次刷新了最低值。

BBC引用韩国统计厅24日发表的资料进行了上述报道。

去年韩国出生率为0.81名，比前一年下降了3个百分点。这是连续6年呈下降趋势。韩国的出生率不仅创下最低记录，而且每年都在刷新历史最低值。

而生育率不高的发达国家的平均生育率为1.6名，是韩国的2倍左右。

国家为了在没有移居的情况下维持人口规模，需要每对夫妇至少生育2名子女。但韩国只有不到1人。

人口减少会使国家陷入巨大的负担之中。随着对医疗系统和年金的需求剧增，除了会增加对公共支出的压力外，青年人口的减少还会导致劳动力不足。

2020年，韩国死亡人数首次超过出生人数，劳动力不足将成为现实。如果韩国人口持续减少的话，照顾老龄化人口、征兵的人就会不足。

韩国出生率低是因为女性不想生孩子。韩国女性们仍然被迫需要在拥有职业和家庭之间做出选择。而她们越来越倾向于不牺牲自己的个人资历。

BBC在结束报道时，引用了一位韩国女性对记者说的话：“我们正在进行生育罢工。”