由 Kat C » 週四 4月 14, 2011 7:22 am
"Personality" and "character", when contrasted with each other, cover two very different aspects of an individual.
"Personality" refers to a collection of personal traits that can be subjective in terms of their likability (some enjoy "quiet" people while others do "conversational") and that do not carry a real standard (how "outgoing" is really "outgoing, and when does it become "wild"?)
"Character", on the other hand, usually means a set of universally admired qualities that a good person should possess, such as "honesty", "conscience", "work ethic", etc.
A cheerful, friendly person can also be a cheater. So someone with a pleasant "personality" doesn't necessarily have good character.
This well-quoted remark by comedian Peter De Vries is saying that, we sometimes marry someone with a "personality" we like, such as "polite", "humorous", or "creative", but soon find that sharing a life with someone involves a lot more than just attraction. A person's moral "character" will determine if they can do the right things and make the right choices, especially when the times are tough.
To translate this into Chinese is kind of tricky. I'd probably say, "婚姻的難處在於我們愛上的是對方的性格,然而必須相伴一生的卻是他的人格。"
Kat