大家周末好呀！这周我们来聊点可爱轻松的话题 -- 米菲兔。相信很多人都听说或者见过米菲兔这个形象，但是大家知道米菲兔是来自荷兰的吗？

Hello everyone and welcome to episode 27 of Weekend English Club. Today I will talk about a very famous cartoon rabbit called Miffy.

You might know Miffy, who looks like a small white rabbit but stands and dresses just like us. It was a Dutch artist called Dick Bruna who came up with her, and she actually has a Dutch name as well. Miffy is her English name, but in Dutch she is called Nijntje. Nijntje is short for konijntje, which means little rabbit in Dutch, but during this episode I will use her English name.

The first book about Miffy was made in 1953 and more than 100 million Miffy books have been sold. There are even TV shows about Miffy and you can find Miffy toys and souvenirs in many places around the world. She is famous in the Netherlands, but also super popular in places like Japan. She is so popular there that many people think Miffy is from Japan, but she really is Dutch.

Dick Bruna came up with Miffy when he was on vacation with his family in 1953 in the Netherlands. Their vacation house had a garden where a white rabbit lives and Dick Bruna came up with bedtime stories about the rabbit for his son. This is how he got the idea for Miffy, and soon he started to write books about her. Miffy also has an official birthday, which is on the 21st of June. Her stories are always happy, and her family also appears in them. The designs are simple but cute, and very popular with children. Miffy usually wears a blue, orange or green shirt and she also likes to carry a balloon sometimes. She also has friends like a couple of bears and pigs who she often goes to see and talk to. When I was a child I also watched the Miffy TV show and really liked it back then. If you want to watch it you can probably find it easily on the internet in all kinds of languages.

If you like Miffy you can even visit a whole museum about her in the Netherlands, the Miffy museum. It has existed since 2016, and it is a whole world just about Miffy. You can visit Miffy there in her own house and learn more about different subjects related to her. A lot of Chinese and Japanese tourists go there, and maybe you can also go someday.

The Miffy books have been translated into 50 different languages and she even has her own social media channels, so she is a very international little rabbit.

• Cartoon：卡通
• Artist：艺术家；画家
• Come up with：想出
• Actually：实际上
• Be short for：是...的缩写/简称
• Souvenirs：纪念品，纪念物（复数）
• Bedtime stories：睡前故事(复数）
• Balloon：气球
• A couple of：两个或几个（事物）
• All kinds of：各种各样的
• Social media：社交媒体
• Channels：频道；通道

主播：Daniel

校对：nan_nan