“Any native speaker talking to a majority of native speakers will tend to assume that everyone, even the non-native speakers in the room, can understand everything they say regardless of speed of speech and idioms used,” Mike Conroy commented on our Facebook post.

麥克·康羅伊在臉書(shū)上說(shuō):“任何母語(yǔ)者在和大多數(shù)人說(shuō)話的時(shí)候會(huì)傾向于認(rèn)為所有人——甚至是非母語(yǔ)者——都在同一個(gè)‘房間’里,并且無(wú)論語(yǔ)速多快、用了多少俗語(yǔ)他們都能夠理解他們所說(shuō)的一切內(nèi)容。”

Some of the words that get lost in translation: torch versus flashlight, spanner versus wrench. Phrases such as “the umpteenth time” and “watching paint dry” and “taking the mickey,” tripped some readers up, while even subtle differences in spelling, such as ‘centre’ and ‘center’ caused trouble.

有些詞是不可翻譯的:torch還是flashlight,spanner還是wrench。“the umpteenth time” ,“watching paint dry” ,“taking the mickey”,這些詞組常常會(huì)讓讀者困擾不已,還有只是在拼寫(xiě)上有些許差異的單詞如‘centre’ 和‘center’也讓人產(chǎn)生困惑。

“During a holiday in the US I had more problems with people understanding my [British] English than I do with my colleagues and customers on mainland Europe,” wrote Ray Gloster. “In Europe, I find it does help to tailor your choice of words, selecting Latin or Germanic origin words from the English vocabulary.”

雷·格洛斯特寫(xiě)道:“有一次去美國(guó)度假就遇到了許多困難,那里的人們無(wú)法理解我的英式英語(yǔ),比我無(wú)法理解歐洲大陸來(lái)的同事和客戶(hù)的英語(yǔ)更甚。在歐洲,我發(fā)現(xiàn)斟詞酌句是很有幫助的——選擇那些帶有拉丁語(yǔ)或者德語(yǔ)詞根的英語(yǔ)單詞能夠使得交流更順暢。”

“[British] English and American English are full of instances of this,” commented Martin Hawkins. “I'm a Brit living in the US and the phrase 'two cultures separated by a common language' is very appropriate.”

馬丁·霍金斯評(píng)論道:“英式英語(yǔ)和美式英語(yǔ)中差別比比皆是。作為一個(gè)住在美國(guó)的英國(guó)人, 我覺(jué)得‘一種語(yǔ)言,兩種文化’這個(gè)短語(yǔ)非常恰當(dāng)。”

Martin Searle, a native English speaker living in Asia, noted three key lessons he had learned for adapting his mother tongue to his new surroundings: “One: never use a negative question such as "you didn't go to the office today?" You probably won't understand if the answer is a confirmation or not! Two: many Asian languages have no direct translation for "no" and "yes" so use a phrase like ‘that’s correct.’

馬丁·賽爾是一個(gè)住在亞洲的英語(yǔ)母語(yǔ)者,在他試著融入新的語(yǔ)言環(huán)境的同時(shí)認(rèn)識(shí)到了三個(gè)關(guān)鍵的問(wèn)題:“第一,永遠(yuǎn)不要使用否定疑問(wèn)句,比如‘你今天沒(méi)去上班嗎?’因?yàn)槟銓�無(wú)法判別答案到底是還是不是!第二,許多亞洲語(yǔ)言對(duì)于‘是’和‘否’并沒(méi)有準(zhǔn)確直接的翻譯,因此盡量使用‘那是正確的。’這樣的短句。”

“Three: even the most fluent speakers of English as a second language often speak more directly than native speakers - levels of courtesy and discretion are very hard to learn. They don't intend to be rude so lose your sensitivity.”

“第三,即使是作為二語(yǔ)學(xué)習(xí)者中最能夠流暢使用英語(yǔ)的人,在委婉程度上還是不及母語(yǔ)者——客氣程度的拿捏真的非常難學(xué)。”

Some of you blanched at the idea of anyone going to great lengths to adapt their language in their home country, to accommodate others.

有些人非常不愿讓本國(guó)人大費(fèi)周章地改變自己的語(yǔ)言來(lái)遷就自己。

“As a non-native speaker, I wouldn't like native speakers to speak to me any differently - it's condescending as it assumes that my English is not good enough to understand,” wrote Isabella Chan.

伊莎貝拉·陳寫(xiě)道:“作為一個(gè)非母語(yǔ)英語(yǔ)學(xué)習(xí)者,我不喜歡母語(yǔ)者在和我說(shuō)話的時(shí)候作出任何改變——這樣會(huì)顯得他們高高在上,而且覺(jué)得我的英語(yǔ)程度還不夠格去理解他們所說(shuō)的話。”

John Smith offered another twist on the idea: “You learn a foreign language to communicate with people who speak it, not to have them water it down and de-bone it of its structure.” Part of learning, other writers noted, is to ask questions and understand peculiarities of a language.

約翰·史密斯則持有不同的觀點(diǎn):“你學(xué)習(xí)外語(yǔ)就是為了和當(dāng)?shù)厝私涣?而不是去稀釋或改變它。”其他作者認(rèn)為,提問(wèn)和理解語(yǔ)言中的特例也是學(xué)習(xí)的一部分。