英語閱讀——Speaking Chinese in America

這篇文章是《新視野大學英語》第四冊的第五單元的文章，第一遍英語閱讀完後對比中文，發現本身對做者的觀點理解有些出入。做者反對的是認爲中國說話客套而美國人直接的觀點，利用本身的經歷表達了中文也有直接的方面，美國人也有客套託詞，不能用我的的例子或者一些簡單描述，就對全部中國人產生成見。

1 Once at a dinner on the Monterey Peninsula California my mother whispered to me confidentially: "Sau-sau (brother's wife) pretends too hard to be a polite recipient! Why bother with such nominal courtesy? In the end she always takes everything."

有一次，在加州蒙特雷半島上用餐時，我母親私下悄悄地對我說：「嫂嫂想作個彬彬有禮的客人，可是裝得太厲害了！何須費勁講究形式上的客套呢？到最後她仍是什麼都要。」

2 My mother acted like a waixiao an emigrant no longer patient with old taboos（禁忌） and courtesies. To prove her point she reached across the table to offer my elderly aunt from Beijing the last scallop from the garlic seafood dish along with the flank steak and the cucumber（黃瓜） salad.

我母親行事像個「外僑」，即一個移民國外的僑民，由於她已經不耐煩老一套的禁忌和禮數了。爲了證實她剛纔的觀點，她手伸過桌子，把蒜香海鮮拼盤裏的最後一個扇貝，連同牛腩及黃瓜沙拉一塊兒，遞給我從北京來的年長舅媽。

3 Sau-sau frowned. "B'yao zhen b'yao!" she cried patting her substantial stomach. I don't want it really I don't.

嫂嫂皺起了眉頭，「不要，真不要！」她一邊大聲說一邊拍着本身已經吃得很飽的肚子。我不要了，真的不要了。

4 "Take it! Take it!" my mother scolded in Chinese as predictably as the lunar cycles.

「拿去吧！拿去吧！」我母親用中文責備道。預料到她就會這樣，就像月亮盈虧週期似的。

5 "Full I'm already full" Sau-sau muttered(低語) weakly eying the scallop.

飽了，我已經飽了，」嫂嫂低聲嘀咕着，眼睛卻瞟着扇貝。

6 "Ai!" exclaimed my mother. "Nobody wants it. It will only rot（腐爛）!"

「哎！」我母親感嘆着說，「沒人願意吃，只能讓它壞掉了！」

7 Sau-sau sighed acting as if she were doing my mother a favor by taking the scrap off the tray and sparing us the trouble of wrapping the leftovers in foil.

嫂嫂嘆了口氣，從碟子上拿去了那個扇貝，就好像是幫了我母親一個大忙，並省去了咱們用箔紙將剩菜打包的麻煩似的。

8 My mother turned to her brother an experienced Chinese magistrate visiting us for the first time. "In America a Chinese person could starve to death. If you don't breach（打破，違背） the old rules of etiquette（禮節） and say you want it they won't ask you again."

我母親轉頭看着她兄長——一位經驗豐富的中國地方法官，這是他初次來看咱們。她說：「在美國，一箇中國人可能會餓死。要是你不打破老一套的禮數說你要吃，他們就不會再了。」

9 My uncle nodded and said he understood fully: Americans take things quickly because they have no time to be polite.

我舅舅點點頭，說他徹底理解：美國人待人接物快速迅捷，由於他們沒有時間客氣來客氣去。

10 I read an article in The New York Times Magazine on changes in New York's little cultural colony of Chinatown where the author mentioned that the interwoven configuration（設置配置） of Chinese language and culture renders its speech indirect and polite. Chinese people are so "discreet and modest" the article started that there aren't even words for "yes" and "no".

我在《紐約時報雜誌》上讀到過一篇文章，描述的是紐約市內的中國城這一小塊文化聚居地的變遷。做者在文章中提到，中國語言與文化錯綜交織，使中文十分委婉和客套。中國人如此「謹慎和謙虛」，文章開頭寫道，以致於他們都沒有詞語來表達「是」和「不是」。

11 Why do people keep fabricating these rumors? I thought. They describe us as though we were a tribe of those little dolls sold in Chinatown tourist shops heads moving up and down in contented agreement!

我思索着，爲何人們會不斷地編造這樣的謠言呢？他們把咱們描述得就像是唐人街旅遊品商店裏出售的一批小布娃娃。那些布娃娃的頭不停地上下晃動，彷佛對一切都心滿意足，全贊同。

12 As any child of immigrant parents knows there is a special kind of double bind attached to knowing two languages. My parents for example spoke to me in both Chinese and English; I spoke back to them in English.

生於移民家庭的孩子都清楚，有一種特殊的兩難境地與說兩種語言的生活聯繫在一塊兒。好比我父母，他們和我說話時中文和英文都用，但我和他們說話時只用英文。

13 "Amy-ah!" they'd scold me.

「艾米啊！」他們會這樣責備我。

14 "What?" I'd answer back.

「怎麼啦？」我會回問道。

15 "Do not question us when we call" they'd scold in Chinese. "It's not respectful."

「咱們叫你時，不要對咱們反問，」他們會用中文訓斥道「這是不禮貌的！」

16 "What do you mean?"

「大傢什麼意思？」

17 "Ai! Didn't we just tell you not to question?"

「哎！咱們不是剛剛說過，叫你不要反問嗎？」

18 If I consider my upbringing carefully I find there was nothing discreet about the Chinese language I grew up with no censorship for the sake of politeness. My parents made everything abundantly clear in their consecutive demands: "Of course you will become a famous aerospace engineer" they prodded. "And yes a concert pianist on the side."

仔細想一想本身的成長過程，我發現，我從小到大所接觸到的中文並非什麼特別謹慎的語言，也不存在出於客氣而對所說的話進行仔細檢查的現象。我父母向我提一連串的要求時，是把一切都表述得清清楚楚：「你固然會成爲著名的航空工程師，」他們會鼓勵我說，「對了，你業餘時間還要作音樂會的鋼琴師。」

19 It seems that the more forceful proceedings always spilled over into Chinese: "Not that way! You must wash rice so not a single grain is lost."

彷佛更增強硬的事情老是經過中文傾瀉出來：「不能那樣！你淘米的時候，必須一粒都不漏。」

20 Having listened to both Chinese and English I'm suspicious of comparisons between the two languages as I notice the reciprocal challenges they each present. English speakers say Chinese is extremely difficult because different words can be denoted by very subtle variations in tone. English is often bracketed with the label of inconsistency a language of too many broken rules.

因爲一直同時聽着中英文兩種語言，故而我對它們之間的任何對比老是心存懷疑，由於我注意到它們各自都有對方所沒有的難點。說英文的人會認爲中文極其難，由於中文用很是微的聲調變化就能夠表示不一樣的詞語。而英文則經常被認爲缺少一致性，由於英文具備太多不合規則的用法。

21 Even more dangerous in my view is the temptation to view the gulf between different languages and behavior in translation. To listen to my mother speak English an outside spectator might make the deduction that she has no concept of the temporal differences of past and future or that she is gender blind because she refers to my husband as "she". If one were not careful one might also generalize that all Chinese people take an indirect route to get to the point. It is rather my mother's individual tendency to ornament her language and wander around a bit.

在我看來，更危險的作法是，人們每每傾向於經過翻譯來理解不一樣語言和行爲之間的差別。若是一個旁觀的外人聽我母親說英語，可能會得出結論，說她對過去和未來這樣的時間區沒有概念，或者認爲她對人的性別不加區分，由於她提到我丈夫時老是說「她」。若是一我的對此類現象不假思慮，他也許還會歸納說，全部中國人都是經過委婉迂迴的方式才能說到題重點的。而實際上喜歡修飾和繞彎子只是我母親我的的說話風格。

22 I worry that the dominant society may see Chinese people from a limited perspective hedging us in with the stereotype. I worry that the seemingly innocent stereotype may lead to actual intolerance and be part of the reason why there are few Chinese in top management positions or in the main judiciary or political sectors. I worry about the power of language: If one says anything enough times it might become true with or without malicious intent.

我擔憂主流社會可能會從一個狹隘的角度、以一種成見看待中國人。我擔憂這種看似無害的成見實際會致使人們對中國人難以容忍，併成爲中國人在高層管理職位或主要的司法及政部門寥寥無幾的部分緣由。我擔憂語言的力量，即若是一我的將一件事說了不少遍，不管其是否有惡意，這件事都會變成事實。

3 Could this be why the Chinese friends of my parents' generation are willing to accept the generalization?

這會不會就是我父母輩的中國朋友願意接受那些對中國人的簡單歸納的緣由呢？

24 "Why are you complaining?" one of them said to me. "If people think we are modest and polite let them think that. Wouldn't Americans appreciate such an honorary description?"

「你爲何要抱怨呢？」他們中有人問我。「若是人們認爲咱們謙虛禮讓，就讓他們那樣想好了。難道美國人不喜歡這種讚譽性的話嗎？」

25 And I do believe that anyone would take the description as a compliment  at first. But after a while it annoys as if the only things that people heard one say were what had been filtered through the sieve of social niceties: I'm so pleased to meet you. I've heard many wonderful things about you.

我固然相信每一個人在一開始都會把這種描述的話當成稱讚。但過了一段時間，這種話就會讓人惱怒，就好像所聽到的只是些通過細微的社交區別過濾後的言辭，諸如「很高興認識你我聽到許多人都誇獎你」之類的話。

26 These remarks are not representative of new ideas honest emotions or considered thought. Like a piece of bread they are only the crust of the interaction or what is said from the polite distance of social contexts: greetings farewells convenient excuses and the like. This generalization therefore is not a true composite of Chinese culture but only a stereotype of our exterior behavior.

這些話不能表達什麼新觀點，也不能傳達什麼真實的情感或深思熟慮的想法。它們就像一片面包，只是人們交往中最表層的東西，或社交場合下出於禮貌而說的一些話：問候、作別順口的託詞，諸如此類。由此看來，那些對中國人的歸納性評價並不是是對中國文化成分的真實描述，而僅僅是對咱們外在行爲的一種成見而已。

27 "So how does one say 'yes' and 'no' in Chinese?" my friends may ask carefully.

那麼中文究竟怎麼表達‘是’和‘不是’呢？」個人朋友也許會當心翼翼地問。

28 At this junction I do agree in part with The New York Times Magazine article. There is no one word for "yes" or "no" but not out of necessity to be discreet. If anything I would

say the Chinese equivalent of answering "yes" or "no" is specific to what is asked.

在這一點上，個人確在某種程度上贊成《紐約時報雜誌》的那篇文章。在中文裏，沒有哪個字專門用於表達「是」或「不是」，但這並不是是由於須要保持謹慎。若的確有什麼不一樣的話那我會說中文裏對應的「是」或「不是」的表達一般是針對所問的具體內容而定的。

29 Ask a Chinese person if he or she has eaten and he or she might say chrle (eaten already) or meiyou (have not).

若是你問一箇中國人是否吃飯了，他（或她）會說「吃了」（已經吃過）或「沒有」（沒有吃過）。

30 Ask "Have you stopped beating your wife?" and the answer refers directly to the proposition being asserted or denied: stopped already still have not never beat have no wife

你若問：「你中止打老婆了嗎？」他會直接就所判定或所否定的假設進行回答：已經中止了，尚未，歷來不打，沒有老婆。

31 What could be clearer?

還有什麼能比這更明瞭的呢？