“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·格洛斯特写道:“有一次去美国度假就遇到了许多困难,那里的人们无法理解我的英式英语,比我无法理解欧洲大陆来的同事和客户的英语更甚。在欧洲,我发现斟词酌句是很有帮助的——选择那些带有拉丁语或者德语词根的英语单词能够使得交流更顺畅。”
“[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.”
马丁·霍金斯评论道:“英式英语和美式英语中差别比比皆是。作为一个住在美国的英国人, 我觉得‘一种语言,两种文化’这个短语非常恰当。”
The hardest adaptations
最艰难的适应
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.’
【BBC:总有那么些英文词 连母语者都觉得懵逼】相关文章:
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