跨文化交际-Sarah-Scau-Pay Attention to Your WordsCCC-Verbal Communication 跨文化交际-Sarah-ScauCase 1 Shoes for Street Walking It is said that in Rome, in front of a shoe store, there was such a sign to attract English-speaking customers: Shoes for street walking. Come in and have a fit. The sign caught the attention of many English-speaking tourists, but not to look at the shoes displayed in the windows, but to read the sign and then break out into laughter. “Careful with fire,” is good advice, we know; “Careful with words,” is ten times doubly so. -Will Carleton, The First Settlers StoryMore Cases I must let you know that I feel very uncomfortable. 跟你在一起，我觉得很 尴尬，不舒服。 I dont feel well. 我身体不太舒服。 Please dont feed the animals. If you have suitable food, please give it to the guard. 不要喂动物，有好吃的请给看守人吃。 If you have suitable food, please give it to the guard and let him/her feed the animal. 这个女孩很纯洁。 She is a pure girl. 她是个百分之百的女人 。 She is very pure-hearted. 她很单纯。 (pure in heart) Nave天真，贬义 I am a very clever boy. 我是一个和狡 猾的男孩。 英语中clever带有贬义，机 灵的，狡猾的 I am a smart/bright boy. Chinese people are very simple. 中国人有点傻 Chinese people are pure- hearted/down-to-earth. 中国人很朴实 。 Many times when I talk with a Chinese friend there will be some difficult word or expression that they are not sure about. Usually they will tell me the word and then ask, How do I say that? Usually my answer is, With your mouth. In English, 怎么做某事 ，can only be understood in a literal way. What they should ask is “How do I express that in English?” How do you think about it? 你是怎么想的？ -I think about it with my brain. 我用我的 大脑想。 What do you think about it? Being from Canada I tend to prefer cooler weather. One particularly hot day I walked into the classroom and one student, seeing how sweaty I was, commented, teacher, you look so hot. Some students understood the double meaning of hot and laughed. What she could have said was: you must be uncomfortable in this heat. In English the word hot of means 热. But in spoken English, hot also means very attractive, or sexy, so never say someone looks hot unless you really like them. One time I let my university writing class write about dating and their thoughts on the matter. One student wrote about her boyfriend: Tina was painful when her boyfriend left her. Somehow I knew this wasnt her meaning; in English “was painful” usually means “was painful to be around” 令人痛苦的, thus making her sentence meanTina和她的男朋友分手的时候我真受不 了她，跟她一起我很受罪。 What she meant to was: Tina was upset/in pain when her boyfriend left her. I was sick in the head. (Really? You seem like a normal person to me.) 我曾是个神经病。 I had a headache. A student of mine once came up to me after class and told me about some trouble he was having with the class. His next sentence took me by surprise though: teacher, dont expect me too much. I told him that he shouldnt skip class just because he was having difficulties. It was then that I found out his meaning was: dont expect too much of me. teacher, dont expect me too much.以后我可 能很少来上课 dont expect too much of me. 别对我期望太高 I remember when I first came to China I once attended an English Corner. The students had many questions about me and about life in Western countries. One student asked me a particularly interesting question, “Why do foreigners have such big noses?” Another student tried to correct her and said, “Her meaning is, why do foreigners have such high noses?” Both of these are inappropriate. The first is rather rude. The second sounds like为什么你们鼻子的位置那么 高？My feelings were hurt. The correct way of asking this question is, why do foreigners have such long noses? In China I often hear adults use the word play. In English, the word play can only be used for young kids. A sentence like, “On the weekends, I like to get together and play with my colleagues” can not be expressed like this in English. 我和我的同事一起玩小孩子的游戏 On the weekends I like to get together and have fun with my colleagues. We two are who and who? 咱俩谁跟谁呀？ = Who am I ? Who are you? = Not a big deal. were friends. Look, it is people mountain people sea. There is a sea of people.人山人海 I give you face, you dont want a face, you lose your face, I turn my face. 我给你脸，你不要脸，你丢脸，我翻脸。 Im giving you a chance to redeem赎回 yourself and yet you wont take it. You shame yourself and you anger me. D: Helen and her husband, John, are on their vacation. They are now lying on the beach. J: Oh, what lovely sunshine! I really miss it so much. H: Thats right. We are so busy recently. J: It seems we havent bee out for ages. Look, your skin looks so white. 在中国，说某人的皮肤白通常是夸奖，但在西方 ，多半是暗示你不够健康，需要多晒太阳。当今的欧美社会，最流行的肤色是sun-tanned color 古铜色， 那才是健康和有钱的标志，因为一个 为生活奔波的人怎么会有闲心去海边晒太阳呢？ D: Xiaoli is getting prepared for the 100- meter-race. Mary: Hi, xiaoli, is everything OK? Xiaoli: Yes, the only thing is that Im a little bit nervous. Mary: Dont worry about it. I hear you are one of