有道双语.docVIP

Is Anyone Listening to You? 你说话谁会听？ Have you ever had the feeling that no matter what you say or how you say it, you might as well be speaking in an obscure foreign language, because no one even seems to be aware that your mouth is moving? 你是否有过这样一种感觉，无论说什么、怎么说，都像是在说一种晦涩的外语，因为似乎根本就没人注意到你的嘴在动？ This feeling can manifest itself in many different contexts. Parents of young children are certainly familiar with the phenomenon. It’s especially acute in bi-lingual households. The conventional wisdom is that to raise bi-lingual children, the ideal case is that one parent consistently speaks only one language, and the other parent only speaks the second language. The child, or children, will at some point switch back and forth effortlessly between the first and second tongues. 这种感觉在很多场合下都会出现，有小孩的父母肯定对此更为熟悉。要是双语家庭，感受会尤其强烈。一般认为，培养双语儿童，最理想的办法就是由父母各自坚持使用一种语言，直到某一时刻，孩子自然而然地就可以在母语和第二语言间自由转换。 (While true, this also involves a “Tower of Babel” stage in which no one in the family seems to be speaking any common language.) （这种看法没错，但也会经历“巴别塔”阶段，就是家庭成员之间看起来说的不是同一种语言。） This is also a common occurrence in the workplace, especially in organizations which — like so many in China — have a lot of meetings. And there are, let’s face it, some organizations in China which have an incredible number of long, boring meetings. This is perfectly OK with me, as long as I am not required to attend them. 除此之外，这种感觉在工作场合也屡见不鲜，特别是在经常开会的机构——就像很多中国单位那样。必须承认，一些中国单位又长又无聊的会议数量惊人。但只要不用我参加，倒也无妨。 I hate excessive meetings, especially of the non-productive kind where someone up at the podium is reading page after page of achievements and statistics, and people in the rest of the room are hypnotized by the screens of their mobile devices. Like zombies. This is what I call a “Zombie Meeting.” 我讨厌会议过多，尤其是没有产出的会议。比如某人站在讲台上，照本宣科地朗读着各种成绩和数据，而其他人则沉迷于自己的移动设备，宛如僵尸。我把这种会议称为“僵尸会议”。 I had a teacher in high school who was brilliant but had quite a temper. If a student was goofing off or did something which required a