是地道英语还是中式英语？――是个问题.docVIP

是地道英语还是中式英语？――是个问题 　　By Josh， 刘 鹏、朱一童译 　　 　　I’ve been living in China a while now... long enough to observe the long-term deterioration（退化） of my own native language abilities, as well as those of my fellow English speakers. This deterioration can take different forms, one of which is a general decay of one’s vocabulary. Although it is a very real phenomenon (the other day I used “export” when I meant to use “deport”, which is really kind of pathetic), this kind of loss of mastery is due to lack of exposure, whether it is through media or human interaction with other native speakers. It would happen in any country, to speakers of any language, given that one’s native language is not being sufficiently exercised. 　　What I’d like to talk about is a much more insidious（阴险的，暗中危害的，以一种难以捉摸或隐秘的方式危害的） form of linguistic deterioration. Its source is, specifically, Chinese culture, and its target is English speakers. If you are a native speaker of English living in China, you may have already fallen victim. I find myself occasionally saying “mai” instead of “buy” because the Chinese word for “buy” (买) sounds almost the same as “buy”, except for the initial consonant. 　　Below I give some of the common ways that the Chinese environment strikes down the native speaker’s linguistic competence. 　　Net barIn Chinese, they’re called “网吧”. This is fine. We generally call them “Internet cafés” in English. The Chinese seem to think that “网吧” should be translated as “net bar” in English, and many unwary （粗心的） foreigners have even been beguiled（诱骗, 诱惑） by this idea. For English teachers, it’s usually one of the first nonstandard usage to creep in. 　　Name cardIn the English-speaking world, business people have lots of business meetings to discuss business. On these occasions of business, business people exchange specially printed pieces of paper known as business cards. In China everyone calls them “name cards,” ostensibly（表面上） because in Chinese they are called “名片” and “name card”