By Qiqibaby （滬江特聘英語講師）
“I was born in England, went to Australia when I was five, was entirely educated in Australia, spent several years in the USA and Canada and then ten years in France, and now live in England married to a Colombian wife where the common language at home is French, where my wife speaks Spanish to the children, I speak English to them and they spend undue amounts of time listening to American TV shows like Sesame Street, Buffy the Vampire Killer and the Simpsons or listening to American rappers, English Spice Girls or, when forced, heroes from the seventies such as Van Morrison and James Taylor. And they suck vocabulary, expressions, idioms and grammar out of all of this and plonk it into their own English.”
出生在中國的你是否曾經(jīng)抱怨過自己沒有出生在一個多語種國家, 比如瑞士或是沒能像上文中作者的孩子那樣成長在一個多語種環(huán)境里呢? 我相信大凡經(jīng)歷過TOEFL或曾經(jīng)倍受”考G” 之苦的過來之人都會希望自己來世能有機(jī)會在童年就度過單詞的原始積累期. 可是你知道嗎即使是身處那樣一種令人羨慕的語言環(huán)境, 你也會遇到意想不到的麻煩, 讓我們來聽聽作為報(bào)紙撰稿人的Jimmy 是怎么說的:
“ I often get emails from readers berating me for my terrible spelling. While I admit to a few glaring typos from time to time the emails are often concerned with spellings that have more to do with geography than with poor literacy skills.”
隨著英語的廣泛使用以及不同地區(qū)的交流日益頻繁, 英語詞匯面臨著前所未有的考驗(yàn). 一些具有鮮明地域特色的英語單詞及用法成為人們學(xué)習(xí)英語,使用英語的新阻礙. 英語的多元化讓我們看到了American English, Australian English, British English and Indian English. 近來甚至還出現(xiàn)了所謂的Singlish, English from Singapore. 所以要想征服英語, 不論你曾經(jīng)是親英派還是親美派都必須練就這一手明辨同意異形詞的本領(lǐng). 所謂知己知彼, 百戰(zhàn)不殆嘛.
Colour or color?
Fall or Autumn?
Socks or sox?
Candy or sweets?
Organisations or Organizations?
Cookie or biscuit?
Underground or subway?
Centre or Center ?
Gas or petrol?
Trash or rubbish?
program or programme?