旅行语言

旅行语言 Travel Language 旅行语言 Karsten Schmidt 卡斯滕 施密特 1. The Academie Francaise has for decades been the watchdog over the French language. A few years ago, French sensitivity to the influx of English words became so great that a law for the purification of French was adopted. The law covers even technical applications. For example, in theory, it is now compulsory in France to refer to the Boeing 747 as a gros-porteur, leasing as credit-bail, etc. The list is very long and detailed and applies to all facets of life. Mr, Chirac, the French President, might well expand on this list and come up with some new French terms for words such as “internet” or “byte stream” just to name a couple. The mind boggles at what the world might face. 几个世纪以来，法兰西学院一直都是法语的监督机构。几年以前，法语对的 注入变得非常敏感，因此政府针对法语的净化成立了一项法律。这项法律甚至涵 盖了技术问题，例如:目前法国在理论上强制规定以信誉担保租用的波音747 是重型运输机等问题。这项法律目录很长很详细，适应与生活的方方面面。法国 总统希拉克可能会对这一目录进行补充，提出一些新的法式术语用于一些单词， 只举两例，像是“internet”(互联网) 或是 “byte stream”(字节流)。世界可能 面临的令人不可思议。 2. Unfortunately (or perhaps not), the English language is not so protected. Quite apart from the unforgivable deviations from the king’s English prevalent in America, where “honour” is commonly written as “honor” and “night” as “nite,” many well-tested (约定俗成的) British words have also been given new meanings, making communication somewhat difficult. For example, the boot of a car (汽车行李箱) has come to be called a trunk- a word reserved in England for the main part of a tree. The bonnet (车篷) is a hood, good old nappies (尿布)are diapers and a baby’s matinee jacket (背心) is a vest. It’s obvious that the two countries are indeed separated by what once was a common language! From an American point of view, of course, it could be argued that the British speak English with a speech deficiency. 不幸的是(或许不是)，英语的保护并不是那么完善。在美国流行将英语做一 些不可饶恕的改变，他们通常将“honour” 写成 “honor”, “night”写成 “nite”, 暂且 抛开这个不说，很多约定俗成的英语单词还被赋予了新含义，这使得交流有点困 难。例如，the boot of a car (汽车行李箱)在美国被称为trunk——而在英国这 是一个意为树干的单词，车篷bonnet被称作是hood，尿不湿(nappies)成了 diapers，背心(a baby’s matinee jacket)成了vest. 很明显曾经的通用语言确确实 实的将英美两个国家给分开了～当然美国人认为英国人说英语有缺点是有争议的 3. Even worse English, however, is in use. Anyone who travels in foreign countries and observes it on menus and posters, in hotels, and indeed in everyday life can testify that what used to be the king’s lingo has become in these places but a poor relation thereof. Allow me to elaborate. 然而还有使用更糟糕英语的，任何到异国旅游的人观察酒店菜单、海报时，事实 是日常生活中的标志是就会证实曾经的权威术语在这些地方仅仅是一种差劲的 叙述。请容许我来详细描述一下吧 4. The travel writer Perrot Phillips has taken pains to highlight some of his experiences, which I feel should not be withheld from a wider readership. He refers to a Dutch bulb catalogue which promised customers “a speedy execution” and to an East Berlin cloakroom sign that requested guests to “please hang yourself here”. One hopes that nobody took the advice literally. 履行作家佩罗特.菲利普斯不辞辛劳的强调他的一些经历，我认为这应该让更多 的读者知道。他提到了一家荷兰商店的灯泡目录，许诺给客户的是“快速死刑” 还有一家东柏林衣帽间标志，要求顾客“请将您自己悬挂于此”。希望没人采用 他们的字面建议、 5. To these I can add some of my own experiences, encountered in long years of traveling the world. There was, for example, the observation in an Ostend novelty shop that “revolting new ideas” were being marketed, and the boast of some Bombay bakers that “we are No. 1 loafers, best value in whole town.” 我还可以补充一些在我多年的世界旅行中遇到的亲身经历 ，例如我曾在奥斯坦 德的一家玩具饰物商店看到“叛乱的新思想”正被推向市场，还有孟买一些面包 师自诩“我们是一号懒人拖，整个县城里就我们价值最高”。 6. I realized how far Christianity had come when I read in Hong Kong the following call by a dentist: the teeth they are extracted here by the latest Methodists. 在香港看到一个牙医的口号“有最新的卫理工会教徒给您拔牙”时，我才意识 到基督教传播的有多远。 7. I fear it can not be answered with certainty whether these actually illustrate a progressive use of English or are simply reflections of local usages. I feel quite strongly, however, that the Haifa Medical Association should have prevented one of its members from claiming on his brass plate(铜牌) that he is a “Specialist in Women and Other Diseases.” 这些是否在事实上描述了英语使用的进步或者只是当地用法的反映，恐怕是 不确定的。然而我强烈的感觉到海法医学会应该阻止那个“妇科以及其他疾病专 家”的成员申请他的铜牌名牌。 8. Hotels seem to revel in their multilingual signs. One supposes these signs were designed to facilitate the use of modern services in otherwise sterile and barely functional establishments. Nevertheless, 各家酒店似乎很得意于他们的多语言标志。有人会认为设计了这些是促进现 代服务不然就是几乎没用的设施的使用，虽然如此 9. The unsuspecting guests confronted in a Brussels hotel with the following instruction for the use of the lift (elevator) might well prefer to walk: “to move the lift, push the button to wishing floor. If the cabin should enter more persons, each one should push number of wishing floor. Driving is then going alphabetically by natural order. Button retaining pressed position shows received command for visiting station.” The less sophisticated notice in Istanbul (“to call room service, please to open door and call ROOM SERVICE”) at least does not confront the guest with electronics that might not always work. 一个没有疑心的顾客在布鲁塞尔酒店面对如下电梯使用说明时有可能宁愿步行 “进入电梯，按下想要去楼层的按钮，如果有更多的人进入电梯舱，每人都应该 按下想去楼层的数字。然后操作就会自然排列顺序进行。按过的按钮表明收到访 问命令。”在伊斯坦布尔有个简单点的告示(需要房间服务，请开门喊“room service”)至少这样顾客没有遇到像电梯那样经常不管用的告示。 10. In Turkey, the delight in “straight talk” expresses itself in the by-now-famous Ankara brochure which advises, “Visit our restaurant where you can eat Middle East foods in an European Ambulance.” A note on a Swiss menu that “our wines leave nothing to hope for” was equally inviting. 在土耳其，实话实说的喜人之处在于在至今有名的安卡拉介绍手册中得以体现， 手册中建议“来我们餐厅，您可以在音乐European Ambulance的伴随之下品尝 中东菜肴。”瑞士菜单中“喝了我们的酒让您别无所求”的标注同样诱人。 11. Eastern European courtesies have never left the once grand hotels of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. A notice in the hotel rooms that the honoured guests are invited to take advantage of the chamber maids from 12-14 o’clock might, however, result in some unplanned traffic jams. A recent Moscow exhibition’s announcement drew attention to “a showing of 300 paintings by Russian artists, most of whom were executed in the last ten years” --- hardly a welcoming thought to the occasional visitor. 东欧各国从没有遗忘曾经辉煌的前奥匈帝国酒店。酒店房间里的告示说荣誉顾 客在12到14点受邀利用死人女仆，然而这可能导致之外的交通堵塞。最近 一个莫斯科展览通知将注意力转移到了“俄罗斯画家的三百幅画画展，大多数完 成于最近十年”上，——这仅仅是对偶尔来访者的欢迎想法。 12. A Bangkok laundry’s advertisement to the visiting public (“Leave your clothes here and enjoy yourself ”) could also be seem as an invitation to extracurricular activities in that Far Eastern capital of fun. 一家曼谷洗衣店对来参观大众的的广告语(“留下您的衣服，过得愉快)同样 可以被看作是去远东娱乐首都参加课外活动的邀请。 13. In Rome, a laundry advertised a similar invitation: Ladies, leave your clothes here and spend the afternoon having a good time. 在罗马有家洗衣店刊登了同样的:女士们，把你们的衣服留在这，去过一个愉 快的下午吧。 14. It should not surprise the traveller that nightspots advertise their wares in Europe in many and diverse languages. The German preoccupation with Majorca led a Munich nightclub to copy a trilingual Palma announcement that dancing was going on in what is indeed a surprising way. The notice read, “Baile! Baile! Baile!” in Spanish, “Tanz! Tanz! Tanz!” in German, and “Balls! Balls! Balls!” in what was meant to be English. We are spared the upper Bavarian version of the activity. 在欧洲夜总会用很多不同的语言刊为他们的小商品做广告，旅行者们对此应该并 不感到奇怪。德国对马略卡岛的关注，导致了一家慕尼黑夜总会效仿一个三语言 的帕尔马公告， 公告表明舞蹈是以一种出人意料的方式进行的。上边写着西班 牙语“Baile! Baile! Baile!” 德语“Tanz! Tanz! Tanz!”还有注定是英语的“Balls! Balls! Balls!”我们避免这次活动的巴伐利亚版本。 15. The Black Forest Germans, on the other hand, are known to be rather prudish in their outlook, but is it really necessary to post a sign: “It is strictly forbidden on our Black Forest camping site that people of different sexes, for example men and women, live together in one tent unless they are married with each other for that purpose.” 另外一方面，德国黑森林地区人表面上的假正经为人么所熟知，但是这有必要 给他们贴个标志:“在我们黑森林野营区男女两性是严禁住在一个帐篷里的，除 非他们已经结婚了” 16. I am told that for the otherwise unsuspecting tourist, the following sign proved a real crowd puller. Parrot Phillips claims it to be true that in an Austrian hotel room he found the sign: “If service required, give two strokes to the maid and thee to the valet.” 有人告诉我说对于另外一些没有疑心的游客，下面的标准真正引人注目的。佩 罗特菲利普斯声明他在一家澳大利亚酒店房间了发现的标志是真的“若需要服 务，女服务员给两杆，男服务员给三杆。” 17. There are undoubtedly more and varied versions of the use of English, unprotected as our language is from the interference of emerging and ambitious entrepreneurs. Nevertheless, I prefer seeing English develop as the lingua franca around the world rather than being suffocated for the sake of so-called purity by some ill-advised legislative process. 毫无疑问，英语的使用有很多不同的版本，由于我们的语言是来自雄心勃勃的新 型企业家的干涉，这并没有得到保护。虽然如此，比起通过考虑不周的立法程序 来保护所谓的纯洁，而使英语因此窒息，我宁愿看到英语以通用语在世界范围内 发展。