英文Ｔ恤切莫傻穿

編者按：

隨著2008年奧運(yùn)會(huì)的逼近，民眾越來(lái)越關(guān)心“中國(guó)”品牌的樹(shù)立，學(xué)習(xí)英語(yǔ)的熱情也被點(diǎn)燃。越來(lái)越多的外宣干部和業(yè)內(nèi)同行向我們表達(dá)了期待看到雙語(yǔ)欄目的期望。因此，我們?cè)?006年第一期開(kāi)辦《雙語(yǔ)視窗》欄目滿足廣大讀者的需求。

看看周圍的媒體，《北京青年報(bào)》、《參考消息》、《國(guó)門時(shí)報(bào)》上有許多精粹的小短文，像一只只啄木鳥(niǎo)，善意地提醒了中國(guó)人習(xí)以為常的行為背后“尚未和國(guó)際接軌”的細(xì)節(jié)，讀后讓人回味不已，在獲得借鑒意義的同時(shí)，也帶來(lái)更深入的思考。我們效仿中英文對(duì)照的版面形式，旨在通過(guò)外國(guó)友人的視角來(lái)看中國(guó)，從中折射出東西方觀念、習(xí)俗的異同。通過(guò)一篇篇這樣的文章，讓讀者在領(lǐng)略異域文化的同時(shí)，也能達(dá)到學(xué)習(xí)英語(yǔ)的目的。

在英語(yǔ)中，我們會(huì)說(shuō)“人如其食”，意思是一個(gè)人的身材取決于他的飲食。因此，如果你吃的是炸薯?xiàng)l和肥膩的牛肉漢堡，就可能變得像土豆那樣圓，甚至像奶牛那樣胖；相反，常吃水果和蔬菜則會(huì)成為一個(gè)更為苗條的人。

然而，如今的消費(fèi)并不只限于食物。隨著我們消費(fèi)的時(shí)裝和名牌越來(lái)越多，我想起了另一則諺語(yǔ)：“人如其衣”，選擇穿什么樣的衣服反映著我們的取向、價(jià)值觀和個(gè)性——總之，從衣著便可看出我們是什么樣的人：整潔？窮困？有教養(yǎng)？保守？森林保護(hù)者？工商業(yè)人士？等等。如果一個(gè)在得克薩斯州牧場(chǎng)土生土長(zhǎng)的牛仔——每天套馬，嚼著煙葉，走起路來(lái)大步流星，穿上了細(xì)條紋西裝，那么他就儼然是個(gè)銀行家（或者是總統(tǒng)），人們會(huì)不假思索做出這樣的判斷。但他自己可能很快就覺(jué)得領(lǐng)帶勒得慌，好幾層衣服熱得慌，而最難為他的是，他會(huì)覺(jué)得穿著新裝引人注目，不知所措，因?yàn)樗男滦蜗蟛](méi)有改變他的思維以及處事方式。

有鑒于此，中國(guó)時(shí)下流行穿飾有英文的衣服就特別有意思，或許這也是“英語(yǔ)熱”的一部分，然而，顯而易見(jiàn)的是，穿印有英文的衣服并不意味著會(huì)說(shuō)或看得懂英文。

在上世紀(jì)90年代初，我妻子每次來(lái)中國(guó)，總會(huì)買幾件印有英文短語(yǔ)的T恤帶回美國(guó)送給朋友，因?yàn)樗l(fā)現(xiàn)T恤上的英文因?yàn)闆](méi)有任何意義而很滑稽可笑，如“兩個(gè)男孩有最高感覺(jué)的感情”。

自從2001年回到中國(guó)，我不無(wú)驚訝地看到，印著毫無(wú)意義的英文的T恤越來(lái)越多了。更糟糕的是，有些還含有色情內(nèi)容，而那些十幾歲的中國(guó)青少年卻全然不知，他們自豪地穿著，而在外國(guó)人眼里卻顯得很愚蠢。

每當(dāng)看到班里有學(xué)生穿這種衣服，我就問(wèn)他們懂不懂衣服上英文的意思，多數(shù)人不知道。幾個(gè)星期前，我去裁縫店取我定做的唐裝，在那兒見(jiàn)到一位容貌嬌好的中年女顧客，她穿著一件T恤，上寫“我是你的玩物”。驚訝之余，我用漢語(yǔ)問(wèn)她知不知道那英文是什么意思，她說(shuō)不知道，聽(tīng)我解釋之后很是尷尬。肯定更為糟糕的是，有一天在校園里我看到一位美麗的年輕女子，身穿一件有很多英文的T恤，當(dāng)走近時(shí)，我震驚了，T恤上寫著“十種與我做愛(ài)的方式”——與我做愛(ài)是我改后的一種干凈的說(shuō)法，T恤上印的是那個(gè)難于啟齒的四個(gè)字母的臟字，接下來(lái)就羅列了那十種方式。此情此景，但愿這女子不是“人如其衣”。

在很多情況下，這種衣服確實(shí)能反映出你的某些情況：首先，你大概不認(rèn)得、不理解英文；非常可能的是，你不是一個(gè)細(xì)心的購(gòu)物者，而且盲目追趕潮流。也許，你不在乎別人怎么看你，但更可能的是，你在乎，卻不知道你的衣服所起的作用與你想要達(dá)到的效果適得其反。就我而言，我從來(lái)都不穿有字的T恤，哪怕是設(shè)計(jì)者的名字或者標(biāo)志，因?yàn)槲也幌氤蔀槿魏喂镜囊苿?dòng)廣告——不管它們的衣服有多漂亮。

因此，對(duì)于時(shí)尚一族，我有幾句忠告：如果你想趕時(shí)髦，穿有外文字的衣服，至少要讀懂它們的意思，人們才不會(huì)認(rèn)為你就是衣服上所說(shuō)的那號(hào)人。

（本文作者現(xiàn)在北京第二外國(guó)語(yǔ)學(xué)院任教）

原文：

In English， we say that \"you are what you eat，\" meaning that your figure depends on your diet. So if you consume French fries and fatty beef burgers， you probably are a potato and will in a sense become a cow. Regular consumption of fruits and vegetables， on the other hand， will result in a slimmer person.

Yet， consumption these days isn't only limited to food. As we increasingly consume fashion and brands， another saying comes to mind: \"clothes make the man.\" The clothes we choose reflect our preferences， values， and personality， all in all， the people we are: tidy， poor， educated， conservative， a tree-hugger， a businessman， and so on. If a lasso-tossing， tobacco-chewing， wide striding cowboy， born and raised on a Texan ranch， were to put on a pinstriped suit， he would look like a banker (or the president)， and judgments would be passed without a second thought. But he might quickly feel strangled by the necktie， hot under the many layers， and most of all， conspicuous and unsure of how to act in his new attire， for his new look did not change his thoughts or ways.

In light of this， the fashion of wearing English-embossed clothing in China is particularly intriguing. Perhaps it is part of the English-learning craze， but it is clear that just because people wear English does not mean they can speak or read it.

In the early 1990s， each time my wife came to China， she would buy T-shirts with slogans like \"Two Boys have a Top Sense Feeling\" to take back to friends in the US. She found the English on the shirts hilarious in their absolute meaninglessness.

Since moving back to China in 2001， I have been surprised to see a growing number of shirts with senseless English. What's worse， some have pornographic connotations， completely unbeknownst to the Chinese teenagers who don them proudly but look foolish in the eyes of foreigners.

Whenever I see my students wearing clothing like that in class， I ask them if they understand the meaning of the words they wear. Most do not. The other week， I walked into my tailor's shop to pick up some tangzhuang I had made and saw a very nice-looking， middle-aged Chinese lady customer wearing a T-shirt that read， \"I'm your plaything.\" Surprised， I asked her in Chinese if she understood what it said. She said she did not and was quite embarrassed to learn. Decidedly worse was a beautiful young lady I saw on campus one day wearing a shirt with a great deal of writing on it. When I got closer， I was shocked to see that the shirt enumerated in detail \"Ten Ways To Have Sex With Me\" -- and that is the clean version of the title. In this case， let's hope that the clothes don't make the woman.

In many cases， these clothes do reveal some things about you. First of all， you probably can't read and understand English. Very possibly， you are not a careful shopper and blindly follow trends. Perhaps you do not care what others think of you， but more likely， you do care and don't realize that your clothing has an effect opposite to what you intended. As for me， I never wear a shirt that has writing or even a designer name or logo on it because I do not want to be a walking advertisement for any company， no matter how nice their clothes may be.

So my advice to you fashion-conscious types is: if you want to be trendy and wear clothes with writing on it， at least read and understand what you wear so that people won't think that you are what your clothes say you are.

（感謝北京青年報(bào)“雙語(yǔ)視窗”欄目張愛(ài)學(xué)編輯對(duì)本文提供的支持。）

責(zé)編：周瑾