誰人能夠逃避ＱＱ和手機短信的瘋狂？

編者按：

隨著2008年奧運會的逼近，民眾越來越關心“中國”品牌的樹立，學習英語的熱情也被點燃。越來越多的外宣干部和業內同行向我們表達了期待看到雙語欄目的期望。因此，我們在2006年第一期開辦《雙語視窗》欄目滿足廣大讀者的需求。

看看周圍的媒體，《北京青年報》、《參考消息》、《國門時報》上有許多精粹的小短文，像一只只啄木鳥，善意地提醒了中國人習以為常的行為背后“尚未和國際接軌”的細節，讀后讓人回味不已，在獲得借鑒意義的同時，也帶來更深入地思考。我們效仿中英文對照的版面形式，旨在通過外國友人的視角來看中國，從中折射出東西方觀念、習俗的異同。通過一篇篇這樣的文章，讓讀者在領略異域文化的同時，也能達到學習英語的目的。

我的一個中國朋友曾經問我，為什么我寫給她的電子郵件句首不用大寫字母，這說來話長。

美國興起在線實時信息傳遞也就是網上聊天的狂熱大約始于五六年前，那時我剛上大學。有一天，我的一個最要好的朋友打電話給我，告訴我下載一個“美國在線實時信息傳遞”的聊天軟件。當時我對她說的是什么還一無所知，但我很快就明白了，沒多久就對網上聊天著了迷，只要有時間我就上網聊天。我發現我的好幾個朋友都有了相同的軟件。當我把越來越多的人加到我的“網友名單”上時，其他人也在做同樣的事。網上聊天真是越來越普遍，很快，“人人都在這樣做”了。

我的打字技能應歸功于很多很多小時的網上聊天。然而令人遺憾的是，當我的打字速度提高后，一切語法規則也都跑掉了。要知道，網上聊天的人有他們自己的速記語言，語法并不重要，網上英語聊天者可以省略冠詞、主語、代詞等等，聊天者幾乎可以錯拼或“重拼”任何單詞，比如“Good”可以寫成gud；略寫特別重要，“[I'll]be right back(我很快就回來)”可以寫成“brb”，“No problem(沒問題)”可以寫成“np”，說英語的網上聊天者為了省事還拒絕使用標點符號和大寫字母。句號和縮寫符？不必要。大寫字母？沒用。當年我對網上聊天曾是那么的上癮，以至于今天我在寫東西時往往還是不用大寫字母——不論在計算機上寫還是手寫。

漸漸地，網上聊天的狂熱在美國降了點溫，我自己對它的熱情也是如此。雖說我還用那個軟件，那主要是為了便于和遠方的家人與朋友保持聯系。

之后我就來到了中國。

在這里，我發現對在線實時信息的狂熱不是一種而是兩種，第一種就是QQ，它讓我回想起當年我在計算機上的癡迷。

因此，那個循環又重新開始了，我用上了QQ。我不會說多少中文，可我還是看到中國人也有類似的網上速記語言，甚至他們用英語聊天時也是這樣。比如，我看到的第一個簡語是“ft”，這是“faint(暈)”的縮寫，可用在表示驚訝的地方。我還發現中國人使用同樣的縮寫形容笑，美國的Hehe，haha和heehee在中國變成了“呵呵，哈哈，嘿嘿”。還有很多很多的笑臉和頭像用來表示各種各樣的心情和反應，從傳統的“睡笑臉”、“疑笑臉”到“嘔吐笑臉”、“戰士笑臉”，甚至還有SARS笑臉——至今我還沒完全搞明白它。

在QQ之外，還有一種恐怕是更為流行的快速傳遞信息的潮流，你一定猜到了——手機短信。

一開始我還不太明白，要知道，在美國，手機的用法不太一樣，幾乎沒有“按話務量多少來計費”的做法，大多數人都是簽一個6個月或是一年的合同，很多合同不包括免費的短信服務；而且，不管你打沒打電話，每月也得交固定的費用，手機只是使打電話變得更容易一些。我曾經試了一次短信，當我在收到話費單時才知道，不僅往外發短信時價格出奇的高，收到別人的短信也花錢。

我在中國的頭幾個月沒有手機，也就與之沒有關聯，但最近我買了一個手機，才知道了手機短信是多么有用，以及其廣為流行的原因。我承認當我走在外面或坐在地鐵里發送短信息時有點不好意思，但有誰不這樣做？無論我走到哪兒，都能看到人們在手機上收發短信。實際上，倒是很少看到誰拿著手機在講話。

看來，無論我走到世界的什么地方，都無法逃避實時信息傳遞的狂熱。顯然，這個潮流不會改變。然而，最終我并不對此抱怨，因為實時信息傳遞又快又便宜，又簡單又非常有趣。再說了，每個人都在這么做。

(本文作者現在北京兩所高校任教)

原文：

One of my Chinese friends asked me why I don't use a capital letter at the beginning of the sentences in my emails to her. It's a long story.

The instant messaging craze began in America about five or six years ago. I was in my freshman year of college， and one day my best friend called me on the phone and told me to download \"AOL instant messenger\". At the time， I had no idea what she was talking about， but I soon found out， and it didn't take long before I was hooked on instant messaging. I began talking on line whenever I could. I discovered that several of my friends already had the same program. As I added more and more people to my \"buddy list\"， others were doing the same. Instant messaging really picked up， and soon \"everyone was doing it.\"

I credit my typing skills to many many hours of talking on line. Unfortunately， as my typing speed increased， everything else went out the window. You see， instant messengers have their own shorthand language. Grammar isn't important. In English， instant messengers can leave out articles， subjects， pronouns， etc. They can misspell or \"re-spell\" almost any word. \"Good\"， for example， becomes \"gud\". Abbreviations are particularly important: \"[I'll] be right back\" becomes \"brb.\" \"No problem，\" \"np.\" English-speaking instant messengers also refuse to burden themselves with punctuation and capitalization. Periods and apostrophes? Unnecessary. Capitalization? Useless. My experience with instant messaging was so addictive that to this day I tend to forego the use of capital letters whenever I write -- on the computer or off.

Gradually the instant messaging craze in America died down a bit， and so did my own enthusiasm for it. Although I still used the program， it was mainly for the convenience of keeping in contact with distant family and friends.

Then I came to China.

Here I discovered not one but two instant messaging crazes. The first， which brought back memories of my previous addiction to the computer， was QQ.

So now the cycle has started again. I use QQ. I can't speak much Chinese but I can still see evidence that the Chinese have the same kind of separate instant-messaging language， even when they chat in English. My first word in this language， for example， was \"ft\". This abbreviation for \"faint\"[as in \"I could have fainted\" from shock] is used whenever there is a need to express surprise. I also discovered that the Chinese use the same kind of abbreviation for a laugh. Hehe， haha， and heehee in America become呵呵，哈哈and嘿嘿in China. And there is an extraordinary number of smiley faces and icons available to express every emotion and reaction， from the traditional \"sleepy\" and \"doubtful\" smileys to the \"vomit\" and \"army soldier\" smileys. There's even a SARS smiley -- I still haven't quite figured that one out...

After QQ， there is another， perhaps more widespread， messaging trend. You guessed it: cellphone text messaging.

At first I didn't understand it. See， in America cellphones work a little differently. There are very few \"pay-as-you-go\" plans， so most people sign a contract for a six-month or one-year plan. Many cellphone plans don't include free text messaging， and since you pay a monthly fee no matter how few calls you make， it's easier just to make the phone call. I experimented with text messaging once and found out (when my bill arrived) that not only did it cost a ridiculous amount of money to send a message， but it cost money to receive one as well!

For the first few months of my stay in China， I didn't have a cellphone， so I wasn't affected. I recently bought a cellphone， however， and now understand how useful text messaging is and why it is so common. I admit that I have been guilty of sending text messages while walking outside or sitting on the subway. Who hasn't? No matter where I go， I see people on their cellphones， messaging. In fact， it's rare to see someone actually talking on their phone!

So it looks as if there's no escaping the instant-messaging craze， no matter where in the world I go. And that's plainly not going to change. In the end， though， I can't complain: instant messaging is quick， it's cheap， it's easy and it's pretty darn fun too.

And after all， everybody's doing it.

（感謝北京青年報《雙語視窗》欄目張愛學編輯對本文提供的支持。）

責編：周瑾