讓我們談談文化差異之Ｇｒｅｅｔｉｎｇｓ ａｎｄ Ｆａｒｅｗｅｌｌｓ（問好與道別）

編者按：所謂語言，就是文化的載體。本期《百科》重新改版，重磅出擊，給大家帶來由著名語言學家鄧炎昌老師和劉潤清老師編寫的文化與語言的系列文章。

鄧老師和劉老師的筆鋒尖銳開拓，文風細膩幽默，大家閱讀文章之時能接觸到最純正最地道的英文表達方法，同時也能在一個個幽默的小故事中感受東西方文化的差異，在學英語、用英語的時候，時刻注意，步步小心。

An American studying in China had an appointment at noon. As he was getting on his bicycle a Chinese friend passed by.

吃了嗎？the young Chinese asked. This， of course， is a common Chinese greeting around meal time and the American merely just nodded with a smile， waved goodbye and went off. He realized that his friend’s remark was nothing more than a Chinese way of saying Hello or Hi. If the greeting had been put literally into English Have you eaten yet? Or Have you had your lunch? It would have sounded rather unusual.

To Americans， the greeting might mean this:“I haven’t either. Come on， let’s go together and get something to eat，”or“If you haven’t， I was just going to invite you to my place.”In other words， it could be an invitation to a meal.

Actually， another foreign student who had not been long in China once complained in broken Chinese你們為什么老問我吃飯了沒有？我有錢。To his way of thinking， people were concerned that he was not getting his meals properly because of lack of money. Clearly， he was offended.

There is a similar Chinese greetings， such as 上哪兒去啊？到哪兒去啦？which if translated literally， would be Where are you going? Or Where have you been? The natural reaction of the most English-speaking people to this greeting would most likely be It’s none of your business!

Fortunately， not all greetings sound strange or arouse displeasure. Many are similar， some are merely different. While greetings in many languages often indicate the time of day， there may be inconsistencies within a language. English has Good morning， Good afternoon and Good evening but not Good noon. And Good night is not a greeting at all (to most English-speaking people)， but an expression of farewell.

When Chinese meet for the first time， there is no special expression for the occasion， but when most English-speaking people meet for the first time， they often say something like I’m pleased to meet you. And when they part， they are expected to remark It’s nice meeting you or It’s nice to have met you or something similar.

When people part， they usually say Good-bye， bye-bye， Au revoir， Hasta lavista. Similar expressions are found in almost all languages. But in the more or less fixed conversational formulas that precede Good-bye， there may be interesting differences， as in Chinese when a distinguished guest drops in for a visit， or if the visitor is one with whom the hosts are not very familiar. The Chinese custom when such a guest leaves is for the hosts to see the visitor to the door or gateway. It is customary for the guest to say to his hosts請留步. The final words of the hosts are usually慢走，走好，慢點兒騎. None of these should be translated directly. Stay here would sound strange; Go slowly， Walk slowly or Ride slowly would be equally so. A smile and a gesture of farewell would be enough.

Provoking questions:

1. Have you ever met this kind of cultural problems when you are talking to a foreign friend? If there are， name some. And you probably could give some reasons why these problems occur.

2. Consider the following phrases in Chinese use. If translated into English， could these phrases still be kept its original meanings?

吃了嗎？上哪兒去啊？請留步。慢走。

編輯/孫櫟櫟