你是chairman，可你不是位女士嗎？

常玉田

大學校園里，偶爾望一眼窗外，但見巾幗繽紛，滿眼裙釵靚麗，尤其是財經類外語類院校，男孩子向來是少數派。收回目光，再看一眼桌面上的幾十份英文簡歷，往往卻會發現須眉為主，鮮見女生。

對，這正是本文的主題：就筆者收集資料的來源而言，英語專業的學生中女生比例奇高，但她們所寫的個人英文簡歷中觸目皆是自稱男生的，漢譯英作業中表示女性的詞語，在她們筆下經常秒變男性。口說無憑，羅列一個句子的全班譯文為證：

例1. 我拿過校級女乒賽單打冠軍，現在是校乒乓球協會主席。

D1. I have won women’s singles table tennis match of my school， and now I take the chairman of the school-level table tennis association.

D2. I have got the first place in women’s singles table tennis of school and now I am the chairmen of the table tennis association of our school.

D3. I won the championship of women’s single table tennis in my school and now I am the chairman of the school’s table tennis club.

D4. I was the women’s singles champion of UIBE’s ping pong competition. At present I am the chairman of UIBE ping pong association.

D5. I won the women’s singles table tennis championship in our school， and now I’m the chairman of the table tennis club of our school.

D6. I had come first in women’s singles table tennis match of the school and now I am the chairman of our school’s table-tennis association

D7. I have been a champion of women’s singles table tennis in our school， and now I am the chairman of the table tennis association in our school.

D8. I have ever gotten the singles school-level table tennis champion， and now I am the chairman of our school table tennis association.

D9. I have won the championship of women’s table tennis competition in our school and currently I am the chairman of the Table Tennis Association in our school.

D10. I took the woman’s single table tennis championship of school level. And now i am the chairman of the school table tennis association.

D11. I have won the woman single gold of? the Pingpang competition on a school level and now is the chairman of? School Table Tennis Association.

D12. I was awarded the championship of our school level single table tennis competition. Now i am the chairman of our school’s table tennis association.

D13. I have ever won the women’s single championship in the school’s table tennis competition and now I’m the chairman of the school table tennis association.

D14. I once won the championship of women’s singles at the school table tennis competition and now I am the chairman of the school table tennis association.

D15. I have won the championship of school women’s table tennis competition and I’m Chairman for Ping-pong Association of school.

D16. I have won the women’s singles champion on the school women’s table tennis match， and now I’m the chairman of the school table tennis association.

D17. I have won the champion at the women’s singles table tennis match of my school and now I am the chairman of the table tennis association of my school.

這是某學期的第一次作業中的一句，共計34名學生，其中女生31人。為了敘述方便，筆者在每個版本之前用英文字母做了標記，D表示“錯”，C表示“差”，B表示“對”，A則表示“又對又好”。如果同一個“級別”出現了多個譯文，則在字母后面增加數字以示區別，同時以畫線和黑體加粗的形式提示問題所在。所有譯文的所有細節均為學生作業的“原生態”，筆者沒有造假。

D1至D17用的都是chairman，正好占全班的一半，其共同問題便是本文的主題：原文是“女乒賽”，主人公理當是個女的。推測翻譯的過程，極有可能是這個樣子的：現在“我”是校乒乓球協會的“主席”。“主席”的英語單詞以前背過的是chairman，于是寫下了這個單詞;也有可能是用了機器翻譯卻又懶得修改。

筆者認為，在學校做作業或參加考試，錯了一個詞也許只扣0.5分甚至不扣分，但在個人簡歷、求職信、個人闡述中男女不分甚至性別倒錯，傷害的是自己，耽誤的是自己。

與這個詞有關的語篇意義是：英語國家先后都出現過女權運動，如今盡量避免性別歧視早已成為社會輿論和公共傳媒的主流做法。表現在詞語上，舉例來說：postman已用letter carrier取代;newsman如今統稱journalist;workman要換用worker或employee之類;businessmen漸漸少見，businesspersons成了常見替代;等等。回到本文中來，一些女權主義者一提chairman這個詞就恨得牙癢癢，別人提出chairwoman來與男性平分天下，仍然有人認為這么區分依舊是在性別歧視，于是現在通行chairperson或chair。

下面D18至D25以及C類和B類譯文都采用了director、president、chief等別的詞。

D18. I won the champion of table tennis in women’ singles， and now I am master of the ping-pang association in my school.

D19. I’ve ever won the school table tennis women’s singles champion. And now I am the president of the Table Tennis Association in the university.

D20. I have won the women’s single’s champion of our school’s table tennis competition and I am the director of my school’s table tennis association now.

D21. I have won the champion in the University Women’s Singles Ping-pong Match and now， I am president of our school’s Ping-pong Association.

D22. I have won the champion of women’s singles table tennis contest in my school， and now I am the president of the Table Tennis Association in my school.

D23. I won the school-level table tennis women’s singles champion. Now I am the chairwoman of school table tennis association.

D16至D23的共同問題是won the champion，這一動賓搭配的問題與“獲得三好學生”譯成won the Honors Student一樣，道理敬請參看本刊2017年第7期“你不能就這樣get‘三好學生’”一文中對D1至D3的簡評，這里僅舉一個簡單化的類比例子：人們可以win a championship，但若想win a champion則需要先去買彩票或進賭場。

D24. I won the school Table Tennis women’s single championship and now I am the chief of the school Table Tennis Institution.

D25. In Table Tennis Championships， I have won a championship in women’s single and now take charge of president of Table Tennis Association.

D26. I had won the school-level Women’s Table Tennis Singles championship， and now is the chairwoman of our school’s table tennis club.

C1. I have won the championship of the school women’s table tennis competition and manager of school table tennis association.

C2. I won the singles championship of table tennis and now am the president of the Table Tennis Association in my school.

C3. I have won the championship of the school-level women’s singles table tennis match and am the president of the school table tennis association now.

C4. I have won the singles title in women’s singles table tennis match of school level， and now I am the president of our school’s table-tennis association.

此外，筆者就其他一些問題稍作提示。原文是“女乒賽單打”，但D8漏譯了“女”字，D9漏譯了“單打”之意。在D11中，competition之前使用定冠詞，是說學校總共就舉辦了一次比賽。C1的manager容易造成誤會，C2漏譯了“女子”和“校級”，等等。其他各個版本中對table、school、match等詞以黑體標記，不是說這些詞本身有錯，而是說這些詞之前應當有定冠詞，但學生沒有使用;現有的定冠詞是筆者后加上去的，以下畫線標記。部分譯文中in our school出現了兩次，也已標記出來作為提醒。尚有其他一些問題，恕難一一解釋。

B1. I won the school table tennis women’s singles championship， and now I am the director of the Table Tennis Association of the school.

B2. I was the women’s singles table tennis champion of my college. Now I am the president of the Table Tennis Association of my university.

B3. I won the school’s women’s table tennis singles championship， and now I am the chairwoman of the school’s Table Tennis Association.

B4. I have won the championship in the women’s singles table tennis of our school， and I am President of the Table Tennis Association in our school.

這四個B類譯文，前三個若能在黑體詞之前加個定冠詞，則可秒變A類譯文，B4若能對兩個黑體部分中的任何一個做一點修改也是很好的。下面是對D26的系列改動，每個版本只改一兩個地方，敬請仔細對比（應當還會有其他版本，這里只為示意）：

B5. I won school-level Women’s Table Tennis Singles championship， and now am the chairwoman of our school’s table tennis club.

B6. I won the school-level Women’s Singles Table Tennis championship， and now am the chairwoman of our school’s table tennis club.

A1. I won the women’s singles table tennis championship in a school wide game， and now am chairwoman of the school’s table tennis club.

A2. As a one-time winner of the school’s women’s singles championship for table tennis， I am now chairwoman of the school’s table tennis club.

A3. As a champion of the school’s women’s singles table tennis last year， I am now chairwoman/director/president of the table tennis club of XX School.

這是做作業，但在個人英文簡歷中這種女扮男裝的現象同樣屢見不鮮，而個人簡歷是英語專業學生一輩子中最應該寫對的那份英文文件。最為常見的是“學生會主席”寫作chairman of the Student Union，“副主席”寫成vice-chairman。這在個人陳述中也很常見，例如：

例2. D. As chairman of student activities of Foreigh Language Dept.， I organised many activities， like New Year Gala， etc.

說明：這是一位女生寫的，其他問題不再展開。

下面看一個采集自個人求職信的例子：

例3. C. Job Intension： Foreign Trade Salesman

作者是位女士，黑體詞寫作Saleswoman才名實相副。

女同學擔任集體活動組織者的情況較多，但個人簡歷這么寫可能就是個問題：

例4. C. Host of a training lecture and a tea party.

例5. D. I worked as an English host and interpreter of US-China summit of education in Beijing

這兩個例子中的host還是改為hostess比較好。此外順便指出：例4末尾那個句號應當刪掉，因為這不是一個句子，而例5末尾應當加上句號，因為這是一個完整句。限于篇幅，以上各例的其他問題不再展開。

在一次不限題作文中，筆者見過一個學生寫了這么一個句子，一并提醒一下：

例6. D. … foreign spokesman Hua Chunying …

句中人物顯然是指外交部發言人之一的華春瑩，但foreign spokesman兩個詞共有兩個問題。一是容易令人以為此人是個“外國（的）發言人”，二是本文的主題：大家都知道，華春瑩是位女士。

此外順便提醒一下：在涉外信函或電子郵件中，中國人名的英文寫法應當在落款位置的姓名之后加上Mr.或者Ms.字樣并放在括號里。這并不等于漢語中表示尊稱的“先生”或“女士”，其效用在于告訴收信人自己是男是女，便于對方回信。這是因為英語信函中的抬頭往往會標識性別，你去信時不予提示，那么對方在回復時便會為難（漢字一旦譯寫為拉丁字母形式，原本可借偏旁部首體現的性別特征會一并消失），容易顯得我們辦事不夠周到。