發(fā)現(xiàn)了一個有點微妙的事：

我們?nèi)�國外，我們和老外說英語。

老外來中國，我們和他們說英語。

……這是為啥？

 

 

來中國的歪果仁越來越多了。這其中不乏中文水平不錯、或至少努力在學(xué)習(xí)中文的。

但也有一些老外，來中國明明很多年了，就是不愿意學(xué)中文，非要用英語死磕到底。

尤其是在北上廣這類大城市，當(dāng)說英語并不妨礙他們正常溝通生活時，那更是懶得一塌糊涂，堅決不學(xué)中文……

微信？這么普遍的交流工具那是要用的。

但即使微信有翻譯功能，但也非得要在各個群里說英語——即使群里明明有中國人。

這種情況，讓最近給我們投稿的一位美國漢子看不下去了。

他把這類在中國卻不學(xué)中文的老外稱為：社會型發(fā)育遲鈍。

來看看他是咋說的——

Christopher, the US

One of the greatest things about WeChat is how I can share Shanghai and China with my family directly. They get it fresh without filters.

微信這玩意兒吧，最大的有點在于，我可以直接通過它和家人分享上海乃至中國的見聞。他們能從我這得到新鮮熱乎的資訊，沒有任何過濾的那種。

They get their dose of Bund fun or Fuxing Park action strait-up and live from my pictures, voice messages or live chats. Last week was no exception to remind them that China is on the move, as they live in a southern California bubble and need reminding now and again.

外灘，復(fù)興公園……他們可以跟著我的照片、語音消息和視頻聊天一起浪遍上海。家人們生活在南加州的泡沫里，他們需要時不時地被提醒：中國和他們想象的不一樣，它在日新月異地前進(jìn)。上周發(fā)生的事兒也不例外。

Following November 11, China's newly famous "Singles Day" aka Double 11, I sent my sister in southern California a direct link to a story about the $30-billion trade done that day - all online and from a company named after an 18th-century Arabian folk tale headquartered in a little Chinese city called Hangzhou.

上周轟轟烈烈的“雙11”——中國最近知名的“光棍節(jié)”結(jié)束了，我發(fā)了一個鏈接給在南加州的妹妹（或姐姐）看。這個鏈接關(guān)于雙11這天中國多達(dá)300億美元的交易——而這筆巨額交易全來自線上，出自總部坐落在中國一個名叫“杭州”的小城市里、有著18世紀(jì)阿拉伯民間傳說同款名字的公司。

My sister does online sales and was flummoxed by reading how much money was banked in just 24 hours. She texted back "Crazy!" The timing was fortuitous, as a few days prior she'd asked me if my Chinese wife would help her access China's vast online market. I told her she could text my wife directly about this. After all, my wife speaks and reads English fluently.

我這妹妹就是做網(wǎng)絡(luò)銷售的。當(dāng)她看到僅僅24小時就能有這么多錢時，她整個人都懵了。“太瘋狂了！”她回復(fù)到。“雙11”的新聞來得好不如來得巧，畢竟前幾天她還問過我，我的中國太太能否幫她進(jìn)軍中國巨大的電商市場。我當(dāng)時告訴她，我太太的英語還是挺不錯的，可以直接發(fā)消息問她這事兒。

But I forgot to tell my sister that, by subscribing to WeChat, she could put her own QR code online and access our social networks in English and Chinese. I neglected to note how my wife can utilize both Taobao and WeChat to fuel demands for her beauty products. We're working on those details now.

不過我倒是忘了告訴我妹妹，她可以自己訂閱微信、把二維碼放網(wǎng)上去、訪問咱們中英雙語的社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)。我也沒注意到我太太在淘寶和微信是上怎么對美容產(chǎn)品長草又拔草的。我們正在琢磨這些細(xì)節(jié)。

Why mention this? Because I was talking to an expat friend in Shanghai who recently expressed dismay at several foreigners in Shanghai and elsewhere in China who are adopting "English only" policies in their WeChat forums. "Say what?" I asked incredulously.

為什么會提這個呢？因為我最近和一枚在上海的老外盆友聊天，他說對一些在中國的歪果仁在微信群里“只用英語”的法則感到挺沮喪的。“你說啥？”我有些不解。

From small foreign-owned F&B establishments to freelance acting troupes, I've heard that numerous expat WeChat groups are now enforcing an English-only policy. When asking them why, some of these group managers admitted to me that it was just a ploy to hook Chinese users who want to learn English at informal lessons.

從外資的小型餐飲企業(yè)，到一些自由演出劇團，很多老外的微信群都是只用英語的，這個我有所耳聞。而當(dāng)我問他們原因時，一些群主表示，“只用英語”是一種策略，可以以此吸引到一些中國人加入。這些中國人往往是想通過（微信聊天這類）非正式的渠道來學(xué)習(xí)英語的。

That way they can skirt Chinese visa laws by teaching English out of their homes from clients they poached for private lessons from these same WeChat forums. "Oh..."I responded.

有了這樣的第一步，歪果仁們就可以繞開中國的簽證法律，把微信群里的中國人挖出來，變成自己教英語的私人客戶。“這樣啊……”我恍然大悟。

Not only is this poor marketing (making them bilingual seems a far more realistic gambit to attract clients), it smacks of racism. It also shows basic technological ignorance of WeChat, which has a built-in translation tool for Chinese into English and vice-versa. So why are so many of these little groups managed by schoolmarm-made WeChat minders enforcing English only?

這個套路不僅是糟糕的市場營銷（用雙語豈不是吸引客戶更現(xiàn)實的方法么？），還帶著點兒種族歧視的味道。不僅如此，它還顯示出了這群人對微信最基本的技術(shù)都一竅不通，畢竟微信自帶翻譯工具，能實現(xiàn)中英文的互譯。那么問題來了……為啥還會有那么多裝得一本正經(jīng)的群主要勒令大家只用英語呢？

One expat friend of mine with nearly two decades clocked in the country calls it the "Reverse Dashan Reaction Syndrome." Unlike Canadian Mark Rowswell (the brave student who came to Beijing in the 1980s to study Putonghua and became a famous TV celebrity... and an inspiration to millions of foreign and Chinese language students), many millennial expat newbies arriving in today's China are recoiling against the culture and unwilling to learn the language.

我有一位在中國工作了近20年的老外盆友，他說這是一種“反大山效應(yīng)綜合癥”。啥意思呢？大山咱們都知道，他是加拿大人，本名馬克•羅斯韋爾（就是80年代勇敢地來北京學(xué)普通話的留學(xué)生，后來成為著名電視明星的那位……他激勵了很多人去學(xué)習(xí)語言呢）。而如今，很多千禧一代的年輕老外來到中國，和大山不同的是，他們不愿意學(xué)習(xí)中文，對中國的文化也有些抵觸情緒。

They see no reason to bask in the beauty and complexity of this ancient language, and instead cling to their native lingua like a life raft. They do not have any desire to advance themselves in this society and, thus, do not value adapting to the culture or language. I call this "social retardation."

他們覺得沒啥理由沉浸在這古老語言的優(yōu)美繁復(fù)之中，倒是像抓住救生筏一樣緊緊抱住自己母語不放。他們沒啥在這社會中進(jìn)步的渴望，所以也不重視去適應(yīng)中國的文化或語言。這些人啊，我稱他們?yōu)椋?ldquo;社會型發(fā)育遲鈍”。

Linguist impotence could easily be remedied should these exclusionary WeChat groups use the proper tech tools to stimulate their communication potency. But they won't! I think weeding out these expats in China and sending them back to their home countries is sage advice, as the wrong sort of foreigners continue to flock to China, abusing its warm hospitality and advanced technology to create their own culturally aloof cabals.

如果那些微信群們能機智點，適當(dāng)利用一些技術(shù)工具來刺激他們的溝通能力，或許這群人的語言水平還不至于那么“萎”。但人家就是要“萎”！我覺得把這群人給淘汰掉、送回自己國家倒是挺好的。要不然，老是這類“發(fā)育遲鈍”的老外涌來中國，仗著中國的熱情好客和先進(jìn)技術(shù)，搞著在文化上越來越冷漠疏離的把戲。

It is my hope that responsible WeChat users will eschew these "English Only" policies and properly utilize this awesome technology for its maximum impact - bridging borders for friendship and family and, incidentally, maybe also getting a slice of that yummy $30-billion cake that was made in one day. My sister certainly now is, and she doesn't even live here!

希望那些負(fù)責(zé)任的微信用戶們，能無視這個“只用英語”的奇怪法則，并適當(dāng)利用微信這一美妙的技術(shù)，發(fā)揮出它最大的影響力——為友誼與家庭架起橋梁。順便說一句哈，搞不好哪天，你就能從300億美元交易額的美味蛋糕里分一杯羹。看吧，我妹妹即使她人都還不在這里，現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)深諳其道了！

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