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Native English speakers are the world’s worst communicators 英语母语者是这个世界上最糟糕的交流者 By Lennox Morrison/ Oct. 31, 2016 剪辑：BM︱ 翻译：Ray︱校对：Sally  “A lot of native speakers are happy that English has become the world’s global language. They feel they don’t have to spend time learning another language,” says Chia Suan Chong, a UK-based communications skills and intercultural trainer. “But… often you have a boardroom full of people from different countries communicating in English and all understanding each other and then suddenly the American or Brit walks into the room and nobody can understand them.” “很多说英语的人很高兴英语已经成为世界通用语言。他们觉得自己不必花时间学习其他语言了，”身为英国的跨文化沟通技能培训师ChiaSuanChong说。“但是……通常你有一屋子来自不同国家的人，他们用英语交流，相互理解，然后突然，美国人或英国人走了进来，可没有人能理解他们。” The non-native speakers, it turns out, speak more purposefully and carefully, typical of someone speaking a second or third language. Anglophones, on the other hand, often talk too fast for others to follow, and use jokes, slang and references specific to their own culture, says Chong. In emails, they use baffling abbreviations such as ‘OOO’, instead of simply saying that they will be out of the office. Chong说，事实证明，非母语的人说话更具有目的性并且更加谨慎，特别是英语为第二语言或第三语言的人。另一方面，以英语为母语的人往往语速太快，以致于别人听不懂，他们会使用自己文化背景的笑话、俚语和典故。在电子邮件中，他们使用诸如“ooo”这样令人困惑的缩写，而不是简单地说他们将离开办公室。 baffling：困惑 Anglophones：(因母语为英语或生活在英语为官方语言之一的国家)讲英语的人 Relating to your audience 与你的听众连接 "Native speakers of English generally are monolingual and are not very good at tuning into language variation,” says Jennifer Jenkins, professor of global Englishes at the UK’s University of Southampton. “It’s the native English speakers that are having difficulty understanding and making themselves understood.” 英国南安普敦大学的环球英语教授詹妮弗·詹金斯说：“母语为英语的人通常都是单语言的，不太擅长面对语言变化。因此母语为英语的人很难理解别人和让别人理解自己。” One bugbear is abbreviations. 一个让人烦恼的问题是缩写。 bugbear：让人烦恼担忧的事 “To add to the confusion, some of the abbreviations in British English are very different from American English,” says Michael Blattner，the head of training and proposition, IP Operations at Zurich Insurance Group. 苏黎世保险集团知识产权业务部培训与提案主管迈克尔·布拉特纳（Michael Blattner）表示：“更令人困惑的是，英国英语中的一些缩写与美国英语有很大的不同。” And then there’s cultural style, Blattner says. When a Brit reacts to a proposal by saying, “That’s interesting” a fellow Brit might recognize this as an understatement for, “That’s rubbish.” But other nationalities would take the word “interesting” on face value, he says. 还有文化习惯，布拉特纳说。当一个英国人对一个提议做出反应说“这很有趣”的时候，英国人可能会认为这是对“那很垃圾”的含蓄说法，但其他国家的人会把“有趣”这个词按字面意思理解。 When simpler is better 越简单越好 It’s the native speaker who often risks missing out on closing a deal, warns Frenchman Jean-Paul Nerriere, formerly a senior international marketing executive at IBM. 前IBM国际市场高级执行官、法国人Jean-Paul Nerriere警告说，是那些母语是英语的人常常有可能无法达成最后的交易。 “Too many non-Anglophones, especially the Asians and the French, are too concerned about not ‘losing face’ — and nod approvingly while not getting the message at all,” he says. 他说：“太多不讲英语的人，特别是亚洲人和法国人，太担心自己的‘面子’问题——在完全没搞懂的情况下点头表示赞同。” “You need to be short, clear and direct and you need to simplify. But there’s a fine line between doing that and being patronizing.” Advised for Anglophones by Rob Steggles, senior marketing director for Europe at telecommunications giant NTT Communications, he’s an Englishman who’s worked hard to learn French. “你需要简短、清晰、直接，还需要简化。但是，这样做不要让人认为你高人一等。”电信巨头NTT 通讯公司欧洲高级营销总监Rob Steggles为英语使用者提出了建议，他是一个努力学习法语的英国人。 patronizing：自认为高人一等 Giving others a chance 给别人机会 In meetings, “Anglophones just have to wait for a heartbeat and give the non-native speaker a chance to formulate a sentence,” according to Steggles. 根据斯泰格尔斯（Steggles）的说法，在开会的时候，“英语是母语的人只需多等待一下，给英语是非母语的人一个机会来组织好一个句子。” He recommends making the same point in a couple of different ways and asking for some acknowledgment, reaction or action. 他建议以多种不同的方式说出相同的内容，并询问对方是否理解、作出回应或行动。 “If there’s no participation," Steggles cautions, “you don’t know whether you’ve been understood or not.” “如果没有人参与进去，”斯蒂格尔斯警告说，“你不能知道自己的意思是否被听懂了。” 剪辑：BM︱ 翻译：Ray︱校对：Sally 名副其实的语言之都，一个区就有138种语言！英语读头条（第327期） 研究发现，女性的大脑看起来比男性年轻。英语读头条（第508期） 👇 |
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