BBC：總有那麼些英文詞 連母語者都覺得懵逼

如今在說英語的人羣中，非母語者的數目已經漸漸要超過母語者了，爲此那些母語爲英語的人們亞歷山大——如何能夠在不說俗語和俚語的情況下順暢溝通，這是個問題……

BBC總結了在交流中最令人困擾的那些單詞、詞組，以及這些問題所產生的困擾：

It’s all Greek to me
我對此一竅不通。

“Any native speaker talking to a majority of native speakers will tend to assume that everyone, even the non-native speakers in the room, can understand everything they say regardless of speed of speech and idioms used,” Mike Conroy commented on our Facebook post.
麥克·康羅伊在臉書上說：“任何母語者在和大多數人說話的時候會傾向於認爲所有人——甚至是非母語者——都在同一個‘房間’裏，並且無論語速多快、用了多少俗語他們都能夠理解他們所說的一切內容。”

Some of the words that get lost in translation: torch versus flashlight, spanner versus wrench. Phrases such as “the umpteenth time” and “watching paint dry” and “taking the mickey,” tripped some readers up, while even subtle differences in spelling, such as ‘centre’ and ‘center’ caused trouble.
有些詞是不可翻譯的：torch還是flashlight，spanner還是wrench。“the umpteenth time” ，“watching paint dry” ，“taking the mickey”，這些詞組常常會讓讀者困擾不已，還有隻是在拼寫上有些許差異的單詞如‘centre’ 和‘center’也讓人產生困惑。

“During a holiday in the US I had more problems with people understanding my [British] English than I do with my colleagues and customers on mainland Europe,” wrote Ray Gloster. “In Europe, I find it does help to tailor your choice of words, selecting Latin or Germanic origin words from the English vocabulary.”
雷·格洛斯特寫道：“有一次去美國度假就遇到了許多困難，那裏的人們無法理解我的英式英語，比我無法理解歐洲大陸來的同事和客戶的英語更甚。在歐洲，我發現斟詞酌句是很有幫助的——選擇那些帶有拉丁語或者德語詞根的英語單詞能夠使得交流更順暢。”

“[British] English and American English are full of instances of this,” commented Martin Hawkins. “I'm a Brit living in the US and the phrase 'two cultures separated by a common language' is very appropriate.”
馬丁·霍金斯評論道：“英式英語和美式英語中差別比比皆是。作爲一個住在美國的英國人， 我覺得‘一種語言，兩種文化’這個短語非常恰當。”

The hardest adaptations
最艱難的適應

Martin Searle, a native English speaker living in Asia, noted three key lessons he had learned for adapting his mother tongue to his new surroundings: “One: never use a negative question such as "you didn't go to the office today?" You probably won't understand if the answer is a confirmation or not! Two: many Asian languages have no direct translation for "no" and "yes" so use a phrase like ‘that’s correct.’
馬丁·賽爾是一個住在亞洲的英語母語者，在他試着融入新的語言環境的同時認識到了三個關鍵的問題：“第一，永遠不要使用否定疑問句，比如‘你今天沒去上班嗎？’因爲你將無法判別答案到底是還是不是！第二，許多亞洲語言對於‘是’和‘否’並沒有準確直接的翻譯，因此儘量使用‘那是正確的。’這樣的短句。”

“Three: even the most fluent speakers of English as a second language often speak more directly than native speakers - levels of courtesy and discretion are very hard to learn. They don't intend to be rude so lose your sensitivity.”
“第三，即使是作爲二語學習者中最能夠流暢使用英語的人，在委婉程度上還是不及母語者——客氣程度的拿捏真的非常難學。”

Standing their ground
站在他人的立場

Some of you blanched at the idea of anyone going to great lengths to adapt their language in their home country, to accommodate others.
有些人非常不願讓本國人大費周章地改變自己的語言來遷就自己。

“As a non-native speaker, I wouldn't like native speakers to speak to me any differently - it's condescending as it assumes that my English is not good enough to understand,” wrote Isabella Chan.
伊莎貝拉·陳寫道：“作爲一個非母語英語學習者，我不喜歡母語者在和我說話的時候作出任何改變——這樣會顯得他們高高在上，而且覺得我的英語程度還不夠格去理解他們所說的話。”

John Smith offered another twist on the idea: “You learn a foreign language to communicate with people who speak it, not to have them water it down and de-bone it of its structure.” Part of learning, other writers noted, is to ask questions and understand peculiarities of a language.
約翰·史密斯則持有不同的觀點：“你學習外語就是爲了和當地人交流，而不是去稀釋或改變它。”其他作者認爲，提問和理解語言中的特例也是學習的一部分。