这“部长”不是那“部长”

文/常玉田

这“部长”不是那“部长”

文/常玉田1

高校的学生会是个小社会，名分响亮，机构林立，官职繁多，轮换频繁。对此笔者十分理解，没有搅局干犯的意思。恰恰相反，是想议论一下这类职务的英文表达，帮助大家把自己辛苦积攒的名衔写对，最好能打扮得洋气一些，至少不至于直愣愣地向老外宣布自己是个小骗子。

本文只拣“部长”一词稍作举证。上个学期看到有个学生在作文中说她是个minister，受此启发，就在一次课上要求大家把这个句子译成英语：

我是院学生会学术实践部副部长，男友是体育部部长。

学生译完后请人严格按照原样录入，现分批罗列如下：

D1. I’m viceministry of Academic Action apartment， my boyfriend is a sports minister.

D2. I am the assistant Chair of the student association. My boyfriend is the chair of

D3. I’m the of academic department in the student’s union， and my boyfriend is the president of Physics department.

D4. I’m the chair academic and activity part of the students union in our department， and my boyfriend is the PE

D5. I’m the minister of Practicing Pertment in student organization, my boyfriend is the master of Sport Partment.

D6. I am the vice minister of Academic Practice Department and my boyfriend is Minister of PE department in the School.

D7. I am the vice minister of the Academic Department of our school，and my boyfriend is the minister of Sports Department.

D8. I’m the vice minister of Study and Research Department of Student’s Government， and my boyfriend is the minister of PE Department of it.

D9. I am the viceminister of the Academy and Practice Department of theSchool Student Union. My boyfriend is the minister of the Sport Department.

D10. I am viceminister of the Department of Studying in the Student Union of our school and my boyfriend is the minister of the Department of Sports.

D11. I’m the deputy minister of the department of Academyand Activity in the Student Union of school， and my boyfriend is the minister of the Department of Sport.

为了便于讨论，笔者于撰写本文之际在每个译文前加了一个英文字母，用于对译文质量打分。D表示“错”，C表示“差”，B表示“对”，A则表示“又对又好”。如果同一个“级别”出现了多个译文，则在字母后面增加数字以示区别。同时，以黑体加粗的形式指出问题所在。

译文D1至D4不成句。D5至D11都用了minister一词，这便是认定为错的主要问题之一。据Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary，minister是指a member of the government in Britain and many other countries who is in charge of a particular department or has an important position in it，并举了三个例子：the foreign/health minister及the Minister of/for Education。在我国，vice-minister也是只用于政府的副部长。

D12. I’m the undersecretary of our college students union Learning department， and my boyfriend is the secretary of sports department.

D13. I’m the monitor of Professical in student’s group， and my boyfriend is the monitor of TiYu.

D14. I’m the co-monitor of Student’s Practice Department， and my boyfriend is the moniter of PE Department.

D15. I am the leader of academic department of English college， and my boyfriend is physical education departmentadminister.

D16. I’m vice secretary of the Academic and Practice apartment of the institutional Student Union， and my boyfriend is the secretary of sport department.

D17. I’m the vice leader of the AcademyandPractice Organization in the Student Union of Apartment. My boyfriend is the leader of the Sports Organization.

C1. I’m the president of Academy Practicing Department of Students Union in our school.

C2. I am the vice manager of the Academic and Practicing Department of School’s Student Union. My boyfriend is the manager of the PE Department.

C3. I am vice manager of Study and Practice Department of Student’s Union of School and my boyfriend is manager of Physical Education Department.

C4. I am the Deputy Director of Acdemics Department in my school’s Student Union. My boyfriend is the Director of Sports Department.

美国政府各部的副部长称为Under Secretary，这可能是译文D12的依据。其他译文的问题请见黑体标记，共同的一点在于没有正确表达“学生社团中的副部长或部长”这一基本事实。

本文的主题实际上涉及的是职称职务（Titles & Positions）的表达问题，正是初入职场的年轻人应当尽早掌握、准确译写的教学内容。就这个例子而言，英语专业的20个学生提交了21个版本，只是遗憾都不对。汉语原文简单明了，学生错译五花八门，且错译一直占了参与人群的多数。知道的说你英语太烂，不了解的告你企图诈骗。究其原因，大多可以归罪于这个简单的事实或常识：汉语字少，英语词多，因而需要一词多译。

职务一般要与部门名称连同出现，或者说只有将两者一起讲才能说明白是否使用介词、定冠词、大小写等问题，故此具体的一个词（在本文中以“部长”和“副部长”为例），对应的英文词是什么取决于其所在的上下文。

中国企事业单位的职务的英语写法，应当遵循英语国家的惯例。这与人名的写作规范（参见本刊2016年第12期）不一样，根本原因在于英语国家也有这些职务，我们需要做的便是寻找对应词语，或者说尽可能对应的词语。

按照北京市质量技术监督局发布的《组织机构、职务职称英文译法通则》（征求意见稿），中共北京市市委办公厅、部、委、办中的副部长通译deputy director-general，而企业或事业单位的副部长则多用deputy director，其他省市的党委系统的副部长也有对应deputy head的情况。这里至关重要的是各位“副部长”的实际级别。概括而言，似乎可以讲国务院下属的部级干部多用minister，司局级往下就不可以用了——无论党、政还是企业或社会团体。在校生的学生社团应当属于最后一类。

本题的部门名称与职务的正确写法，可以参考以下这三种。敬请与前面的21个版本自行对比，包括是否使用定冠词。

A1. I am deputy director of the research department in my school’s Students Union. My boyfriend is director of the sports department.

A2. Deputy Director，the Research Department， Students Union of ××School

Director，the Sports Department， Students Union of ×× School

A3. Both my boyfriend and I are leaders /directors in the Students Union of the school /college. I’m a deputy for study and he is the sports director.

A1是C4的修改版，A2用于简历中的列表格式，A3用于文本写作或聊天。当然还可以有其他的表达方式。

A2那样的简历格式，其中包含的“规范”主要有：职称职务应当使用单词或者短语；如果与单位名称连用，其间使用逗号分隔，不要使用介词或者介词短语，也就是不要写成近似句子一样的结构。斜线“/”表示可以两者择一。

是否大写职务和机构名称的首字母，取决于你对整个文本（简历、求职信及英文版个人陈述之类）中同类信息的版面编排。这时的关键是前后一致，全文统一风格。 □

Most Famous Dogs in History (4)Hachiko, Faithful Dog

Hachiko was an Akita dog who lived near the city of Odete， in the Akita prefecture of Japan. He was owned by Hidesaburo Ueno， a professor at Tokyo University. At the end of each day， Hachiko would greet his owner at nearby Shibuya Station. This daily routine was followed until one day in May of 1925， when the professor did not return home from work. He had died of a cerebral hemorrhage.

Each day for nine years， the Akita returned to Shibuya Station at the time that his owner’s train should have arrived. Hachiko died in 1935，found on a street in Shibuya.

1对外经济贸易大学教授，全国翻译资格（水平）考试英语专家委员会委员。研究方向：英汉互译、商务英语写作。