你是chairman,可你不是位女士吗?
2021-12-23常玉田
常玉田
大學校园里,偶尔望一眼窗外,但见巾帼缤纷,满眼裙钗靓丽,尤其是财经类外语类院校,男孩子向来是少数派。收回目光,再看一眼桌面上的几十份英文简历,往往却会发现须眉为主,鲜见女生。
对,这正是本文的主题:就笔者收集资料的来源而言,英语专业的学生中女生比例奇高,但她们所写的个人英文简历中触目皆是自称男生的,汉译英作业中表示女性的词语,在她们笔下经常秒变男性。口说无凭,罗列一个句子的全班译文为证:
例1. 我拿过校级女乒赛单打冠军,现在是校乒乓球协会主席。
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.
這是某学期的第一次作业中的一句,共计34名学生,其中女生31人。为了叙述方便,笔者在每个版本之前用英文字母做了标记,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,同时以画线和黑体加粗的形式提示问题所在。所有译文的所有细节均为学生作业的“原生态”,笔者没有造假。
D1至D17用的都是chairman,正好占全班的一半,其共同问题便是本文的主题:原文是“女乒赛”,主人公理当是个女的。推测翻译的过程,极有可能是这个样子的:现在“我”是校乒乓球协会的“主席”。“主席”的英语单词以前背过的是chairman,于是写下了这个单词;也有可能是用了机器翻译却又懒得修改。
笔者认为,在学校做作业或参加考试,错了一个词也许只扣0.5分甚至不扣分,但在个人简历、求职信、个人阐述中男女不分甚至性别倒错,伤害的是自己,耽误的是自己。
与这个词有关的语篇意义是:英语国家先后都出现过女权运动,如今尽量避免性别歧视早已成为社会舆论和公共传媒的主流做法。表现在词语上,举例来说:postman已用letter carrier取代;newsman如今统称journalist;workman要换用worker或employee之类;businessmen渐渐少见,businesspersons成了常见替代;等等。回到本文中来,一些女权主义者一提chairman这个词就恨得牙痒痒,别人提出chairwoman来与男性平分天下,仍然有人认为这么区分依旧是在性别歧视,于是现在通行chairperson或chair。
下面D18至D25以及C类和B类译文都采用了director、president、chief等别的词。
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的共同问题是won the champion,这一动宾搭配的问题与“获得三好学生”译成won the Honors Student一样,道理敬请参看本刊2017年第7期“你不能就这样get‘三好学生’”一文中对D1至D3的简评,这里仅举一个简单化的类比例子:人们可以win a championship,但若想win a champion则需要先去买彩票或进赌场。
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,笔者就其他一些问题稍作提示。原文是“女乒赛单打”,但D8漏译了“女”字,D9漏译了“单打”之意。在D11中,competition之前使用定冠词,是说学校总共就举办了一次比赛。C1的manager容易造成误会,C2漏译了“女子”和“校级”,等等。其他各个版本中对table、school、match等词以黑体标记,不是说这些词本身有错,而是说这些词之前应当有定冠词,但学生没有使用;现有的定冠词是笔者后加上去的,以下画线标记。部分译文中in our school出现了两次,也已标记出来作为提醒。尚有其他一些问题,恕难一一解释。
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.
这四个B类译文,前三个若能在黑体词之前加个定冠词,则可秒变A类译文,B4若能对两个黑体部分中的任何一个做一点修改也是很好的。下面是对D26的系列改动,每个版本只改一两个地方,敬请仔细对比(应当还会有其他版本,这里只为示意):
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.
這是做作业,但在个人英文简历中这种女扮男装的现象同样屡见不鲜,而个人简历是英语专业学生一辈子中最应该写对的那份英文文件。最为常见的是“学生会主席”写作chairman of the Student Union,“副主席”写成vice-chairman。这在个人陈述中也很常见,例如:
例2. D. As chairman of student activities of Foreigh Language Dept., I organised many activities, like New Year Gala, etc.
说明:这是一位女生写的,其他问题不再展开。
下面看一个采集自个人求职信的例子:
例3. C. Job Intension: Foreign Trade Salesman
作者是位女士,黑体词写作Saleswoman才名实相副。
女同学担任集体活动组织者的情况较多,但个人简历这么写可能就是个问题:
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
这两个例子中的host还是改为hostess比较好。此外顺便指出:例4末尾那个句号应当删掉,因为这不是一个句子,而例5末尾应当加上句号,因为这是一个完整句。限于篇幅,以上各例的其他问题不再展开。
在一次不限题作文中,笔者见过一个学生写了这么一个句子,一并提醒一下:
例6. D. … foreign spokesman Hua Chunying …
句中人物显然是指外交部发言人之一的华春莹,但foreign spokesman两个词共有两个问题。一是容易令人以为此人是个“外国(的)发言人”,二是本文的主题:大家都知道,华春莹是位女士。
此外顺便提醒一下:在涉外信函或电子邮件中,中国人名的英文写法应当在落款位置的姓名之后加上Mr.或者Ms.字样并放在括号里。这并不等于汉语中表示尊称的“先生”或“女士”,其效用在于告诉收信人自己是男是女,便于对方回信。这是因为英语信函中的抬头往往会标识性别,你去信时不予提示,那么对方在回复时便会为难(汉字一旦译写为拉丁字母形式,原本可借偏旁部首体现的性别特征会一并消失),容易显得我们办事不够周到。
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