最近有很多的行动和思考，更新慢了点。欢迎回到“引路西方文化，守望中国文化”的英语实践论的现场，我是主持人LEON老师!
I know this for a fact, because when I was growing up, my mother's "limited" English limited my perception of her. I was ashamed of her English. I believed that her English reflected the quality of what she had to say That is, because she expressed them imperfectly her thoughts were imperfect. And I had plenty of empirical evidence to support me: the fact that people in department stores, at banks, and at restaurants did not take her seriously, did not give her good service, pretended not to understand her, or even acted as if they did not hear her.
话说，Amy Tan对母亲讲的“破英语”真的很有芥蒂！原来对语言的使用延伸到了对人的评价，“母亲”的英语太烂以至于商店售货员、银行职员、餐馆工作人员等等都没有把母亲当回事。俗话说，人微言轻。可现在是言烂人囧。如果看下图，何曾想慈蔼的老人当年在女儿的心中的地位？！各位，言如其人有时也是激励我们学好英语的动力啊！同时，一本书一个培训机构对你而言就完全能解决“遇人说人话，遇鬼说鬼话”的困惑吗？还得自己多读多用才是！要想跟别人聊新闻联播，还得常看新闻联播啊......
My mother has long realized the limitations of her English as well. When I was fifteen, she used to have me call people on the phone to pretend I was she. In this guise, I was forced to ask for information or even to complain and yell at people who had been rude to her. One time it was a call to her stockbroker in New York. She had cashed out her small portfolio and it just so happened we were going to go to New York the next week, our very first trip outside California. I had to get on the phone and say in an adolescent voice that was not very convincing, "This is Mrs. Tan." And my mother was standing in the back whispering loudly, "Why he don't send me check, already two weeks late. So mad he lie to me, losing me money. And then I said in perfect English, "Yes, I'm getting rather concerned. You had agreed to send the check two weeks ago, but it hasn't arrived."
Then she began to talk more loudly. "What he want, I come to New York tell him front of his boss, you cheating me?" And I was trying to calm her down, make her be quiet, while telling the stockbroker, "I can't tolerate any more excuses. If I don't receive the check immediately, I am going to have to speak to your manager when I'm in New York next week." And sure enough, the following week there we were in front of this astonished stockbroker, and I was sitting there red-faced and quiet, and my mother, the real Mrs. Tan,was shouting at his boss in her impeccable broken English.
上面的文字中，最精彩的就是作者是如何用完美的英语来表述母亲的“破英语”的意思了。有些学员在学英语的过程中被语法整的够呛，来我这里咨询的第一句话就是“语法我是不学的，我只学口语！”，那时那刻，我常常无话可说！
要解决语法的困惑，三言两语是不够的。但我发现，很多人在以为一件事应该是这个样子的时候，那件事原来是那个样子的！有点拗口了，举个例子：
食用醋是酸味的，但不要因为是酸味的就认为它是酸性的。的确，醋是PH值小于7的酸性物质，但作为食品他确是碱性的。酸性物质和酸性食品是两个概念。
语法也是一样的道理！语法本身没错，你对她的认识错了！上文中的作者何以能讲完美的英语？她是被“educated”过了！做个类比，语法有点象互联网的TCP/IP协议，是大家一起执行的标准。往电脑的硬件上说，你说的话得具有“兼容性”，否则就会格格不入，受到排斥！
I have been thinking about all this lately, about my mother's English, about achievement tests. Because lately I've been asked, as a writer, why there are not more Asian Americans represented in American literature. Why are there few Asian Americans enrolled in creative writing programs? Why do so many Chinese students go into engineering! Well, these are broad sociological questions I can't begin to answer. But I have noticed in surveys -- in fact, just last week -- that Asian students, as a whole, always do significantly better on math achievement tests than in English. And this makes me think that there are other Asian-American students whose English spoken in the home might also be described as "broken" or "limited." And perhaps they also have teachers who are steering them away from writing and into math and science, which is what happened to me.
作者在经历上学、职业诸多事情之后，开始反思：究竟在这样的移民家庭夹杂汉语的影响下，我的英语学习的进化有没有受到干扰？答案似有还无。说没有，作者英语成绩远比不上数学和科学；说有，作者竟然成为了作家。答案似乎只有一个，问题本身可能就很无聊！为什么一定是因为移民家庭而对不是本民族的语言感到若有若无的恐惧担心呢？这样的恐惧担心还不时的反映在我们的就业上，好像学了管理就会当干部，学了法律就会当律师，专业谁说非要对口？学英语非要英语人种？
于是在文章最后，作者说：
Fortunately, for reasons I won't get into today, I later decided I should envision a reader for the stories I would write. And the reader I decided upon was my mother, because these were stories about mothers. So with this reader in mind -- and in fact she did read my early drafts--I began to write stories using all the Englishes I grew up with: the English I spoke to my mother, which for lack of a better term might be described as "simple"; the English she used with me, which for lack of a better term might be described as "broken"; my translation of her Chinese, which could certainly be described as "watered down"; and what I imagined to be her translation of her Chinese if she could speak in perfect English, her internal language, and for that I sought to preserve the essence, but neither an English nor a Chinese structure. I wanted to capture what language ability tests can never reveal: her intent, her passion, her imagery, the rhythms of her speech and the nature of her thoughts.
Apart from what any critic had to say about my writing, I knew I had succeeded where it counted when my mother finished reading my book and gave me her verdict: "So easy to read."
作者最经典的我加了粗黑。作者如果一直追求完美的英语，她此生不会成为作家。也许英语SAT的能力考试考的是一种“完美英语”，但对于作者这样一个作家来说，她传递的是母亲的心之所向、心之激情、心之想象，话语的韵律、思想的本真。对于你来说，也没有非得说完美英语的必要，没有一个终极的答案在那里仿佛法官一样审判你的对错，为什么要给自己套上纸枷锁？
但同时，不完美的英语也不是语法错误百出的英语。我看过AmyTan的文字，听过她在TED上，名为“CREATIVITY”的演讲. 我的印象，她就是一个美国人，有美国精英文化的自信和幽默。
那么她的故事究竟对于英语学习来说有哪些启发呢？小结一下：
在生物学上，如果一个物种只有一个样本，要么是快灭绝了，要么是基因变异了！但如果一个特异的物种有了成千上万的样本后，生物学家只会欣喜地说，我们发现了新物种！
英语是一个茫茫的语言生态，但这个生态不是金字塔结构的。她有多样性，一旦和你结合，你就要成为她的主人。而你说话的口音、用语、用词就有你的“唯一性”，一开始也许会有“母亲”一样的尴尬，但这又怎么样？加上你的专业，加上你的见识，加上你的持续改进，你就会有作者的从容和自信，而以前你认为那些会用审视的眼光去评判你的人，最终会因为你而肯定你！
英语学习如此，人生亦如此！
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