神人！不會講法語 卻榮獲法語拼字比賽冠軍

This man won the French-language Scrabble world championship recently, despite not being able to speak any French (well, he probably knows ‘bonjour’).
這個人最近剛贏得法語拼字比賽的冠軍，但是他根本不會講法語（好吧，他可能會說“你好”）。

Nigel Richards, who is from Christchurch in New Zealand, defeated a guy who actually speaks French at the final in Belgium on Monday.
這週一，在比利時的法語拼字比賽決賽上，來自新西蘭基督城的奈傑爾·理查茲打敗了明顯會講法語的對手。

While he doesn’t speak the language, Richards picked up a French dictionary eight weeks ago and just started cramming all the words into his head.
然而理查茲根本不會講法語，他八個星期前纔開始看法語字典，他所做的也只是把那些單詞死記硬背記在腦子裏。

Liz Fagerlund, a good friend of Richards, said: ‘He doesn’t speak French at all, he just learnt the words.
理查茲的好友莉茲說：“他完全不會講法語，他只是記下那些單詞。”

‘He won’t know what they mean, he wouldn’t be able to carry out a conversation in French I wouldn’t think.’
“他不懂那些單詞的意思，他也不可能把這些法語單詞連成一段話。”

As any seasoned Scrabble player knows, the game has as much to do with tactics as it does with having a large vocabulary, but to not know the language you are victorious in is pretty impressive.
只要是經驗豐富的拼字選手就都知道，這種比賽需要參賽選手有龐大的詞彙量，但如果你能贏了比賽卻不懂這門語言，那你就讓人非常佩服。

Something simple like dialect obviously can’t hold Richards back, and he has won five US National scrabble titles and the world Scrabble Championship three times.
像某些簡單的方言顯然無法拖理查茲的後腿，在此之前，他已經獲得了5次全美拼字比賽的冠軍和3次世界拼字比賽的冠軍。

Despite being known as the finest Scrabble player alive, Ms Fagerlund, who is also the former president of the New Zealand Scrabble Association, said Richards’ win in Belgium was ‘quite remarkable’.
新西蘭拼字協會的前任主席法格蘭先生說，儘管理查茲此前已經是世界上最厲害的拼字選手了，但他這次在比利時的勝利是相當了不起的。

One of the contestants who Richards beat during the French tournament reportedly joked ‘are you an extra-terrestrial or something’ when witnessing his amazing ability.
據說，理查茲在這次比賽中打敗的選手在目睹了他那不可思議的才能後開玩笑地說：“你真的不是外星人或者其他什麼不明生物嗎？”