美語情景對話 第803期:Common Errors 常見錯誤

Tom: Jess, you were talking before about mistakes that your Hungarian students always made, and how some students from the same country all make the same mistakes again and again and again. Well, I work here in Thailand and they have a very cute phrase, "same, same" which I think means to describe something as being the same as something else, I spend five — ten minutes talking to a student explaining that instead of using same same, she should use "the same as" and I was trying to get this phrase over to her and finally she understood what I meant and she looked at me and said, "Ah, same as same same same same".

湯姆：傑西，你之前説過匈牙利學生常犯的錯誤，同一個國家的學生經常會重複犯同樣的錯誤。我在泰國工作，泰國有一個非常可愛的短語“一樣一樣”，我想那是形容某樣東西和其他東西一樣的一個短語，我花了5到10分鐘和一個學生解釋，我們不應該用same same這個短語，而是應該用the same as來表示和……一樣，我努力讓她理解這個短語，最後她終於明白我的意思了，她看着我説，“啊，same as就是same same的意思啊”。

Jess: In Spain I think the most common mistake was that in Spanish the noun people is a singular noun. You would say "le gente es" so when my Spanish speakers would use this noun they would always say, "Oh the people is very hungry" or "the people is very quiet" and I spent most of my time in Spain going "are — are — are" after these, the people even upper intermediate, advanced learners will still making that mistake. In France, one very common mistake was the pronuciation error. The sound "Th" at the beginning words, for example, "there" or "those" that the French would pronounce with a zed sound, so "zere" or "zose" and I was very reluctant to correct it because it's such a sexy accent and it sounds so much more gorgeous with the French "ZZ" but I did have to correct it and I was always in France sticking my tongue out of my mouth to emphasize to them that there tongue needed to be forward to their teeth to make the correct sound. You said you worked in Libya. What were the common mistakes for Libyan students?

傑西：我認為西班牙學生最常犯的錯誤是，在西班牙語裏people這個詞是單數名詞。你要説：“le gente es”，所以我的西班牙學生用這個單詞時經常會説，“哦，人們非常餓”或者是“人們非常安靜”，我在西班牙的大部分時間都在糾正他們要用表複數的are，而不是is，甚至中級以上的學生和高級班學生還會犯這個錯誤。在法國，一個非常常見的錯誤是發音錯誤。舉例來説，開頭單詞“th”在法語中會發“z”的音，我非常不願意糾正這個，因為這是一個非常性感的口音，法語裏的“Z”音聽起來更華麗，不過我必須要糾正，我在法國時，經常要把舌頭伸出來，向他們強調舌頭要抵到牙齒髮出正確的音。你説過你曾在利比亞工作過。利比亞學生常犯的錯誤是什麼？

Tom: One that always made me smile was when a cheery student or the security guard at the school or people that I met around the compound where I was living would give me a cheery wave and say "How are you? I'm fine" and it took me a good month or two before I realized that in Arabic the question and answer to go together. It just sounds strange in English. I thought they were jumping the gun by answering their own question.

湯姆：會讓我笑的一個錯誤是，我在學校裏碰到的活潑的學生和警衞或是在住宅樓裏遇到的人們，會一邊開心地向我揮手，一邊説，“你好嗎？我很好。”我用了一兩個月才明白，在阿拉伯語裏，問題和回答是要一起説的。這在英語裏聽起來很怪。我想他們是通過自問自答搶先行動。

Jess: Sounds like they were talking to themselves. And how about in Japan?

傑西：聽起來他們在和自己説話。那日本的情況呢？

Tom: Now, Japanese have another common phrase which I think it used both in Japanese and because it comes from English they use it in English to. It's "so-so". I'm not quite sure when you might use it. It's when things are not quite good, not quite bad, so if you say, "hey, how are you doing?", they will say "so-so" or if you say, "Hey, how's your food?" they'll say, "so-so". It's not English and the first few months I had of hearing that, I really couldn't quite work out. I understood the meaning, but I knew that it was not something I would ever say, but the difficulty there is trying to think of a good alternative. It's that kind of non-committal, I don't really care answer. I like strong opinions. I love it. I hate it. Let's leave this so-so.

湯姆：日本的常見錯誤是另一個，我想日語和英語裏都用這個詞，因為這個詞來源於英語。那就是“so-so”。我不太確定什麼時候用這個詞。事情不好不壞時，你可能會説，“嘿，你最近怎麼樣？”對方可能會答：“一般吧”，如果你問“嘿，食物怎麼樣？”對方可能會答：“還行。”英語並不這麼説，前幾個月我聽到這種説法時，我實在是不能明白。後來我理解了這個詞的意思，可是我知道我不會這麼説，不過很難想出一個準確的替代詞。這是種含糊的説法，我不太在意回答。我喜歡有力的觀點，比如我喜歡，我討厭。我們忘掉這個so-so吧。

Jess: I agree. It's like over use of the adjective nice. It just sounds really bland.

傑西：我同意。就好像是過度使用nice這個形容詞。聽起來非常乏味。

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重點講解：
1. the same as 與…相似；與…一樣；
例句：He just wanted the war to end, the same as Wally did.
他只不過希望戰爭結束，和沃利想的一樣。
2. instead of 代替…；而不是…；
例句：The roof was slated instead of thatched.
那個屋頂不是用草而是用石板蓋的。
3. get sth. over to sb. （向…）講清；使明白；
例句：We have got to get the message over to the young that smoking isn't cool.
我們要讓年輕人認識到抽煙並不是什麼很酷的事情。
4. be reluctant to do sth. 勉強的；不情願的；
例句：The child was reluctant to leave her mother.
這個孩子不願意離開她的媽媽。
5. jump the gun 搶先行動；過早地行動；
例句：It wasn't due to be released until September 10, but some booksellers have jumped the gun and decided to sell it early.
這本書定於9月10號發行，但是一些書商已搶先一步，決定提前銷售。