大家好！这里是“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!
今天继续聊英语学习进化论。
Just last week, I was walking down the street with my mother, and I again found myself conscious of the English I was using, the English I do use with her. We were talking about the price of new and used furniture and I heard myself saying this: "Not waste money that way." My husband was with us as well, and he didn't notice any switch in my English. And then I realized why. It's because over the twenty years we've been together I've often used that same kind of English with him, and sometimes he even uses it with me. It has become our language of intimacy, a different sort of English that relates to family talk, the language I grew up with.
在Amy Tan的文章Mother Tongue的第四段，作者在和母亲的闲聊中顺口说出了一句“Not waste money that way”，相信大家对此有似曾相识地感受，譬如“Long time no see.” 一句。两句都有中国汉语的基因在里面，于是从英语的语法角度来讲，这算是英语在中国的variation. 所以有时候我们讲"Chinese English"的确不是贬义，而是指英语在中文的影响下衍生出来的有英语其表但具汉语之实的语言变体。作者的丈夫是地道的美国人，他没有意识到作者“any switch in English”, 而且他有时候也会“even uses it”，作者称这样使用英语的方式是“family talk”, 而且这样的谈话方式伴随了作者的成长。
一个人的脑子在狭义上仿佛一台电脑，可以装上好几个操作系统，有Windows, 有Ios; 可以是xp版，也可以是visa版，有需要的时候可以相互转换，而其转换之灵便、稳定、高效，恐怕当世的任何一台电脑都望尘莫及。Amy Tan的操作系统里显然包含中文的原始代码，但这样的原始代码没有对她以后用英语写作造成任何影响。或许更恰当的比喻是，Amy Tan实现了中文、英文两种编程语言的高度协调，让其在写作的过程中游刃有余，在交流的过程中自由切换。因此，各位学英语的朋友，汉语是我们的母语，但她不一定是你学习英语的障碍，在大多数的条件下，两者可以共存，甚至让你与众不同。在2012年的时候，《纽约时报》曾经刊登过一篇关于“为什么会双语的人更加聪明？”的文章,有兴趣的去谷歌搜索“Why bilinguals are smarter?”
So you'll have some idea of what this family talk I heard sounds like, I'11 quote what my mother said during a recent conversation which I videotaped and then transcribed. During this conversation, my mother was talking about a political gangster in Shanghai who had the same last name as her family's, Du, and how the gangster in his early years wanted to be adopted by her family, which was rich by comparison. Later, the gangster became more powerful, far richer than my mother's family, and one day showed up at my mother's wedding to pay his respects. Here's what she said in part: "Du Yusong having business like fruit stand. Like off the street kind. He is Du like Du Zong -- but not Tsung-ming Island people. The local people call putong, the river east side, he belong to that side local people. That man want to ask Du Zong father take him in like become own family. Du Zong father wasn't look down on him, but didn't take seriously, until that man big like become a mafia. Now important person, very hard to inviting him. Chinese way, came only to show respect, don't stay for dinner. Respect for making big celebration, he shows up. Mean gives lots of respect. Chinese custom. Chinese social life that way. If too important won't have to stay too long. He come to my wedding. I didn't see, I heard it. I gone to boy's side, they have YMCA dinner. Chinese age I was nineteen."
文章的第五段有些长，但大家务必耐心读下去，有好多宝贝可挖。从这一段中，我们可以获知作者母亲的家庭在旧中国的上海应该是比较显赫的，因为当时的大佬杜月笙还去母亲十九岁的婚礼上拜贺过。换做现在，一个县的某一官员去某人家婚宴拜贺也会视作荣耀，何况当年上海滩的头面人物！这也就解释了为什么当年母亲的家庭要移民美国了，真是历史沧桑，荣华浮沉！
更有意思的是从母亲的口中，用英语讲述的那段家族的轶事，可能老外听来毫无头绪，可中国人听来应该门儿清啊！什么语法，什么变化，什么主谓一致统统不要，一个具有中国社会特色的故事也就绘声绘色的讲完了。这让我想起，要求用英语将一起交通事故的大概通过电话给交通部门讲清楚的故事，读本文的你们多半会犹豫、思考，有人是这么做示范的：
One car come, one car go; two car 碰碰，one man die.
相信你听过这段英语后，大概发生了什么，你应该做什么都心里有数了吧！从交流的最本真、最原始的需要去看，去想，为什么一定要让语法束缚自己呢？大胆的去说才是硬道理！
当你看完作者引用的母亲的话语后，可别想当然的以为作者母亲不过尔尔，接着看：
You should know that my mother's expressive command of English belies how much she actually understands. She reads the Forbes report, listens to Wall Street Week, converses daily with her stockbroker, reads all of Shirley MacLaine's books with ease--all kinds of things I can't begin to understand. Yet some of my friends tell me they understand 50 percent of what my mother says. Some say they understand 80 to 90 percent. Some say they understand none of it, as if she were speaking pure Chinese. But to me, my mother's English is perfectly clear, perfectly natural. It's my mother tongue. Her language, as I hear it, is vivid, direct, full of observation and imagery. That was the language that helped shape the way I saw things, expressed things, made sense of the world.
作者母亲平时读的是福布斯，听的是华尔街周报，和股票经纪人侃大山，看Shirley MacLaine的书消遣。Shirley MacLaine是谁？
雪莉·麦克雷恩 （ Shirley MacLaine ，1934年4月24日－ ）是一位美国 演员 ，曾经获得奥斯卡最佳女主角奖，也创作过许多自传作品。雪莉·麦克雷恩也是演员沃伦·比蒂的姊姊。也许你熟悉的她的影视剧是《康顿庄园》。
这些关于母亲的信息说明什么？说明母亲的生活和一般中产阶级美国人的生活别无二致，关心财经理财，追追星，看来是衣食无忧啊！作者还特别提到母亲的“expressive command of English”, 一句话，母亲的生活方式完全是典型的美国派！
Lately, I've been giving more thought to the kind of English my mother speaks. Like others, I have described it to people as 'broken" or "fractured" English. But I wince when I say that. It has always bothered me that I can think of no way to describe it other than "broken," as if it were damaged and needed to be fixed, as if it lacked a certain wholeness and soundness. I've heard other terms used, "limited English," for example. But they seem just as bad, as if everything is limited, including people's perceptions of the limited English speaker.
可是作者在思考，照理说，母亲讲英语的方式真的是“破英语”，即“'broken"or "fractured" English”，作者也无法用更确切的用语形容母亲使用英语的方式，因为母亲讲的英语缺失一种完整性，而且听上去看上去也不够体面，没什么美感，唯一的作用是传递了一定的意义。作者在段尾婉转一点称这样的英语应该是“受限制的英语”，好似生长没有发育全，增长也有“负增长”一样！
聊到这里，学英语的朋友在一定程度上要释然。为什么这么说呢？别一开始就追求美感，先追求意义吧！即使像作者母亲一样的“破英语”也是广大连开口讲英语都羞羞答答的人要追求的，“有总比无要好！”，有了破的英语，再发展发展，再修饰修饰，好的英语就指日可待了。素颜的美女毕竟少，化点淡妆就清新可人的事何乐而不为呢？英语也是一样的，要讲一两句精致的，语法工整的话也不是随随便便张口即来，要经过“educated”, 平时要training, 只有这样，书到用时方不恨少！此时此刻，应该品出点英语进化的味道了吧，要雕琢，要积累，要学习，要实践！
还有一个问题，吃进去的是草，吐出来的是奶，这样的事大家喜闻乐见；但若是吃进去的是奶，吐出来的是草，这样的事恐怕大家都不愿意看到。那么作者母亲的输入应该是没问题了，那么输出怎么有这么大的差异呢？
注意，什么叫family talk; 还有作者母亲是不是在所有的场合都使用这样的说话方式呢？我们不得而知，但联系实际，作为作家的作者都会时不时的family talk, 我们何必苛求一位随性的妈妈呢？！难道你回家每天都 “父亲——，母亲——，然后再做个揖吗？”还不是，“妈——，”
先聊到这里，回见！
