英国人的英语最难懂：母语人士请学会说通用英语
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英国人的英语最难懂：母语人士请学会说通
用英语
作者：
来源：《时代英语·高二》2013年第04期
If
native speakers of English are not to become
international corporate pariahs， they will need
to learn how to speak general English—in other
words， to communicate with non-native speakers.
如果英语母语人士不想被国际商业界所遗弃，他们就需要去学习如何讲通用英语——换
言
之，就是和非母语人士沟通。
Resentment at the
complexity of native speakers’ English is
widespread in international business.
During a
study carried out at Kone Elevators of Finland，
one Finnish manager blurted out， “The
British
are the worst... It is much more difficult to
understand their English than that of other
nationalities. When we non-native speakers of
English talk， it is much easier to understand. We
have
the same limited vocabulary.”
How can native speakers of English make themselves
more comprehensible and more likeable？
The
most obvious way is to learn someone else’s
language. The great benefit of learning other
languages is that you have some idea of what
non-native speakers are up against. However， news
that fewer than half of English schoolchildren
are learning a foreign language suggests that this
is not
going to be a profitable route for
many.
So what should native English-
speakers do to make themselves better understood？
First， slow
down， but not to the point where
members of your audience think you are patronising
them.
Second， avoid idiomatic and metaphorical
expressions： that’s the way the cookie crumbles，
people in glass houses， and the like.
Jokes are a difficult area. You will not forget
the silence that follows one that is found
baffling.
On the other hand， when jokes work，
they can be a huge success with a non-native
speaking
audience. If you have learnt other
languages， you will know that very few
achievements are as
satisfying as
understanding your first foreign joke. Try a few
out with your non-native speaking
audience；
you will soon learn which ones are worth
repeating.
It is often unnecessary to
avoid longer words such as “association” and
“nationality”， which are
common to the Romance
languages and will be widely understood in Europe
and Latin America.