[美國文化觀察]

川普前幾天說, 以後的移民要在移民美國時, 就要會說英文. 經濟學人這篇文章講的挺好: 其實移民移居美國後, 早晚都會說英文的.

在我身上其實也應證了這說法. 旅居美國十幾年, 雖然平常有跟此地的台灣同胞保持互動, 但因為身處在美語環境, 也為了生存下去, 所以我漸漸地習慣說英文, 聽英文歌, 看美國電視, 看原文書. 我也很清楚地意識到, 自己的母語(中文)能力在退化中. 所以我前幾年開始接英翻中的case, 而兩年前也開始藉著寫中文個股分析與開部落格來彌補這問題. 很多時候不是我故意在秀英文, 而是我真的不知道該用甚麼中文字來表達意思了, 或是我覺得用英文能夠更傳神地表達我的想法.

"Rather than refusing to learn English, today’s immigrants actually abandon their first language much more readily than previous generations. German, the language spoken by the president’s ancestors, is a case in point. Germans arrived in America in big waves in the middle of the 19th century. Generations later, they were still speaking German at home; a small number were even monolingual in German despite being born in America. Only with America’s entry into the first world war did German-speakers drop their suddenly unpopular language.

Today the typical pattern is that the arriving generation speaks little English, or learns it imperfectly; the first children born in America are bilingual, but English-dominant, and their children hardly speak the heritage language. This is as true of Hispanics as it is of speakers of smaller languages—and all without a lecture from the White House."

以下是全文:
DONALD TRUMP’s young administration is adept at one particular manoeuvre. Whenever the president is having a terrible time in the press, for some embarrassing statement, interview or imbroglio, the White House announces a far-reaching policy designed to stoke up his nationalist base while infuriating his opponents. In February it was the proposed ban on visitors from seven mainly Muslim countries. Last month it was the announcement on Twitter that he would not let transgender soldiers serve in the military.

In each case, the new policy tends to hurt people who can be portrayed as threatening outsiders to ordinary Americans who work hard and pay their taxes. Yesterday’s announcement to back a months-old plan to overhaul America’s immigration rules falls in the same category. If implemented, it would reward applicants with sought-after job skills who already speak English, at the expense of low-skilled workers without language skills.

This may seem perfectly sensible: after all, skilled immigrants are a good thing. But as an ongoing shortage of farm workers in California shows, unskilled immigrants are just as crucial. Equally, it is a good thing if immigrants speak English. But they need not speak it before arrival: as it is impossible to participate fully in American life without speaking English, the incentive to learn it quickly is overwhelming.

The administration’s emphasis on English skills therefore harks back to an old myth that the linguistic make-up of America, which has been an English-dominant country for a long time, is changing: that the status of English is somehow threatened, especially by Spanish, but more generally by the notion that English is no longer needed in the economy.

The myth goes something like this: today’s immigrants want to come to America to isolate themselves into communities that do not speak English. American policy tacitly encourages this by not being tough enough in requiring English. In the past, immigrants happily learned English quickly; “my grandpa came here from the old country but he refused to speak his old language; he insisted on getting by in his broken English until he was fluent.” But today’s immigrants no longer do so, as multiculturalism has replaced the melting pot.
All of this is wrong. America began as a thin band of English colonies clinging to the eastern coast, vastly outnumbered by speakers of other languages. The foreign-born percentage of the population peaked not last year—the administration likes to talk of “unprecedented” numbers—but in 1890, when the share of foreign-born residents was at an all-time high of 14.8%. This proportion has risen again after declining in the mid-20th century (it stood at 12.9% in the 2010 census). America today has multilingual big cities with their voting instructions in Korean, Chinese and Russian.

Historically, this is the norm rather than the exception: the years from 1925 to 1965, when immigration was almost completely cut off, were unusual. But those born from the 1940s to the 1960s became used to the low numbers of foreign-born residents, regarding this state as normal. That in turn supported a belief that America has always naturally belonged completely to English.
For most of its history, America was precisely the “polyglot boardinghouse” Teddy Roosevelt once worried it would become. That history has turned out very well not just for America, but for English—the most successful language in the history of the world. Along with American power, English has spread around the globe. At home, wave after wave after wave of immigrants to America have not only learned English but forgotten the languages their parents brought with them.

Rather than refusing to learn English, today’s immigrants actually abandon their first language much more readily than previous generations. German, the language spoken by the president’s ancestors, is a case in point. Germans arrived in America in big waves in the middle of the 19th century. Generations later, they were still speaking German at home; a small number were even monolingual in German despite being born in America. Only with America’s entry into the first world war did German-speakers drop their suddenly unpopular language.

Today the typical pattern is that the arriving generation speaks little English, or learns it imperfectly; the first children born in America are bilingual, but English-dominant, and their children hardly speak the heritage language. This is as true of Hispanics as it is of speakers of smaller languages—and all without a lecture from the White House.

【時事新聞】

Oxford Dictionaries add 'clicktivism' and 'haterade' as new words for angry times
牛津字典看待川普的新字創造

Donald Trump's linguistic dexterity may be questionable, but the US president's lexicon has had an impact on the English language, which is reflected in the latest additions to oxforddictionaries.com, the online reference guide to current English.
川普的語言技巧可能受人質疑，但這位美國總統的常用語已對英語造成了影響，這在最新增補的牛津線上詞典中可見一斑。牛津線上詞典是流行英語的參考指南。

New coinages that reflect the latest wave of online political activism form a significant section of more than 300 new definitions in the database, which is a sister work to the Oxford English Dictionary.
反映最新一波網路政治活動的新字已在這個資料庫中組成了300多個新條目。牛津線上字典是「牛津英語大詞典」的姐妹版。

Additions including "clicktivism" (a pejorative word for armchair activists on social media), "haterade" (excessive negativity, criticism, or resentment), "otherize" (view or treat – a person or group of people – as intrinsically different from and alien to oneself) and "herd mentality" (the tendency for people's behavior or beliefs to conform to those of the group to which they belong) all emerged during the 2016 battle for the White House, said head of content development Angus Stevenson.
牛津線上字典內容開發負責人安格斯•史蒂文生說，新增詞彙包括"clicktivism"（網路點擊行動主義）、"haterade"（極端仇恨）、"otherize"（異己）和"herd mentality"（羊群心態），它們都曾出現在2016年的白宮選戰中。

"We are getting a convergence of high-level politics and online language in quite a new way," Stevenson said. "We had all the words around Brexit in the last update and we are now starting to see all the words around Trump coming into the dictionary."
史蒂文生說：「我們以新的形式將高級政治和網路用語結合。在上一次更新字典資料庫時，我們吸收了所有與英國脫歐有關的字詞。現在，我們正在將與川普有關的字詞收錄到線上字典中。」

Stevenson said that new terms from Trump, his supporters and opponents were emerging more rapidly than in the past. "We have lots to add all the time. We don't have 'fake news' or 'alternative fact' this time, because they have just started gaining currency, but I am sure they will be in the next update," he added.
史蒂文生說，來自川普及其支持者與反對者的這些新字的出現速度比以往任何時候都快。他還補充說：「我們總是有很多詞語要添加。這一次，我們沒有收錄'fake news'（假消息）及'alternative fact'（另類事實），因為它們剛開始流傳，但我可以確定的是下次更新自典時，它們將被收錄。」

As well as political terms, public conversations about diet, fitness and gender were a strong influence on the words included in the latest update. "Superfruit", a nutrient-rich fruit considered to be especially beneficial for health and wellbeing; HIIT, the acronym for high-intensity interval training; and "third gender", a category of people who do not identify simply as male or female, all made it into the online database.
與政治詞彙一樣，人們關於飲食、健康和性別的交談也對這次的詞彙更新造成了很大的影響。"Superfruit"（超級水果），指的是一種富含營養的水果，對身體健康非常有益；"HIIT"，是"high-intensity interval training"（高強度間隔訓練）的首字母縮寫；"third gender"（第三性別），指的是那種無法被簡單判定為男性或女性的群體。這些字詞都被收錄進線上資料庫中。

Social media were the source for many of the new coinages, though most were the kind of compounds that would have language purists clutching their pearls. "Craptacular" (remarkably poor and disappointing), "bronde" (hair dyed both blond and brunette) and "fitspiration" (a person or thing that serves as motivation for someone to sustain or improve health and fitness) all made the cut.
社交媒體是許多新鮮詞彙的來源，儘管其中的大多數詞語都是複合字，這些複合字會讓語言純粹主義者大驚失色。"Craptacular"（意思是特別的窮困和沮喪）、"bronde"（指的是被染成金色和淺黑色的頭髮）以及"fitspiration"（指的是一個人或一種物品，用來作為維持或提升某人健康的動力）都達標了。

Stevenson said the need for brevity on Twitter was not responsible for rising numbers of compound words, but it had widened the pool of those inventing new terms. "People feel much freer to coin their own words these days," he said, advising anyone who wished to make a permanent dent in the English language to make sure that their word sounded attractive. Citing the word "vlog", he said ugly-sounding words tended not to gain very wide currency. He added: "They have to have a euphonious sound."
史蒂文生說，推特對詞彙簡潔性的要求並不是複合字數量增加的原因，但這的確為創造新詞彙的人們拓寬了道路。「如今，人們可以更自由地創造字詞，」他說，他建議那些想要在英語詞彙上留下永久印記的人們務必要確保他們所創造的新字發音好聽。他引用"vlog"這個字，然後說發音很難聽的字一般都不會被大家廣泛使用。他補充說：「這些字詞得有一個悅耳的讀音。」

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