【双语阅读】英语说得地道有什么优势

The last time I wrote about the widespread use of English, a reader commented that those who didn’t speak it as a first language often struggled at work.

我上次就英语的普遍使用撰写专栏后，一位读者说，那些母语不是英语的人往往会在工作中遇到困难。

“Non-native speakers are at their biggest disadvantage when emotions come into play,” the reader wrote. “In a heated debate, those able to use cynicism, sarcasm or other weapons requiring linguistic mastery have an unfair advantage — and I have seen such unfair advantage being used many times. It can determine the course of corporate careers. Like mine.”

“母语非英语人士在情绪高涨的场合处于最大劣势，”这位读者写道，“在激烈的辩论中，那些能够使用挖苦、讽刺或其他需要语言功底的武器的人有着不公平的优势，我见到过很多次有人利用这种不公平优势。它能够决定企业职场的道路。就像我的历程。”

The comment reminded me of two leaders who had made

similar points about native English speakers’advantages.

这番言论让我想起两位曾就母语为英语人士的优势提出类似观点的领袖。

The first was Steve Biko, the apartheid-era South African student leader, who split from white leftwing students because he believed blacks needed to develop self-reliance.

第一个是南非推行种族隔离政策时期的学生领袖史蒂夫•比科(Steve Biko)，他从白人左翼学生中脱离出来，因为他认为黑人需要依靠自己。

Biko, who died in police custody in 1977, spoke excellent English, but it was not his mother tongue. He was acutely aware of being at a disadvantage in English-speaking company. He spoke before his death of the frustration of talking to articulate, intelligent, native English speakers.

比科是在1977年被警方拘留时去世的，他说一口流利的英语，但英语不是他的母语。他清楚地知道自己在周围人都说英语的环境里的劣势。他曾说到与口齿伶俐、聪明、母语为英语的人士交谈的沮丧。

“You may be intelligent, but not as articulate,” he said.

他表示：“你可能很聪明，但表达能力没那么好。”

In these conversations, a non-native speaker could start to feel intellectually inadequate. “You tend to feel that that [English-speaking] guy is better equipped than you mentally,” he said.

在这些谈话中，母语非英语的人士可能会从智慧上感到不自信。他表示：“你往往会认为，（说英语）的那个人在思想上要比你更高一等。”

A very different leader, Percy Barnevik, the founding chief executive of ABB, the Swedish-Swiss company that adopted English as its corporate language, also spoke

of the danger of “mistaking facility with English for intelligence or knowledge”.

第二位领袖是瑞典-瑞士公司ABB的创始首席执行官珀西•巴内维克(Percy Barnevik)，他谈到了“把英语能力误当成智慧或知识”的危险。该公司采用英语作为公司语言。

But does it follow, as the Financial Times reader asserted, that English speakers use their linguistic mastery to dominate discussions deliberately, inserting sarcasm where necessary?

但这是否意味着，就像上述英国《金融时报》读者所声称的那样，说英语的人会利用自己的语言功底蓄意主导讨论，在必要时插入几句讽刺的话？

I asked two non-native English-speaking FT readers who have emailed me in the past what they thought.

我问了两位过去曾给我发送电邮的英国《金融时报》读者的想法，他们的母语不是英语，但会说英语。