中國(guó)網(wǎng)站品牌欄目（頻道）
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 Tongue tied: 64 percent of Britons polled admitted they did not know a single word in any language other than English. |
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Two-thirds of Britons cannot say anything in a foreign language – with one fifth even unsure of what ‘bonjour’ means, a study claims. The findings appear to confirm the cliche about Britons being notoriously bad at making an effort to speak the lingo when abroad. Overall, 64 percent of those polled admitted they did not know a single word in any language other than English. And just one third – 34 percent – said they were willing to make an attempt at speaking a foreign language while on holiday. One fifth (19 percent) did not know the meaning of the French word for hello, one of the most recognisable foreign greetings in the world. And 63 percent had no idea what the Dutch word ‘goedemorgen’ meant, despite the obvious similarities to our own ‘good morning’. Young Britons were found to be worst at making the effort, with nearly half – 47 percent – of those aged 16 to 24 admitting they have never spoken the foreign language they learned at school. But 45 percent of the over-55s said they liked to try to speak the local language when abroad, the poll of 2,000 adults by travel website Hotels.com found. It is compulsory for all pupils to study a foreign language up to the age of 14 and French, German and Spanish are all on the national curriculum. Yet only one in ten of those polled considered themselves able to speak one of them. Of these, a quarter could ask only ‘everyday questions’, 21 percent said they were limited to ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’, and one in 50 claimed they could understand everything said to them in another language, but were unable to reply. Reasons for not trying to speak a local language included not being bothered, fear of making a mistake or expecting hosts to be able to speak English. (Read by Emily Cheng. Emily Cheng is a journalist at the China Daily Website.) (Agencies) |
一項(xiàng)研究稱，三分之二的英國(guó)人不會(huì)說(shuō)任何外語(yǔ)，五分之一的英國(guó)人甚至連bonjour是什么意思都不清楚。 這一研究發(fā)現(xiàn)似乎證實(shí)了關(guān)于英國(guó)人的一個(gè)成見(jiàn)，就是英國(guó)人在國(guó)外很少會(huì)努力去說(shuō)當(dāng)?shù)氐恼Z(yǔ)言，這一點(diǎn)簡(jiǎn)直都出了名。 總體來(lái)看，有64%的被調(diào)查者承認(rèn)，除了英語(yǔ)之外，任何一門(mén)其他語(yǔ)言他們都是一個(gè)字也不認(rèn)識(shí)。 只有三分之一（34%）的英國(guó)人說(shuō)他們?cè)敢庠诔鰢?guó)度假時(shí)嘗試著去說(shuō)一門(mén)外語(yǔ)。 五分之一（19%）的英國(guó)人不知道hello在法語(yǔ)中的對(duì)應(yīng)詞的意思，而這是世界上識(shí)別度最高的外語(yǔ)問(wèn)候語(yǔ)之一。 63%的英國(guó)人不知道荷蘭語(yǔ)goedemorgen是什么意思，盡管這個(gè)詞和英語(yǔ)中的good morning（早上好）有著明顯的相似性。 據(jù)調(diào)查發(fā)現(xiàn)，英國(guó)年輕人在努力說(shuō)外語(yǔ)這方面做得最差，年齡在16到24歲之間的英國(guó)年輕人中有將近半數(shù)（47%）承認(rèn)自己從未開(kāi)口說(shuō)過(guò)在學(xué)校里學(xué)過(guò)的外語(yǔ)。 旅游網(wǎng)站Hotels.com 開(kāi)展的這一涵蓋了2000名成人的調(diào)查發(fā)現(xiàn)，55歲以上的英國(guó)人中有45%說(shuō)自己在國(guó)外時(shí)愿意嘗試著去講當(dāng)?shù)氐恼Z(yǔ)言。 在英國(guó)，所有的學(xué)生在滿14歲后都必須學(xué)習(xí)一門(mén)外語(yǔ)，法語(yǔ)、德語(yǔ)和西班牙語(yǔ)都在英國(guó)教學(xué)大綱上。 然而，只有十分之一的被調(diào)查者自認(rèn)會(huì)說(shuō)這三門(mén)外語(yǔ)中的一種。 在這部分人中，四分之一的人只會(huì)問(wèn)“日常問(wèn)題”，21%的人說(shuō)他們的外語(yǔ)程度僅限于說(shuō)“你好”和“再見(jiàn)”，五十分之一的人稱自己能完全聽(tīng)懂一門(mén)外語(yǔ)，但不會(huì)用外語(yǔ)作答。 不愿嘗試去說(shuō)當(dāng)?shù)卣Z(yǔ)言的原因包括不想麻煩、害怕犯錯(cuò)，或指望當(dāng)?shù)厝藭?huì)說(shuō)英語(yǔ)。 相關(guān)閱讀 日本掀學(xué)英語(yǔ)高潮 職場(chǎng)人士重回課堂 研究：雙語(yǔ)寶寶對(duì)不同語(yǔ)言靈敏度更高 普京總統(tǒng)談“學(xué)外語(yǔ)經(jīng)” 英大學(xué)生“畢業(yè)即失業(yè)”創(chuàng)紀(jì)錄 懂漢語(yǔ)者起薪最高 （中國(guó)日?qǐng)?bào)英語(yǔ)點(diǎn)津 陳丹妮 編輯：Julie） |
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Vocabulary: bonjour: <法語(yǔ)> 你好 cliche: 固有的不一定正確的觀點(diǎn)，偏見(jiàn)；陳詞濫調(diào) notoriously: 臭名昭著地，聲名狼藉地，出了名地 lingo: 方言 |
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