Chinese Whispers：英国人眼里的中国语言

    册子里有一篇Mr Paddy Ashdown写的介绍普通话的文章：Chinese whispers，他从一个外国人的眼里看待中国和普通话，十分有意思。Mr Paddy Ashdown曾经是一名外交官，是Mandarin的翻译专家。

     第一段：the lingua franca of modern China is not actually called Mandarin（which comes from the bad old days before Communism and refers to the language spoken by the mandarins or court servants）．The politically correct word nowadays is putonghua-meaning the common or ordinary language．Mandarins应该指的是旧中国的政府官员。Mr Paddy Ashdown毕竟是在中国生活多年，比较了解情况。

     第二段：But whatever you call it，this is now arguably，after English of course，the world‘s most important language．And not because it is the common language spoken by the world’s biggest country in term of population（1.3 billion now and rising fast-or nearly one quarter of the world‘s population）．Though that‘s one reason，for it means that，if you can speak Chinese and English，then you can speak to around half of the humanity of our planet。中国人口接近全球四分之一啦！，不过最后一句说得好，你能说中文和英文，你可以和这个星球一半的人讲话罗。那么很多中国人做得到哈。

    第三段：But now，China is more than big--it is also rising．There may be different views about whether this will happen quickly or slowly．I personally think that before China can achiever her full potential，she will have to democratise her society，just as she has liberalised her economy and this may bemore difficult than many understand．Either way，there are very few now who would not accept that she will be one of the major global powers of our age with interests in every part of the world。认同中国将成为世界大国，如同经济高速发展一样，其他方面也会发展的。

    第四段：So this is a great language，with great potential．But ，grammatically at least，it is not a difficult language．The difficulties a foreigner experiences with Chinese are more human rather than intellectual。中国语言是属于高智商的语言呢。我们都应该为能说中国话感到自豪。不要羡慕人家会说英文，老外还羡慕你会说中文呢。

    第五段：And the fist comes from the language‘s beauty．There is a wonderful mellifluous musical underpinning to chinese，which exists in no other language--indeed the language only works if you understand its music．This  is because this is a monosyllabic language with the differentiation between one word and another being entirely dependent on the tone is which it is said （there are four tones in Putonghua，seven in Cantonese）．And some of the tones even change according to heir juxtaposition with others．The effect,multiplied by a great richness of regional accent（in Beijing they roll their “ r ”and slide their elisions in a way that would make any Devonian proud）adds up to a language which is immensely pleasing to ear．Often when I hear Chinese visitors speaking putonghua on the streets of London，I will hang around them for a bit，just for the pleasure of hearing them talk。这段开始谈到中国话的印象了，单音节词语再加上音调，组成美丽动听的中国话。还特地谈到北京人很为卷舌音自豪，京腔嘛。普通话有四声调我知道，没想到广东话竟然是七声调，不知道北海话是多少声调。

    第六段：Learning to apply these tones accurately can be tricky for a foreigner at first and sometimes leads to hilarious mistakes（I once accidentally asked a very proper Chinese lady at a dinner party if she had ever sat on a flying penis，instead of what I meant to ask her，if she had ever flown on an aircraft）。还说了一个黄色笑话，不过我还没完全明白，“坐飞机”怎么就能说到那方面去了呢？

    第七段：To learn spoken Putonghua，you need a good ear（though not necessarily a musical）and an ability to mimic．To learn the written language，what you chiefly need is a good memory．Here the problem is that written Chinese is not spelt，it is drawn．Western written languages（and indeed most world ones）depend on words being spelt in letters from an alphabet．But in chinese there is no alphabet．Each word is represented by a different picture．This means that to read or write for a newspaper like，say the Sun，you would need to know perhaps 6,000 characters--for the Guardian you would need 10，000．And an educated Chinese would know upwards of 40，000。这谈到中国字了，老外学拼音学得快，但写中国字对他们来说是噩梦，这里也有很多华人能说不能写。不过就算中国字是笔画，也是有规律可循的，你们老外没掌握而已。说到一个受教育的中国人至少懂得4万以上中国字，有这么多吗？ 不过中国人聪明、记忆好是全世界公认的，就因为我们从小就记忆那么多高难度的中国字。

    第八段：Learning these can be quite a sweat，though by no means insurmountable．Speaking and reading Mandarin or putonghua will give you contact with one of the world’s greatest civilisations，richest histories and most importan nations in the emerging world。结束语，学习中文可以让你见识到世界上最伟大的文化、最丰富的历史和新兴世界中最重要的国家。