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Quora精选 | British and English?傻傻分不清楚啊

Quora问题:在英国最忌讳说的话是什么?

回答作者:Christopher Chong,就读于伦敦商学院。

5 of us were dining in New York. The waitress came along and said the usual cheery things and then ask were we were from. 4 said they were from the UK and I said I was from Singapore. She then looked at the only white person on the table and said “Oh you English !!” and then asked the other 3 “How is England treating you?”

我们一行5人在纽约用餐,服务员面带笑容走过来和打招呼,询问我们来自哪里。我们一行中的4个人都表示他们来自英国,我说:“我来自新加坡。”服务员看着我们中唯一的一个白人说道:“噢!你是英国人!”紧接着她转向另外3人问道:“你们在英国的时候,英国人对你们怎么样呀?”

The 5 of us comprised:

  • A Scot of Indian background who spoke with a very broad Scottish accent;A Catholic from Northern Ireland (who is white) with an Irish accentA Londoner whose family was originally from Jamaica who can switch from RP to CaribbeanA Chinese from Manchester with a broad midlands accentand myself, a Chinese from Singapore, who speaks with a RP accent in such company and Singlish went I am on the streets of Singapore

我们五个人的配置是这样的:

一个印度籍的苏格兰人,操着一口非常不像苏格兰口音的苏格兰口音。

一个来自北爱尔兰的天主教徒(他是白人),他的口音是纯正的爱尔兰口音。

一个祖籍牙买加的伦敦人,他非常厉害,英文发音可以在纯正的英音和加勒比口音之间随意切换。

一个操着一口中部口音的来自曼切斯特的中国人。

最后一个就是我,来自新加坡的中国人,和我的外国朋友们在一起的时候我说着英音,而在新加坡街头我就会快乐得说新加坡式英语。

We started laughing and the poor girl obvious twigged that she had said something wrong. The problem is that with her complexion it was very clear that she was embarrassed. She went beetroot red at this stage. Not being English or British I explained to her that the UK comprises of 4 countries - England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland - and the latter 3 countries account for 15% of the population and about 20% of all Brits are non-white. Meaning there is a 1 in 3 chance that a Brit is either not English or is a non-white English. All credit to her, she then replied with a twinkle in her eye “Yooz guys are tight, little o’me, we from the Bronx and its brick out there”. We left her a big tip for being so sassy.

我们听了服务员小姑娘的话开始哈哈大笑,小姑娘瞅着我们这个样子,猛然意识到自己说错话了。她复杂的表情中满满的都是尴尬,脸刷得一下红了。作为一个中国人,我向她解释:英国是由四个部分组成的——英格兰、苏格兰、威尔士和北爱尔兰,并且呢,后边3个占英国人口的15%,20%的英国人都不是白人。这就意味着有三分之一的概率,一个自称是英国人的人既不是英格兰人也不是白种英格兰人。听了我的话之后,她眼睛一眨:“你们这些家伙真是古板,看看我,我就不在意这些,我们现在是在纽约的布朗克斯,英国人们可听不见我说啥嘻嘻嘻嘻。”也都是因为她的可爱,我们给她留下了一笔可观的小费。

关于上文的知识点,你们get了吗?

如果你说一个爱尔兰人:He’s from the UK,你有可能激怒他。

由于中学的课本学的单词都笼统地说“英国”,以致于傅老师将下面的单词理不清楚:

UK – United Kindom

GB – Great Britain

England

Ireland

Scottland

Wales

前后请教了3名上海外教,两位来自爱尔兰,一位来自英格兰,这下应该算是把他们的区别吃透了。

1、区域范围:United Kindom(UK)=Great Britain(GB)=Britain=England+Scottland+Wales+Northern Ireland

2、爱尔兰的南部是独立的国家,名字叫“爱尔兰”(不叫“南爱尔兰”),完全独立于“英国”,例如爱尔兰使用的货币是欧元(Euro),而英国使用的是英镑(Pound)。(爱尔兰人对于英国的看法是这样比喻的:“你如果说我是英国人,那等同于说你们中国人是日本人!”)。注意“爱尔兰”国家是不包括北爱尔兰的。

3、如果有人说”I am from Ireland”或者”I am Irish”,这说明这个人是爱尔兰国家的人,来自爱尔兰的南部。北爱尔兰的人则不会称自己来自Ireland,他们会说I am from the GB,但是他们却很少讲I am from the UK(可以看作UK和GB在北爱尔兰人中的用法区别)

4、English/Scottish/Irish/Northern Irish/Welsh/British

前五个形容词形式一一对应他们的名词,因此:

I am English 说明来自英格兰

I am Irish 说明来自爱尔兰(不是北爱尔兰)

但是British则不同:

I am British 说明可能是来自北爱尔兰、苏格兰、英格兰或者威尔士,因此可以看作British对应UK/GB。

最后总结一下:基本只要知道Ireland, UK, GB就可以了,UK和GB行政范围一样,但是后者用得更广泛。