I heard Sandra Cisneros (author of _House on Mango Street_) on the radio this morning. She is of Mexican descent, but was born and brought up in Chicago. She was trying to explain how she faces the challenge of writing dialog in English while making sure the reader understands that the speaker is actually speaking Spanish! She mentioned that there is really no way
that you can express yourself clearly in English as though you were speaking Spanish! One example she gave was that her father (who had lived all but the first 10 years of his life in the USA) refused to speak English, and whenever he had to speak it, he felt that he was being rude. He cursed the directness
of English and was offended that people don't add "God willing" to the end of a description of their future plans "as if they are arrogant enough to think that they can make their own plans without God". He couldn't stand asking strangers questions without introductory flourishes. Ms Cisneros's father tried to add things to his English to make it more acceptable to him,
thereby confusing all his interlocutors and embarrassing his children. in short, Ms. Cisneros's father was a prisoner of his own upbringing and simply couldn't see that there are various ways of being rude (and polite).Presumably, we all have students who worry about their "rudeness" and who perhaps become tongue-tied rather than speak in a way that seems unacceptabl to them. What can we do about this? Is there a painless way of getting
our students to accept a lack of flourishes and references to God as perfectly polite and correct in English?
that you can express yourself clearly in English as though you were speaking Spanish! One example she gave was that her father (who had lived all but the first 10 years of his life in the USA) refused to speak English, and whenever he had to speak it, he felt that he was being rude. He cursed the directness
of English and was offended that people don't add "God willing" to the end of a description of their future plans "as if they are arrogant enough to think that they can make their own plans without God". He couldn't stand asking strangers questions without introductory flourishes. Ms Cisneros's father tried to add things to his English to make it more acceptable to him,
thereby confusing all his interlocutors and embarrassing his children. in short, Ms. Cisneros's father was a prisoner of his own upbringing and simply couldn't see that there are various ways of being rude (and polite).Presumably, we all have students who worry about their "rudeness" and who perhaps become tongue-tied rather than speak in a way that seems unacceptabl to them. What can we do about this? Is there a painless way of getting
our students to accept a lack of flourishes and references to God as perfectly polite and correct in English?
[本帖已被作者于2004年6月3日22时56分16秒编辑过]
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