美國南加州大學的一名教授在給學生上傳播學課程時，講到不同語言中無意義的“填充詞”時使用中文詞“那個”舉例，卻因其發音聽起來像歧視非裔的詞語而被停職。

A US university investigation into one of its professors has ignited a debate over the use of a seemingly innocuous Chinese word.

美國一所大學對該校一名教授的調查，引發了一場關于使用一個看似無傷大雅的漢語詞匯的爭論。

innocuous [??n?kju?s]：adj.無害的；無傷大雅的

一起來看看教授的發言：

Professor Greg Patton at the University of Southern California (USC) was telling students in a communications lecture last month about filler, or pause words, such as 'err', 'umm' or 'you know' in English.

南加州大學的格雷格·巴頓教授在上個月的傳播學課程中向學生教授英語中的填充詞，也就是停頓詞，比如“err”（呃）、“umm”（嗯）或者“you know”（你知道的）。

Footage of his lecture, which has now gone viral, shows Prof Patton saying: "In China, the common pause word is 'that, that, that'. So in China, it might be na-ge, na-ge, na-ge."

他的上課視頻在網上瘋傳，視頻中巴頓教授說：“在中國，常見的填充詞是that，that，that，也就是‘那個，那個，那個’。”

Enunciated, na-ge sounds like the N-word, which led several of the professor's students to complain to the university. Responding to the complaint, the dean of the university, Geoffrey Garrett, told students that Prof Patton would no longer be teaching the course.

發音時，na-ge聽起來像歧視非裔的詞匯，這導致教授的幾名學生向學校投訴。針對這些投訴，該校（沃頓商學院）院長杰弗里·加勒特告訴學生，巴頓教授將不再教授這門課。

The university says that Prof Patton "volunteered to step away" from his role amid the investigation into complaints made against him.

該大學表示，在調查針對巴頓教授的投訴期間，巴頓教授“自愿停職”。

In a statement, the school said Patton "agreed to take a short-term pause" from teaching the course, and another instructor took over. Patton continues to teach his other courses.

該大學在一份聲明中說，巴頓教授“同意暫時停止”教授這門課程，并由另一位老師接替。他仍將教授其他課程。

News of the spat reached China, where many posted on social media saying they thought his punishment discriminated against speakers of the Chinese language.

這則消息傳到了中國，許多人在社交媒體上發帖說，他們認為對巴頓教授的處罰是對講中文人群的歧視。

翻譯的誤區

In Chinese the word "na-ge" (那個) is a common filler phrase that people use when they're hesitating or trying to find the right word. It literally translates to the word "that".

在漢語中，“那個”是一種常見的填充詞，人們在感到猶豫，或試圖找到合適的詞時常這樣說，從字面上可以翻譯為that。

In July 2016, a fight broke out on the subway in the city of Guangzhou, after a black man heard a Chinese man saying na-ge and mistook it for the N-word.

2016年7月，廣州的地鐵上發生了一場打斗，起因是一名非裔男子聽到一名中國男子說“那個”，誤以為是歧視非裔的詞匯。

Footage went viral online showing the black man slapping the Chinese commuter and shouting "you dare try that again" and "never say that again"

在網上瘋傳的視頻中，這名黑人男子扇了中國乘客一耳光，并大喊“你敢再說一次”和“再也不要這樣說了”。

Even Chinese basketball star Yao Ming has spoken of how the word brought him "some trouble" while playing in the US for the National Basketball Association (NBA).

就連中國籃球明星姚明也表示，在美國為NBA效力時，這個詞也曾給他帶來“一些麻煩”。

普遍的錯誤

CC Chen, a student at the USC, defended Prof Patton, arguing that it was "clearly an academic lecture on communication" and the professor was "describing a universal mistake commonly made in communication".

南加州大學的學生CC·陳為巴頓教授辯護稱，這“顯然是一堂傳播學課程”，而巴頓教授是在“描述傳播中經常犯的一個普遍錯誤”。

"For him to be censored simply because a Chinese word sounds like an English pejorative term is a mistake and is not appropriate, especially given the educational setting," she said. "It also dismisses the fact that Chinese is a real language and has its own pronunciations that have no relation to English."

她說：“對他來說，僅僅因為一個漢語詞匯聽起來像英語中的輕蔑語就被審查是錯誤的，也是不恰當的，尤其是在課堂上。這還否定了一個事實，即漢語是一門真正的語言，有自己的發音，與英語沒有關系?！?/p>

More than 11,000 people have now signed a Change.org petition calling for Prof Patton to be re-instated. And in China there are discussions taking place over whether the university acted too abruptly.

目前已有1.1萬多人在Change.org網站上簽名請愿，要求讓巴頓教授復職。而在中國，人們也在討論該校的行為是否過于唐突。

On the popular Sina Weibo microblog, more than 1,000 posts have used the hashtag #USProfessorSuspendedForUsingNaGe, with many viewing the move as a suppression of Chinese speech.

在人氣頗高的新浪微博上，已有1000多條帖子使用#美國教授因使用那個被停職標簽，許多人認為這一舉動是對漢語的壓制。

"Is it now forbidden to speak Chinese in the United States?" asked one Sina Weibo user.

一位新浪微博用戶問道：“現在美國禁止說漢語嗎？”

Some Chinese posters on Sina Weibo argued that USC, in suspending Prof Patton, had chosen "political correctness" over genuine change.

一些中國網友在新浪微博上表示，南加州大學讓巴頓教授停職，是選擇了“政治正確”，而不是真正的變革。

"There should be respect for differences," wrote one Weibo user.

一位微博用戶寫道：“人們應該尊重差異。”

Back in the US, USC staff and students reacted to the decision to suspend Prof Patton.

在美國，南加州大學的教職工和學生對巴頓教授的停職也有看法。

"There's no language superior to the other," Chengyan Wu, Co-President of USC Chinese Student and Scholar Association, told the university's student news organisation.

南加州大學中國學生學者協會聯合主席吳承彥（音）對該校學生新聞機構表示：“沒有哪種語言比其他語言更優越?！?/p>

"Restating the rights of one minority group should not be at the expense of violating the other," he said. "We have the right to use our own language."

他說：“重申一個少數群體的權利不應以侵犯另一個群體為代價。我們有權利使用自己的語言?！?/p>

英文來源：BBC、洛杉磯時報

翻譯&編輯：yaning