中國網站品牌欄目（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) |
一項研究稱，三分之二的英國人不會說任何外語，五分之一的英國人甚至連bonjour是什么意思都不清楚。 這一研究發現似乎證實了關于英國人的一個成見，就是英國人在國外很少會努力去說當地的語言，這一點簡直都出了名。 總體來看，有64%的被調查者承認，除了英語之外，任何一門其他語言他們都是一個字也不認識。 只有三分之一（34%）的英國人說他們愿意在出國度假時嘗試著去說一門外語。 五分之一（19%）的英國人不知道hello在法語中的對應詞的意思，而這是世界上識別度最高的外語問候語之一。 63%的英國人不知道荷蘭語goedemorgen是什么意思，盡管這個詞和英語中的good morning（早上好）有著明顯的相似性。 據調查發現，英國年輕人在努力說外語這方面做得最差，年齡在16到24歲之間的英國年輕人中有將近半數（47%）承認自己從未開口說過在學校里學過的外語。 旅游網站Hotels.com 開展的這一涵蓋了2000名成人的調查發現，55歲以上的英國人中有45%說自己在國外時愿意嘗試著去講當地的語言。 在英國，所有的學生在滿14歲后都必須學習一門外語，法語、德語和西班牙語都在英國教學大綱上。 然而，只有十分之一的被調查者自認會說這三門外語中的一種。 在這部分人中，四分之一的人只會問“日常問題”，21%的人說他們的外語程度僅限于說“你好”和“再見”，五十分之一的人稱自己能完全聽懂一門外語，但不會用外語作答。 不愿嘗試去說當地語言的原因包括不想麻煩、害怕犯錯，或指望當地人會說英語。 相關閱讀 （中國日報英語點津 陳丹妮 編輯：Julie） |
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Vocabulary: bonjour: <法語> 你好 cliche: 固有的不一定正確的觀點，偏見；陳詞濫調 notoriously: 臭名昭著地，聲名狼藉地，出了名地 lingo: 方言 |
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