IRS 有书面来往(代表客户找他们解决争端)。 刚开始的时候他老板开玩笑说：“不看你的落款名字，就从那么些the， a， an, 和in， at， on这些上面的小错误上，就能知道这不是“native English speaker" 写的东西！”其实这些代词，介词和副词的用法， 是中国人写(和说)英文最容易犯的毛病，也是最难改的地方。其他常犯的错误还有时态的混淆，人称的混淆, 人称的单复数和动词单复数不匹配， 动名词和进行时的用法区别，从句到底应该用which, who, whom, 还是 that 起头等等, 主动被动语态的区别(经典例子："Im bored" vs "Im boring"), 以及经典的 "He", "She" 不分！这些对于土生土长的美国人是“second nature”的东西，到了我们这里，就往往卡壳，得要多想一下，才能找到合适的搭配。 比如，到底是“He got a job at Google", 还是 "He got a job in Google"? “The God bless you", "He should make efforts", "We have done it at our last meeting", 都是很常见的错误。有些东西在我们看来是“无伤大雅”的小毛病，但对于美国人来讲，就会觉得别扭，久而久之形成你英文不够好的印象。还有很多见的，比如把“its" 写成 "its"，该用“e.g." (meaning "for example")的时候用“i.e.” (meaning "that is"), "different from" 用成 "different than" 等等。当然这些错误，美国人也会犯(我就经常遇到学生把“loose" 和"lose", "affect"和 "effect" 甚至"youre"和 "your"混着用，drive me nuts!
这里随手摘几句我遇到看到的例子，大家来做个“改错”练习吧：
1) The test results, therefore, can illustrate how location and strategic factors interacting to determine the performance level of an foreign enterprise in the emerging economy.
2) I was absent because I sent my friend to the hospital yesterday.
3) I prefer this assignment than the other one.
4) How to say?
5) Im going to home tomorrow.
6) China and Japan are the largest economy in East Asia.
7) To illustrate how entrepreneurs to create value in the early stages of start ups.....
8) There are not consistent findings on....
9) However, few researches focus on the explanation to the differently effeccts of .....
10) Especially in the US as the largest economy....
Palmtree: You are right, "researches" and "tardinesses" are not the right words. I guess a rule of thumb to live by is: when something sounds awkward, it is perhaps not right;).
I didn't go over all the messages posted here, so maybe someone has already pointed it out. But it's a big mistake to say "researches". "Research" is an uncountable noun, so you can say either "research" or "streams of research". Many of my Chinese and Korea students make this mistake over and over again when they write papers, to the point once during a meeting one of my American colleagues asked me, "Why does every single one of them say 'researches'in their papers?" By the look in their eyes, I can tell what they mean: This should be so obvious. But as some of you have already pointed out, this may be that obvious to us. For the same reason, it cannot be "tardinesses". It has be something like "two counts of tardiness".
昭君，pleasantries aside, allow me, if I may, to offer my 2 cents’ worth on the challenge of acquiring foreign language proficiency:
The path to mastering a non-native language can be treacherous, and at best a challenge. The main reason why colloquial (or native) English competency is hard for a foreign person to achieve is simple: language, as the saying goes, is usage. It is the constant reading, speaking, listening, thinking etc. - in short “immersion” in an English-language milieu - that will lead to proficiency. You will know that you’re on the road to proficiency when you realize you are starting to “think” in the English language. Then, and only then, will you be able to go with the “flow” and achieve full competency.
It is not an impossible feat. Just look at 大山’s (Mark Rowswell) mastery of Mandarin. Just as he has done it with Chinese, so it will be the same for us with English.
(I should at this point confess that, I too, was not born with an English mother tongue.)
請教昭君，寳媽改好的這句中：“1) The test results, therefore, can illustrate how location and strategic factors interact to determine the performance level of an foreign enterprise in the emerging economy. ”， “ an foreign enterprise"是不是應該改爲“a foreign enterprise”?
In addition to preposition (such as “of”, “in”, or “to”) and article (“the” or “a”) that are especially difficult for Chinese to master, singular or plural of a noun is another difficult thing to get familiar with. One good solution to this problem is to have a “LONGMAN English Dictionary” in which [C] (Countable) or [U] (Uncountable) is explicitly indicated for each noun. For example, it says: ---tardiness n[U].
昭君：出去一趟，回来一看，这么多跟贴啦。 有你儿子做主，我就那么用了，也许他们老美乍一听有点儿别扭，多听听就习惯了，就像Long time no see，他们的耳朵不也是给听顺了嘛。以后常给他们“灌输”点儿Chinglish.
另外两个说法也行，Two cases of tardiness equal one absence. We will count two tardiness as one absence (这里的two tardiness，我不确定是否要复数，可是复数的话就更别扭了（two tardinesses?)
Likewise:). I'm glad we share the same interest in music.
Coolboy: I agree that in general females have better language skills, which is one of the reasons why Chinese females have easier time in the corporate world here than their male counterparts. I wrote about this in an ealier piece, which I just added to the related link list. Your last sentence about male and female cooks really amused me - I have the same opinion on this topic:).
The rules of a language (i.e., grammar) only cover the very basics. It requires many times of practice to remember all the special cases (such as “prefer to” rather than “prefer than”) to become good at English. Females are generally better than males in learning new languages including English. This is also similar to the situation of cooking where women are generally better than men in cooking though best cookers in the world are mainly male cookers.
As I write this I am listening to David Oistrakh's superb rendition of Tchaikovsky's violin concerto (which you had earlier posted in these pages, and which I am very fortunate to have come across). Your breadth of interests and prolific writings in BOTH languages are indeed formidable.
二 参照系不对。是否再在语言上投资取决于自己是否满足于现状。一旦发现能时常揪出学生的语法错误，美国同事写的东西也决非无懈可击，就很容易认为够用了。加之专业方面的压力挑战巨大，在这方面的投资功利明显，产出直接与个人的事业，钱途挂钩，谁还会再去抠语言呢。况且我们还有一个Non-native speaker 的保护伞呢。但问题是决定你的论文能否发表是那些学术刊物的编辑和REVIEWERS，决定你能 否转正，提职，晋升是这样那样的委员会的学究和官僚们，而不是一般学生或闲聊的同事。因此， 你在是否用 a 还是 the 上犯的错误就可能是你失去人生道路上的一次重要机会的充分理由。
Haha,according to my son, you could say "Two tardies equal one absence", even though "tardy" is not a noun:). Or maybe "two cases of tardiness equal an absence".
我看见有人这么说：“Two tardies equal one absence”，这是肯定不对的，因为tardy不是名词。我问一个美国人，他的第一反应是，不行不行，这可不对。然后他就使劲儿想，试了很多句子，都很长。最后他又回到我说的那个句子，琢磨了琢磨，点点头说：“那样说也行”。哈哈，老美可真够easy-going的。
The only different answer I'll give is for No. 6: Although many people use this expression, experts say that it should be "How do you say...", not "How to say...".
Good article. Cannot agree more. I am a fan of yours and this is my first posting. Here is my try:
1) The test results, therefore, can illustrate how location and strategic factors interact to determine the performance level of an foreign enterprise in the emerging economy.
2) I was absent because I took my friend to the hospital yesterday.
3) I prefer this assignment to the other one.
4) How to say it?
5) I'm going home tomorrow.
6) China and Japan are the largest economies in East Asia.
7) To illustrate how entrepreneurs create value in the early stages of start ups.....
8) There are no consistent findings on....
9) However, few researches focus on the explanation of the different effects of .....
