节目资讯
刊物:空中英語教室
日期:2012-04-19
难易度:Medium
关键字:grammatical, immigrant, civilization, nowhere, Tagalog
Hi, friends.
Welcome to Studio Classroom Worldwide.
My name is Steve.
Thanks for joining us today.
Well, I hope for you studying a language, like English, is fun.
I hope for you it's more than just memorizing grammar rules and vocabulary for a
test.
Foreign languages have the ability to expand your world view, open your mind to
a different way of thinking and give you a fresh perspective on life.
Well, in this month's LANGUAGE feature, we're getting a new perspective by
looking into why English speakers say some of the things they do.
Let's pick up the reading with a familiar but strange English saying on page 37.
Where Did That Come From?
Long Time No See.
Americans use this phrase all the time, and most don't notice that it's not
grammatical.
Betty Kirkpatrick, in her book Cliches, reveals the reason.
This phrase is rooted in Chinese rather than English.
The expression is thought to have originated with Chinese immigrants in 19th
century America.
These English learners likley shortened the English phrase "It's been a long
time since I've seen you" into something easier for them to say.
Hi. My name is Brandon.
And my name is Kaylah.
Today we're back talking about some weird English phrases and where they come
from.
Yesterday we talked about shambles and we talked about tiding you over.
Our next phrase is Long Time No See.
"Long time no see," Kaylah.
That just means, well, I haven't seen you in a very long time.
But it sounds kind of funny to say this kind of phrase in English, right?
That's right.
Now Brandon, I think of times I say this actually quite frequently.
This is a very common English phrase now that when you haven't seen a friend in
a long time, or you're surprised,
you see someone and you're like: Wow! Long time no see.
You're surprised to see them.
It's more fun, it's a little jovial... a joke way to say something.
That's right.
And actually, in America, people say this all the time. They use this phrase all
the time.
And most of them, though, they don't notice that it's not grammatical.
It's not grammatically correct.
That's why I said it sounds kind of funny because this is not correct grammar.
That's right. It is very incorrect.
It is not "grammatical." Now you see the word "grammar" in that... in that word.
And this word just means grammatically correct.
You can just describe it as grammatical.
Betty Kirkpatrick, in her book Cliches, reveals the reason.
Now a "cliche" is something that is overuse... a phrase that is overuse.
And when people hear it, they don't really think that much about it.
They don't... It kind of loses its meaning, and people are kind of bored with
it.
Do you have any examples of cliches, Kaylah?
Well, I guess a cliche that comes to mind when we're talking about people
falling in love with each other, a very common cliche is:
"It was love at first sight," which, Brandon, sounds romantic, but we've heard
it enough times that it doesn't have the same meaning.
That's true.
Another example I can think of is: Where there's a will, there's a way.
People often say this just to mean that where you are focus and you think you
can do something, you can make something happen.
People use this phrase a lot, so people don't really think that it's a good
phrase.
It's a cliche.
It doesn't really mean much anymore.
That's right.
So cliches... these are what cliches are.
But in our article, it's talking about a book.
And she calls it Cliches.
And in it, she... gives us different reasons for phrases.
And one of them is, of course, our phrase: Long time no see.
That's right.
And this phrase is rooted in, or it's based upon Chinese rather than English.
The expression is thought to have originated with Chinese immigrants.
Yes, in the 19th century in America, as immigrants were coming over.
An "immigrant" is a person who moves from one country to another country to
live.
So if they're Chinese, they would probably come from China.
They moved to America in the early 19th century.
And this was their way of communicating; this would be a phrase that they would
say.
And that's quite interesting, Kaylah, that people, you know, you move to another
country and then others around them.
They affect others around them with their language.
And actually English is made up of a lot of words taken from other languages,
right?
That's right.
A lot of English, when we're talking about things, about food really... food has
a lot of words that are French or German or Spanish.
They come from different places.
This is just an example of a phrase that actually comes out of Chinese.
Well, these English learners likely shortened the English phrase "It's been a
long time since I've seen you" into something easier for them to say.
I'm glad they did that, Kaylah, because it is much easier just to say "long time
no see." And it's kind of fun even though you know it's not grammatically
correct.
We've taken it from the Chinese language and put it into our language.
And it's something different, something unique.
That's right.
And it's interesting, Brandon, our author is talking about the immigrants
shortening it for them to make it easier to say.
But actually, it is a literal translation from Chinese as well.
So in Chinese grammar, this would be correct.
So they just took it and put the words exactly in English in the same order.
Which is an interesting point to make: To take something from another language,
we would normally, of course, change it around to fit our grammar structure; in
this case, the English grammar structure.
But they didn't do that.
And I think one reason may be because, of course, it's shorter, but it's also
very catchy.
"Long time no see" is a very catchy phrase to use.
Well, the word "catchy," Brandon used the word "catchy" here.
That means something that can... people like and they accept it, and they start
using it.
You say "it catches on." People enjoy it.
So it's catchy.
It's the adjective of to catch on to something.
Well, we've had several phrases so far.
Yesterday we talked about tiding you over, we talked about shambles.
And now we have just talked about long time no see.
I want to encourage you, though, to think about some... some other interesting
English phrases or words and learn about them.
Find out the history behind them.
And you know what?
It may help you to remember those phrases and to use them more often because you
know the meaning behind them.
Well, that's a very good teaching point, Brandon.
It is a great way to remember words.
If you're having a hard time understanding "why do we say that in English", look
it up.
Maybe the explanation for the meaning for the phrase would actually help you
remember it.
And as always, practice your English every day and practice new sentences.
This will help you improve your English greatly.
Well, we have more to talk about, some funny English phrases, after today's
skit.
Hey! Hello, hello, hello.
I haven't seen you in a long time.
Eh... Sorry. What did you say?
I said I haven't seen you in a long time.
Uh... That's a long English sentence.
Please say it slowly one more time.
OK.
I said I have not seen you in a long... time.
Long time no see.
Oh right, long time no see.
That's easy.
Oh yes. That is Chinese.
(Chinese).
But now it's English too.
Well, I like it.
It's short and easy to understand.
Yes. I like it too.
Long time no see.
Yes. It's been ages.
Sorry?
What did you say?
It's been ages.
It's been ages.
What does that mean?
Well, "ages" means a long, long time.
So if I say, "Oh, it's been ages," it means I haven't seen you in a long time.
Long time no see.
Oh. It's been ages! Yes, yes.
Right.
So where have you been, out in the boondocks?
What did you say?
Have you been out in the boondocks?
You know, the boonies?
Boondocks?
Boonies?
Huh? I have no idea.
OK. The boondocks, or boonies, is a place far, far away from civilization.
Oh! Uh... civilization?
Um, never mind.
Nice to see you.
Have a good day.
Her English is sopoor.