He sounded like a machine

2011/12/06 08:46:06 網誌分類: 生活

06 Dec

        　　I was tickled to hear Kowloon Hospital chief executive Dr Hobby Cheung Kwong-yu speak English recently. His English went beyond bureaucrat-speak. It sounded more like robot-speak！ Dr Cheung was talking about his hospital's medical blunder, which caused the death of a throat cancer patient. The patient suffocated after hospital staff improperly bandaged the tracheotomy hole in his neck. Even though the death was tragic, Dr Cheung spoke in an unfeeling way, using formal words and sentences. He sounded like a machine. Mother-tongue English speakers do not normally speak that way. That's why I call it robot-speak.

        I don't have space to repeat everything he said but here's one sentence: "At this juncture, we don't have evidence to support or to dis-support the cause of death as related to this method of care of the tracheotomy hole." There is no such word as dis-support. He could have said "to prove or to disprove." Also, people seldom use the word "juncture" nowadays when they talk. I only hear Hong Kong government officials use it. But the sentence itself doesn't treat the dead patient as a human being. It sounds more like a lawyer talking about evidence than a doctor talking about the tragic death from a medical blunder.

        To tickle means to touch a person's body in a way that causes laughter. But to be tickled is also an expression that means to be amused by something. I am always tickled by young women who put on make-up in crowded MTR trains. A robot is a machine resembling a person that can do certain things that human beings do. The Japanese are good at making robots. A blunder is a careless or stupid mistake. To suffocate means to die from not being able to breathe. Dr Cheung could have sounded more like a caring doctor than a robot by saying: "At this point we don't know the exact cause of the patient's tragic death."

        ＊＊＊

        最近九龍醫院行政總裁張光宇的英語講話，令我不禁發笑（tickled）。他的英語比官腔更不如，簡直就是機械人式說話（robot-speak）。當時張光宇正交代九龍醫院一宗嚴重醫療事故，事件引致一名咽喉癌病人死亡。醫護人員不恰當地處理病人喉嚨氣道（tracheotomy）造口上的紗布，之後病人就窒息（suffocated）死亡。雖然事件是一宗悲劇，但張光宇以無情的語調，官式字句交代事故。他的聲音像發自機器。正常來說，英語人士不會如此說話，所以我稱之為機械人式說話（robot-speak）。

        　　我沒有篇幅重複張光宇的全部講話，但我要指出其中一句話：「在這時候（At this juncture），我們沒有證據證明或否定（dis-support）病人的死因跟氣道造口的處理方法有關。」根本沒有dis-support這字，他可以說to prove或to disprove。同樣，現今很少人說juncture，我只聽到港府官員說這字；但以上的說話沒有把死去的病人當人看待，像律師談論證據，多於醫生講述一宗涉及人命的嚴重醫療事故悲劇。

        　　Tickle解呵癢至令人發笑。To be tickled是一句習語，意指被某事物逗笑了。年輕女郎在擠擁的地鐵車廂化妝的情景，時常令我發笑（tickled）。Robot解機械人，模仿人類行為的機器，日本人擅長製造機械人。Blunder指不小心或愚蠢的錯誤。Suffocate指無法呼吸，以致死亡。張光宇可以關懷，不那麼機械化的口吻說：「在這刻（At this point），我們不知道引致病人悲慘離逝的確實原因。」

        mickchug@gmail.com

        中譯: 利以嘉

        Michael Chugani 褚簡寧

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