loose lips

2018/10/16 04:12:38 網誌分類: 生活

16 Oct

         US President Donald Trump is famous for his loose lips. Most politicians try not to have loose lips. Instead of loose lips, Hong Kong’s government officials are usually tight-lipped. If you are loose-lipped, it means you are very talkative (talk a lot) without being careful about what you say. Loose-lipped people often say things they shouldn’t say or don’t mean. If you have a secret you don’t want too many people to know, you should never tell it to a loose-lipped person. Although Trump is loose-lipped, he often means exactly what he says and seldom regrets what he says. Another word for “loose-lipped” is “loose-tongued”.

         To be “tight-lipped” means to have your lips pressed tightly together to show you are angry at something. But if you are tight-lipped, it also means you are unwilling to give any information about something. Was Education Secretary Kevin Yeung Yun-hung being loose-lipped last week when he suggested that schools in Hong Kong should teach Mandarin instead of Cantonese? Yeung told a radio program the global trend was to teach the Chinese language in Mandarin and suggested that experts should study if Hong Kong too should replace Cantonese with Mandarin. I do not know if Yeung Yun-hung was being loose-lipped or if he really meant what he said. But his comment caused an angry backlash.

         A backlash is a strong negative feeling by a large number of people in reaction to something, especially a political issue. After the angry backlash, Yeung Yun-hung had to twice clarify what he said on the radio program. He insisted he did not mean to say Mandarin was better than Cantonese. But he should have known Hong Kong people would get angry at the suggestion that students who learn Mandarin have an advantage over students who learn Cantonese. I have said many times before that the standard of English in Hong Kong has declined. The standard of Cantonese would also drop if schools switched to Mandarin. Hong Kong’s culture would not be the same. I suggest that Yeung Yun-hung remain tight-lipped on this issue in the future.

        ***

        　　美國總統特朗普出名嘴快（loose lips）。大部份政客都努力不去隨便說話（loose lips）。香港政府的官員則通常口密（tight-lipped）多於口快（loose lips）。若你是loose-lipped，即是說你非常健談（talkative），說話卻不太謹慎。口快（loose-lipped）的人常常說出他們不該說又或無意說出的話。若你有個秘密，不想那麼多人知道，你就永遠不要跟口疏（loose-lipped）的人透露。特朗普雖然心直口快（loose-lipped），但通常他所說的就正是他想要表達的意思，亦很少為自己說過的話後悔。“Loose-lipped”的另一個字是“loose-tongued”。

        　　To be “tight-lipped”就是你緊抿自己的嘴唇，以表達對某事的憤怒；但若你是tight-lipped，也可以解作你很口密，不願意就某事洩露任何資訊。教育局局長楊潤雄上星期建議香港的學校應以普通話而非廣東話教學，又是否口快（loose-lipped）之過？楊在一電台節目上指，全球的趨勢都是以普通話教中文，建議專家們應研究香港是否也應以普通話取代廣東話。我不知道楊潤雄是否口快（loose-lipped），抑或他這樣說時真的就是這個意思。但他的言論帶來了強烈的反對（backlash）。

        　　A backlash就是一大群人對某事，尤其是政治議題的激烈反對。在一輪激烈反對（backlash）過後，楊潤雄不得不兩度澄清他在電台上所說的話。他堅持他的意思不是要說普通話比廣東話優勝。但他本應知道，若學習普通話的學生比學廣東話的學生有優勢，這一建議會令香港人感到憤怒。我之前已經說過多遍，香港的英語水平已經下降；若學校轉用普通話教學，廣東話的水平亦會下降，香港的文化就不再一樣。我提議楊潤雄將來在這一議題上，還是閉口不言（tight-lipped）好了。

        mickchug@gmail.com

        中譯:七刻

        Michael Chugani 褚簡寧

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