VOA双语新闻 Americans Misuse Chinese Characters

From the moment Spaniards -- or was it Vikings? -- first dropped anchor and encountered the natives whom the Spanish called Indians (because they thought they had landed in India), the land now known as America has been a multicultural¹ place. And of course it's much more so today. Just check out our faces and dialects and music.

从西班牙"海盗"第一次放下船锚并遇到当地土著人的那一刻，当今的美国就一直是有着多元文化的地方。西班牙人称当地土人为印第安人是因为他们认为他们是在印第安登的陆。当然在现在更是如此，只要看看我们的面孔，听听我们的方言和音乐就明白了。

And our signs -- in English, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, and more. Well, maybe it's Chinese.

还有我们的标牌，用英语，西班牙语，阿拉伯语还有汉语标示的等等。啊，没准它就是用汉语标的。

Mandarin² Chinese characters, called Hanzi, are hot right now. They're a popular decoration on clothing and artwork and tattoos⁴.

普通话字符被称为汉字，在当今也非常火呀。它们是衣服，艺术品和纹身上流行的装饰。

But as Tian Tang, a young Chinese American who's a graduate student at Arizona State University, points out on his Internet website, Hanzismatter.com, an awful lot of these characters are just plain wrong. Some are not even Chinese at all, but pretty little ink strokes that sort of look Chinese.

但是亚利桑那州立大学的年青美籍华人研究生唐田,在他的的网站上指出有很多的汉字是写错了的。一些甚至根本就不是汉字，只有没有学问的人才会写出那种汉语来。

Mr. Tang's site shows us a colorful shirt decorated with a powerful, leaping tiger. Next to the beast are nine Chinese characters. But they translate into gibberish -- words like unicorn⁵ and chicken and superficial. Not one of the characters has anything to do with tigers, or even cats.

唐先生的网站向我们展示了一件颜色鲜艳饰有一只结实跃起的猛虎的衬衫。在老虎旁边写着九个汉字。但是他们都翻译成了难以理解的话，像独角兽，小鸡和肤浅这样的词汇。这些汉字中没有一个和老虎有什么联系，或者甚至是猫科动物。

Other Hanzi, delicately tattooed⁶ onto a woman's back, translate as crazy diarrhea. Surely this wasn't what she ordered from the tattoo³ artist.

另外，被精美的纹在一位女士后背的汉字，译成为"疯狂痢疾"。这当然一定不是她从纹身艺人那里定制的。

So, America is a multicultural melting pot. But reading the signs doesn't always tell you who you're melting with.

所以美国是一个多元文化的熔炉。但仅阅读这些标示并不意味着你也熔于其中了。
 

1 multicultural   

adj.融合多种文化的，多种文化的

参考例句：

• Children growing up in a multicultural society.在多元文化社会中长大的孩子们。
• The school has been attempting to bring a multicultural perspective to its curriculum.这所学校已经在尝试将一种多元文化视角引入其课程。

2 Mandarin   

n.中国官话，国语，满清官吏；adj.华丽辞藻的

参考例句：

• Just over one billion people speak Mandarin as their native tongue.大约有十亿以上的人口以华语为母语。
• Mandarin will be the new official language of the European Union.普通话会变成欧盟新的官方语言。

3 tattoo   

n.纹身，(皮肤上的)刺花纹；vt.刺花纹于

参考例句：

• I've decided to get my tattoo removed.我已经决定去掉我身上的纹身。
• He had a tattoo on the back of his hand.他手背上刺有花纹。

4 tattoos   

n.文身( tattoo的名词复数 )；归营鼓；军队夜间表演操；连续有节奏的敲击声v.刺青，文身( tattoo的第三人称单数 )；连续有节奏地敲击；作连续有节奏的敲击

参考例句：

• His arms were covered in tattoos. 他的胳膊上刺满了花纹。
• His arms were covered in tattoos. 他的双臂刺满了纹身。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 unicorn   

n.(传说中的)独角兽

参考例句：

• The unicorn is an imaginary beast.独角兽是幻想出来的动物。
• I believe unicorn was once living in the world.我相信独角兽曾经生活在这个世界。

6 tattooed   

v.刺青，文身( tattoo的过去式和过去分词 )；连续有节奏地敲击；作连续有节奏的敲击

参考例句：

• He had tattooed his wife's name on his upper arm. 他把妻子的名字刺在上臂上。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The sailor had a heart tattooed on his arm. 那水兵在手臂上刺上一颗心。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》