流行美語 Cut it out! / wishy-washy

You want someone to stop bothering you. What would you say? It starts with “Cut…”
若你要別人不再煩你，你該說什麼呢？「cut」開頭的…

這是The daily idiom的review question。

當然我已把答案寫在標題上了，要學更多的流行美語可以到「美?之音中文网站－流行美語」。



有時候我們會刻板的認為對岸介紹的美語應該是很無趣又很不「時尚」，但這個「流行美語」裡面出現的完完全全名符其實，很多時候我在網上閱讀英文部落格文章看到的一些字詞，大多可以在這裡找的到，有一男一女的對話，此外還解說的很詳細呢。

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要收聽和看內容：
cut it out (第二段)

flip flop / wishy-washy

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是不是在放暑假了呢？若你想利用暑假好好加強英文的話，是一個不錯的idea，好好加油！

beef

本篇不是要講美國牛肉又被禁(U.S. beef imports banned again)的新聞，而是要提它另一個俚語上的意思。請看幾個例句，試著猜猜它的意思。

My personal beef is the traffic and the attendant air pollution.

My main beef about the job is that I have to work on Saturdays.

猜出來了嗎？

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beef 在這指的是牢騷、抱怨，可當名詞也可當動詞。

Taiwan sucks?

不少來台灣教英文的人心中或多或少總會有些怨懟，工作、生活、天氣、空氣、環境等，我在此就貼個文章，若想閱讀更多的意見的話，可以到這裡來看看。

Taiwan sucks?!?! Give me a break!
台灣會很爛？！？！饒了我吧！

I have been in Taiwan for almost six months, and I have to say that my experience has been nothing but pleasurable. You'll read things like you won't get your rent deposit back, your employer will screw you over, the work is drying up, and that Taiwan generally sucks.

To retort to all of those comments. Technically you won't get your rent deposit back, you will get your last two months free, and try to through a realtor because it is safer.

Next, if you don't want your boss to screw you, then don't piss him off. I am one of six foreign teachers in my school and the others can always find reasons to complain. Consequently they're their positions are no longer guaranteed. You have to realiz realize there are going to be things about the school you don't like, but you are not there to change policy, you are there to a job, work hard and so you shall reap the benefits. Coming to Taiwan is not a free ride, people think it's easy money and when things don't go the way they planned then they finds things to blame ontheir employer or the country.

In terms of the work drying up, just make sure you've secured a job before you come down here.

And does Taiwan suck, like any place it is what you make it, you decide whether or not you want to be miserable, don't dwell on all the negative aspects and you'll be happy. Of course there are bad employers out there, just do your hokmework before you sign a contract.

Things are different here and if you are not willing (to) exept accept those differneces differences and adapt to them, then don't come, but when things don't go your way then don't be quick to blame everyone else but yourself.

If you want to make sure that your experience will be as great as mine contact me and I can help you, but don't velieve believe all the crap about about Taiwan being a huge mistake, that person was obviously only in it for the money, you need to really be interested in teaching, otherwise naturally you won't be happy.

By the way my boss is great, he loaned me the money to get on my feet and to go to Hong Kong when I accidentally overstayed my Visa.

Another thing, a lot of these attacks on schools could be rival schools, the business is very competitive.

But just do your job and you won't be a bitter teacher like all the rest you read about.

give me a break
=have a heart (give me a chance, be kind to me)
=cut me some slack (give me a chance)

來唱歌囉--Old MacDonald Had a Farm

請按此－＞

Old MacDonald had a farm.
E-I-E-I-O.
And on his farm he had a duck.
E-I-E-I-O.
With a quack quack here and a quack quack there.
Here a quack, there a quack, everywhere a quack quack.
Old MacDonald had a farm.
E-I-E-I-O.


要看註解及學更多的英文歌曲，請至：

Learn a Song Podcast (MP3 Files to Help You Learn Songs in English)

歌曲皆為多數當地人所熟知的，也是在團康活動會唱或是學校會學到的歌曲，算是他們文化的一部分。

How to improve pronunciation and fluency (BBC Learning English)

全文請見Improve your pronunciation and fluency
→ 聽內容

發音和流利度是不同的:

Pronunciation is getting the sounds right, and of course it's also getting the intonation and the rhythm right – it's not just individual sounds, it's pushing them all together.

Fluency perhaps overlaps there a little bit. Fluency is saying things easily. Being fluent is more a question of being confident in the vocabulary, and how to put the words together in the grammar – being confident in that - …and just being confident in your ability to express yourself and having a go.

It's those psychological factors much more than whether you can get your tongue around the individual sounds. In fact people whose pronunciation is poor, but who speak fluently and put it together and get it out reasonably quickly, are usually easier to understand than people who’re taking a lot of trouble over their pronunciation and therefore are slowing themselves down, and speaking one word at a time.

最後，Martin先生給了個不錯的建議:
When you're speaking, don't think about the individual sounds and getting those right. Think about groups of words, and think about meaningful groups of words, and getting those out as quickly and as smoothly as you can.

當在說話的時候，不要去想個別的發音也不要太專注於把發音都發對，而該去想整個字組和有意義的字組，並快且順的將它們表達出來。

What the heck?

月初才剛設的「英文寫作練習區」<見下圖>，竟然被「倒」了…太慘了，害我花了一些時間分類呢，只好跟之前加入的幾位說聲抱歉了，才開張就…，沒辦法畢竟那是免費的論壇，沒保障。

白人哭窮，不想被當cracker

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Joe是我在美國羽球場上結識的一位白人朋友！平常老聽他喊窮，由於一般印象裡，白人在美國是收入較豐、社會地位較高的族群，所以對於Joe的抱怨頗不以為然。Joe看我一副不以為意的樣子，故意眨眨眼睛促狹說：「I am a cracker！」


鄉村貧富差距大

乍聽到這個詞，我直接聯想到餅乾之類的零食，原本還以為Joe是說他窮到只能以餅乾之類的零食果腹。後來經由Joe的解說，我才知道「cracker」 是指窮苦白人的意思！

Joe也跟我聊到，美國是貧富差距很大的國家，像他的家鄉在印第安那州的一個小鎮，除了種玉米外，也沒有什麼其他的經濟活動，所以居民的生活普遍窮困，像家裡的家具或日用品，根本買不起全新的，都是二手的，而且一修再修，直到破爛到無法修復才拋棄，而這種情形在美國很多鄉下地方都很普遍。這讓我不禁懷疑，DIY這種習慣，是不是在美國一些經濟狀況較差的地方才比較盛行？

有趣的是，Joe反而覺得台灣來的人普遍都很富裕，生活過得很不錯。Joe舉他哥哥的經驗為例，他哥哥在美國中西部的車行工作，所接觸的客人中，台灣人最闊綽，買起新車多是一次付清，反倒是當地的美國人，買車多是買二手的，而且很多是用分期付款的方式！


台灣比美國富裕

這讓我覺得很好玩，許多台灣人嚮往美國人的生活，以為美國就是富裕的代名詞，沒想到其實在一些美國人眼中，台灣才真正是富裕的同義字！不知道究竟是美國的月亮圓？還是台灣的月亮圓？

跟Joe越來越熟後，我偶爾也會鬧著叫他「cracker」，而他也都會應我！

後來有一次打完球，有位球友提議大夥一起去吃飯，大家都舉手覆議，只有Brian（也是白人）表示說，他沒帶錢包出門，不能去。我直覺地冒出一句：「You are a cracker ！」原本以為是幽默，沒想到卻引起全場白人一陣譁然！Joe急著幫我打圓場，並且跟我解釋說，這個「c word」是黑人用來貶抑白人的字，就好像白人貶抑黑人的「n word」（Negro）一樣是很不好的字，在公眾場合千萬不能亂說！我這下才恍然大悟，原來白人稱自己是cracker，可能是一種幽默，但是別人叫白人cracker，那可能就是皮在癢了！

在人家的地盤上，罩子還是放亮點比較好！



笨狸╱現居美國（研究員）