中国人该练练口才了
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编者按：随着北京2008年奥运会的逼近，民众越来越关心“中国”品牌的树立，学习英语的热情也被点燃。越来越多的外宣干部和业内同行向我们表达了期待看到双语栏目的愿望。因此，我们自2006年第1期起开办了《双语视窗》栏目以满足广大读者的需求。
看看周围的媒体，在《北京青年报》、《参考消息》、《国门时报》上有许多精粹的小短文，像一只只啄木鸟，善意地提醒了中国人习以为常的行为背后“尚未和国际接轨”的细节，读后让人回味不已。在获得借鉴意义的同时，也带来更深入的思考。我们效仿中英文对照的版面形式，旨在通过外国友人的视角来看中国，从中折射出东西方观念、习俗的异同。通过一篇篇这样的文章，让读者在领略异域文化的同时，也能达到学习英语的目的。
当我就读于美国耶鲁大学时，有幸遇到了很多有天分的中国学生。虽然他们在美国已经上了几年学，但在与美国人的交往上仍有很大困难。“我掌握了那么多的英语单词，语法也很棒，”他们常常这样对我说，“但我还是不能与美国人很好地交流。”
问题在于，虽然他们拥有了一部机器的所有零件，但却缺乏一种简单的理论使这部机器变得有实际用途。“虽然你对英文理解得很好，”我说，“但你还没有理解当地人是如何使用该语言来达到他们的目的。”当我来到北京开始教授英语时，我意识到对于如何在社会中运用语言这一能力的掌握，不仅在课堂上缺乏，而且在生活的多个层面都很缺乏。
有一次，一名中国女足球队球迷的美国人对我说：“为什么没有人去看她们踢球？那是因为人们觉得没太大意思。”
“是的，没人对中国女足感兴趣，”我说，“因为人们不相信女人踢球有什么意思。”
“但是如果女足球队有善于公关的人，使人们对女足感兴趣，其结果就可能说服人们认同女足是有意思的。你可知道一个出色的广告人，曾把佛罗里达州变成了老年人喜欢的度假地，并使人们相信冬天吃冰激凌是个好主意？而市场营销与公关在中国尚不存在。”
他最后的结论恐怕过于夸张，但有一点是真实的，那就是中国人缺乏市场营销与公关技巧，这是因为人们缺乏对如何应用语言的精妙理解。缺乏这种精妙的理解，就不可能创造出市场与公关技巧，甚至不容易从其他文化中来借鉴。美国人之所以精于市场与公关，是因为他们懂得语言的力量。如果中国人想与西方人沟通，就必须了解这种力量。而达到这一理念的道路就是运用语言的技能。在西方，源于修辞学的一些原则在指导着语言的应用，以阐述观点。
对于不同的人来说，修辞学意味着不同的内容。但基本上说来，它是对作为力量的语言的分析――一种与他人交流并说服别人接受你的观点的方法，但语言也是了解你自己和周围世界的一种力量。
因此，语言技巧就是关于交流与表达自我的技巧。在你使别人理解你的想法和感受之前，你首先要理解别人的想法和感受。比如，如果你是个想找工作的西方人，在你向公司提出要求之前，首先要努力向公司说明你能为公司做些什么。正如美国人所说的，在面试之前，必须做“家庭作业”：搞清该公司的经营范围，公司需要的是什么，公司负责人在求职者身上寻求的是什么，然后，以你所了解到的这些资料为基准，尽可能多地表现自己。从根本上说这就意味着你必须琢磨、组织、调整你的语言，以适应你的听众。
存在于语言技巧背后的想法则是，我们只能通过语言来理解这个世界，是语言，沟通了我们对世界与他人的理解。因此，能够驾驭语言的人就能构筑（甚至也能驾驭）别人的观念。这就是为什么在美国市场营销与公关如此盛行，因为美国人相信语言可以用来改变人们的思维方式，可以用来表现自己。
中国人视谦虚为美德，也很容易将自我表现视为傲慢。他们往往自我反省，甚至很内向。让人觉得有点奇怪的是，中国人将语言技巧视为与西方人的好辩和直言不讳是同样不可接受的东西。但是，如果一个中国人希望与美国人交流，就应首先了解西方人运用语言的方式。如果一个中国人增强了语言技巧的意识，最终他会发现，在生活中的某个领域，他已经在不知不觉地使用着语言技巧了。
修辞技巧远非仅仅是语言的问题，它终归是生活与生存的理论。
作者曾是美国最具影响力的高等教育周刊
While I was studying at Yale, I had the good fortune to meet many intelligent and talented Chinese students that, even though they had been studying in the US for a few years, still had great difficulty in communicating with Americans.“I know so many English words and my grammar is perfect,” they would say to me, “but I still cannot communicate very well with Americans.”
The problem is that although they have all the parts to make the machine, they lack the simple theory to make the machine functional. “Although you understand English wellenough,” I would reply,“you still don’t understand hownative speakers use the language to achieve their ends.” When I came to Beijing to teach English, I realized that this grasp of how language is used socially was absent not only in the classroom but also in all walks of life.
An American who is a fan of the Chinese women’s football team once said to me, “Why is it that no one goes towatch the team?It’s because they don’t believe it’s interesting enough.”
“Right. No one is interested in the Chinese women’s football team,” I replied, “because they don’t believe thatit’s interesting.”
“But if the team had someone competent to handle public relations, then that person could make people interested in the team - could, in effect, persuade people that it was interesting. Did you know that a good advertiser was able to turn Florida into a favorite vacation spot for old people and convince people that eating ice cream in winter was a good idea? Marketing and public relations don’t exist in China.”
His last remark was perhaps an exaggeration, but it is substantially true that Chinese lack marketing and public relations skills. And this is because they lack a subtle understanding of how language can be used. Without that understanding, they cannot create these skills or even readily assimilate them from other cultures. Americans are so adept at marketing and PR because they understand the power of language. If Chinese wish to communicate with Westerners, they must also come to understand this power.The path to such an understanding is the field known as rhetoric. Principles derived from rhetoric govern the use of language to shape opinion in the West.
Rhetoric means different things to different people, but essentially it is the analysis of language as power - as a way to communicate with others and persuade them to accept your views, but also as power to understand yourself and the world around you.
Thus rhetoric is about communication and self-expression.And you must first understand how others think and feel before you can enable them to understand how you think and feel.For example, if you were a Westerner applying for a job, you would first strive to tell the firm what you could do for them before telling the firm what they could do for you.As Americans put it, you have to do your homework before you go to a serious job interview:find out what the company does, what it needs, what its executives are looking for in potential employees.Then as much as possible present yourself in line with what you’ve discovered.Essentially this means that you must plan, order and adjust your words to suit your audience.
The assumption behind rhetoric is that we can only comprehend the world through language; it is language that shapes our understanding of the world and others. Accordingly, someone who can control language can shapeand perhaps even control others’ perceptions.That is why in America marketing and public relations are so pervasive-because Americans believe that language can be used to change the way people think, and that language is used to express oneself.
The Chinese view modesty as a virtue and easily equate self-expression with arrogance; they tend to be introspective, even introverted.
Little wonder then that they find rhetoric as alien as Western argumentativeness and outspokenness. However, if a Chinese wishes to communicate with an American, then heshould understand the Western approach to language first. And if a Chinese develops an awareness of rhetoric, he may eventually discover that he too, in some sphere or other of his life, has been using rhetoric without knowing it.
In the end, rhetoric is more than just an approach to language- it is a theory of life and living.
（感谢《北京青年报》“双语视窗”栏目张爱学编辑对本文提供的支持。）
责编：周瑾