(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
JUDY WOODRUFF: We have all heard of racial profiling, but what about accent profiling? Hernan Diaz is the associate director of the Hispanic Institute at Columbia University, and his first novel was just nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Those are certainly accomplishments, and yet he possesses something else that sets him apart. That's tonight's In My Humble Opinion.
HERNAN DIAZ, Author, "In the Distance": I work at a university in New York with a large population of international students. Walking around campus the other day, I was perplexed to see flyers advertising accent reduction or even accent elimination. Having been born in Argentina, grown up in Sweden, and spent most of my life in the United States, I have, to some degree, a foreign accent in every language I speak. Something in my Spanish makes taxi drivers in Buenos Aires ask me where I'm from. In Swedish, my accent is very slight, but I have the vocabulary of a 12-year-old. In my early 20s, I lived in London for a couple of years, which left its mark. But the fact is, I got English almost as a gift, through Swedish. And there is still a Scandinavian lilt in there. Does my accent need correcting? I don't think so. To sound like who, exactly? A native speaker? What would that even mean? Looking at accent-reduction classes online, the third hit I got wasn't aimed at Eastern European or South American immigrants. It actually read, "Want to get rid of your New York accent?" An accent can be a stigma, even within native speakers of the same language. These variations, determined by geography, class, and race, are always identified with stereotypes, and fleeing from one means embracing another. In England a Russian writer may adopt an upper-crust British accent. In California, a Texan actor may aspire to a San Fernando Valley cadence. Even though everybody has an accent, there certainly is such a thing as accent discrimination. Most of us have either suffered or witnessed it at some point. I can easily tell when I'm not being understood or when someone is underscoring a difference in pronunciation just to show me my place, because accent discrimination is, in the end, all about place, who belongs and who doesn't. An accent is the echo of one language or tone in another. I, for one, enjoy these ghostly presences of something strange in a familiar environment. They are a reminder of the fact that language doesn't belong to anyone, not even to its native speakers. Language is shared. It is, in principle, a space where everyone is welcome and cooperates toward mutual comprehension. And the very fact that there are accents in the first place, the fact that we can still understand each other through all the differences, is the most conclusive proof of the hospitality at the heart of every language.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Pulitzer Prize nominee Hernan Diaz.
重点解析
1.identify with 认同
She would only play a role if she could identify with the character
她只愿扮演她能认同的角色。
2.grow up 成长
A variety of heavy industries grew up alongside the port.
各种重工业沿着港口逐渐发展起来。
3.be nominated for 提名
Practically every movie he made was nominated for an Oscar.
他执导的影片几乎每部都获得过奥斯卡奖提名。
4.a couple of 几个
I almost lasted the two weeks. I only had a couple of days to do.
我几乎撑过了这两个星期。我只有几天时间去做。
5.belong to 属于
While the two are only days apart in age they seem to belong to wholly different generations
尽管这两人年龄上只相差几天，他们却好像是属于完全不同时代的人。
参考译文
朱迪·伍德拉夫：我们都听说过种族定性，但口音定性呢？哥伦比亚大学西班牙语研究院副院长埃尔南·迪亚斯推出首部小说作品，并获普利策奖提名。这些自然是他的成就，但还有一些东西，让他与众不同。就在今晚《管见所及》栏目。
埃尔南·迪亚斯，作者，《远方》：我在纽约的一所大学工作，这里有很多留学生。前几天我在校园里闲逛，看到有不少广告传单，上面写着要减轻口音甚至消除口音，对此我感到非常困惑。我出生在阿根廷，成长于瑞典，又在美国度过了我的一生，在某种程度上，我所说的每种语言中，都夹杂着外国口音。我讲西班牙语有口音，以至于布宜诺斯艾利斯的出租车司机问我是哪里人。在瑞典，我的口音很轻，但我的词汇量只有12岁。那时我20岁出头，在伦敦住了几年，于是留下了它的印记。但事实上，我通过瑞典语很容易就学会了英语。但我的口音里仍有斯堪的纳维亚人的痕迹。我的口音需要纠正吗？我不这么认为。听起来像是谁？ 母语是英语的人？ 那意味着什么呢？在网上看口音规范课，我受到的第三次打击不是针对东欧或南美移民的。它实际上说的是：“想摆脱你的纽约口音吗？”口音可能是一种耻辱，即使是在母语为同一种语言的人群当中。这些差异，由地理、阶级和种族决定，总是以刻板的印象来加以辨识，人们看待口音的方式总是非常偏执。在英国，俄罗斯作家可能会操着上流社会的英国口音。在加利福尼亚州，得克萨斯州的演员可能想要一个圣费尔南多山谷的节奏。尽管每个人都有口音，但口音歧视肯定存在。这种歧视，我们大多数人在某个时刻都遭遇过或目睹过。我可以很容易地知道，什么时候别人没有理解我的意思，或者有人通过口音的差异来证明我的来源地，因为口音歧视最终与地方有关，谁来自这里，谁不属于这里。重音是一种语言或另一种语言中语调的回声。我，在一个熟悉的环境中，享受这些奇怪的东西。它们提醒人们，语言不属于任何人，甚至不属于母语者。语言是共享的。原则上，这是一个人人都欢迎，相互合作，相互理解的空间。事实上，首先口音是存在的，而虽然存在这些差异，我们仍然可以通过它们彼此互相了解，这是最有说服力的证据，证明热情才是每种语言的核心。
朱迪·伍德拉夫：普利策奖提名人埃尔南·迪亚斯。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
