《中英對照讀新聞》Shanghainese told to mind their language for Expo 上海人：為了世博，注意語言

◎ 陳宜君

Residents of China's richest and most cosmopolitan city, Shanghai, have been told to brush up their command of the national language ahead of the 2010 World Expo to avoid confusing visitors, state media said.

中國最富有、都會程度最高的城市上海的居民，已被告知須在2010年世界博覽會之前加強其國語能力，以免造成參觀者困惑，國營媒體如此表示。

The Shanghai government will require people who speak bad Mandarin to attend remedial classes in the run up to the exposition “to end the confusion,” the China Daily said.

上海政府將要求普通話不標準的民眾參加矯正班，直到博覽會登場為止，「以終止混淆」，中國日報說。

Many Shanghainese prefer using their own dialect, unintelligible to other Chinese, and speak Mandarin with a thick accent hard to understand to other speakers.

許多上海人喜歡使用其他華人聽不懂的特有方言，說起普通話則帶有其他說話者難以理解的濃厚腔調。

“Chinese see Shanghainese as a foreign language,” Shanghai government spokeswoman Jiao Yang told reporters. “As we open up to the world, especially for the Expo, it's vital to promote Mandarin.”

「中國人把上海話視為外國語言，」上海政府發言人焦揚（譯音）對記者表示。「當我們對世界開放，尤其是為了博覽會，推廣普通話相當重要。」

All service industry workers would also have to pass a Mandarin test before 2010 and greet customers in Mandarin, the newspaper added, though they can then chat to customers in Shanghainese.

所有服務業人員也必須在2010年前通過普通話檢測，並以普通話接待顧客，該報補充說，雖然他們接下來可用上海話和顧客閒話家常。

新聞辭典

brush up：片語，溫習、重新學習、提升…的知識。例句：I must brush up （on）my French before I go to Paris.（去巴黎前，我得好好溫習法語。）

mandarin：名詞，在本文中指國語（中國稱為普通話）。mandarin orange是橘子，mandarin duck則是鴛鴦。此字亦可指達官貴人，但有時帶有貶損之意。

command：名詞，此處當掌握、運用能力解釋。例句：He has a good command of the details.（他對細節極為了解）

run：名詞，此處為一連串（事件）、連續之意。例句：I've had a run of bad luck recently.（我最近一直很倒楣。）

up to：片語，在本文指直到…，亦可作up till。例句：He was here up to three minutes ago.（他在這裡一直待到3分鐘之前。）