导读:英语成为世界语言，英语母语者就不用再学外语？研究称外国人可以用英语自由交谈，然而母语者却往往很难让人听懂。
It was just one word in one email, but it triggered huge financial losses for a multinational company.
那只是一封电子邮件中的一个字，但是却导致一家跨国公司经受了巨大的金融损失。
The message, written in English, was sent by a native speaker to a colleague for whom English was a second language. Unsure of the word, the recipient found two contradictory meanings in his dictionary. He acted on the wrong one.
这封邮件由英语写成，由一名英语母语者发给一名英语是第二语言的同事。由于不清楚这个词的含义，收信人查了字典，找到了两个矛盾的解释。但是他却选择了错误的那一个！
Months later, senior management investigated why the project had flopped, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. “It all traced back to this one word,” says Chia Suan Chong, a UK-based communications skills and intercultural trainer, who didn’t reveal the tricky word because it is highly industry-specific and possibly identifiable. “Things spiralled out of control because both parties were thinking the opposite.”
几个月后，高管调查为什么该项目花费了数十万美元还会失败。英国沟通技巧和跨文化培训师蔡孙重（音）说道：“这一切的起因只是一个字。”他没有说明那个麻烦的字到底是什么，因为它具有很强的行业特征，很可能会被弄混。“事情失去了控制，因为双方的意思刚好相反。”
When such misunderstandings happen, it’s usually the native speakers who are to blame. Ironically, they are worse at delivering their message than people who speak English as a second or third language, according to Chong.
当发生这种误解时，一般来说应该母语者背锅。但是讽刺的是，蔡孙重指出相比于英语是第二或第三语言的人来说，英语母语者传递信息的能力更差。
“A lot of native speakers are happy that English has become the world’s global language. They feel they don’t have to spend time learning another language,” says Chong. “But… often you have a boardroom full of people from different countries communicating in English and all understanding each other and then suddenly the American or Brit walks into the room and nobody can understand them.”
蔡孙重认为：“许多人都很高兴英语成为了世界性语言。他们觉得自己无需再花时间来学习一门外语。但是经常会发生这样一种情况——会议室里满是来自不同国家的人，他们都用英语交流并且都能够理解对方，突然一个美国人或者英国人走了进来，但是却没人能听懂他说的是啥。”
The non-native speakers, it turns out, speak more purposefully and carefully, typical of someone speaking a second or third language. Anglophones, on the other hand, often talk too fast for others to follow, and use jokes, slang and references specific to their own culture, says Chong. In emails, they use baffling abbreviations such as ‘OOO’, instead of simply saying that they will be out of the office.
结果表明，非母语者说话时更有目的性、更仔细，第二或第三语言者一般都是这样。而另一方面，蔡孙重指出英语母语者经常说得太快以至于别人听不懂，而且还会用一些自己文化背景下的笑话、俚语和名言。在电子邮件中他们会用一些莫名其妙的缩写，例如“OOO”，而不是直截了当地说自己要“out of office”。
“The native English speaker… is the only one who might not feel the need to accommodate or adapt to the others,” she adds.
她还说道：“英语母语者可能是唯一认为自己不需要适应他人的人。”
