課文翻譯大學體驗英語四

1、Unit 8 Globalization For and AgainstPassage A Hallmarks Asian Valentine The tradition of card giving on Valentine's Day seemingly an American phenomenon is taking root in Asia, too. Yet, when Asian customers buy Valentine's Day cards, they often choose the original English versions even when

2、 they don't speak the language. Hallmark's greeting cards are known throughout the world. The Kansas city-based company has developed into a $3.5 billion corporation, from its beginnings in 1910 when Joyce C. Hall started producing cards from samples he stored under his bed. Now, over 90 yea

3、rs later, Hallmark has developed into a global company with expansion into Asia a major part of its strategy. In Asia alone, the Kansas city-based firm acquired a company in Japan in 1994 and founded creative organizations in Hong Kong and Singapore in 1998 and in Shanghai in 1999. Hallmark represen

4、tatives like to point out that Asia has developed into an "area of emphasis." Hong Kong and Singapore are being turned from distribution centers into investment centers. In the United States alone, 67% of Valentine's Day activities consist of giving Valentine's Day cards as gifts t

5、o people. And in 2000, according to Hallmark, Americans spent more than $3.6 billion on Valentine's Day. But while the market in the United States is huge, the potential for Hallmark's 1,330 different Valentine's Day cards in Asia is even bigger. Based on the sales of Hallmark cards, it

6、appears that the number of consumer romantics in China, Japan and Korea is rising. This is not surprising, given that Hallmark greeting cards have proven to be a great way to overcome some of the emotional restrictions that still reign in a number of Asian societies. Becoming Don Juan without losing

7、 face The problem in Eastern societies is that cultural norms and romance often run into a dilemma: how do you tell a girl that you fancy her without putting yourself in a position in which you could "lose face"? In China, for example, because of cultural norms, men will perhaps never be m

8、istaken for Shakespeare's Romeo. Romance, of the Western variety, is simply not a Chinese man's cup of tea. So, how do you overcome this dilemma? To sidestep possible pitfalls of cultural impropriety, the Chinese Don Juan goes and buys his sweetie a Hallmark card for Valentine's Day. Thu

9、s, he can express his emotions through a pre-made message on paper, rather than through uncomfortable sweet talk in person. In Japan and Korea, the rules are somewhat different. Here men generally tend to be much less inhibited about their emotions and romantic interests. To assess just how emotiona

10、l Japanese men can be in all walks of life, just recall the occasional news feature of a top Japanese or Korean CEO apologizing in tears for the weak performance or bankruptcy of his company in front of his nation's TV cameras. In Japan and Korea, it is the women that are more emotionally inhibi

11、ted than the men. So, in order for them to display some affection in a suitable manner, women will send out the Hallmark Valentine cards to the object of their affection. But, if you think Hallmark cards need to be translated into the different Asian languages to enable lovers to exchange tender wor

12、ds, think again. Love talk is global, and no language skills are required. Since most of the Hallmark cards bought in Asia are produced within country, it seemed only natural that Hallmark cards would be translated into the local vernacular. To accommodate customers throughout the world, Hallmark pr

13、ints greeting cards in 30 different languages. Thus, cards are now actually being printed in Mandarin and Japanese with plans to extend the translations to various Indian languages, such as Hindi, Gujarati and Tamil. Customer surveys, however, revealed that this effort was not really necessary. Engl

14、ish is the hip thing You see, if you really want to impress your Chinese girlfriend or your Japanese boyfriend, don't send them a Japanese or Mandarin language card. This is a turn-off. Contrary to Hallmark's expectations, it turns out that Asian lovers prefer to give their sweeties English-

15、language cards even when they speak little or no English. It is just the hip thing to do. And upon learning of this cultural preference, Hallmark reacted quickly. Even though Chinese and Japanese descendants of Romeo and Juliet are now able to buy greeting cards in their native language, Hallmark ha

16、s made sure the supply of greeting cards in English is plentiful. Thus, their customers can achieve both a display of their hip cosmopolitan flair, while also sending their sweetie that all-important message of love at the same time. 霍爾馬克的亞洲情人節(jié) 情人節(jié)贈送賀卡從表面上看是美國的作法，但這種現(xiàn)象也正在亞洲生根發(fā)芽。然而， 亞洲顧客在購買情人節(jié)卡片

17、時，他們常常選擇帶有英語原文的卡片，哪怕他們一句英語也不會說。全球主義者在此探討情人節(jié)的全球化和美國公司在亞洲的作用。  霍爾馬克問候賀卡在全世界人人皆知。自1910年霍爾.馬克根據(jù)他儲藏在床底下賀卡試樣生產(chǎn)賀卡至今，總部設(shè)在堪薩斯的卡片生產(chǎn)公司已經(jīng)發(fā)展成為擁有3.5 億美元的企業(yè)。90多年后的今天，霍爾馬克已成為一家全球化公司，并且把向亞洲擴展作為它戰(zhàn)略決策的主要部分。  僅僅在亞洲，這家總部在堪薩斯的公司就于1994年在日本開設(shè)了一家公司，又于1998年在香港和新加坡，1999年在上海開辦了數(shù)個富有創(chuàng)造性的機構(gòu)?；魻栺R克公司的代表指出亞洲已成為“一個重點區(qū)域”。香港和新

18、加坡正從分銷中心變成投資中心。  單就美國而言，情人節(jié)67%的活動是給人贈送情人卡禮物。根據(jù)霍爾馬克公司的說法，2000年的情人節(jié)美國人共花去了3.5億美元。盡管美國的市場很大，但在亞洲銷售1330種不同類型的情人節(jié)卡片的潛力就更大。  根據(jù)霍爾馬克卡片的銷售量，似乎可以看出，中國、日本、韓國的具有浪漫色彩的消費者的數(shù)量正在上升。這一現(xiàn)象并不令人吃驚，因為霍爾馬克賀卡已成為一種絕妙的克服情感拘謹?shù)暮棉k法，而情感拘謹在亞洲許多國家仍然很普遍。 既作唐?璜式的風流才子，又不失臉面。  東方國家的人們由于文化的準則與浪漫的愛情常常陷入兩難的境地，那就是： 你怎

19、樣才能告訴一個女孩你喜歡她，但又不至于使自己“丟面子”呢？比如在中國，由于文化準則的緣故，中國男性大概永遠不會被誤認為是莎士比亞筆下的羅密歐，而西方的風流逸事也決不會成為中國男人茶余飯后的話題。因此，怎么克服這種兩難窘境？為了避免文化習俗上的失誤，中國的唐.璜們購買情人卡送給他們的心上人。這樣，他可以通過卡片上事先印制好的文字來表達他們的感情，而不用當面說一些令人尷尬的甜言蜜語。  在日本和韓國，文化準則又稍有不同?？偟膩碇v，日本和韓國男人對自己的感情和浪漫情趣較少抑制。評價日本男人在生活的各個方面是如何易動感情的，只需回憶一下一個日本和韓國的上層首席執(zhí)行官在國家電視臺的攝像鏡頭前，

20、淚流滿面地為公司的不良運作和破產(chǎn)而道歉的新聞特寫的情景就足夠了。  在日本和韓國，女人要比男人更加克制自己的感情。因此，為了用恰當?shù)姆绞奖戆鬃约旱膼矍?，女性往往喜歡送霍爾馬克卡給她們愛慕的對象。但是，假如你認為應(yīng)該把霍爾馬克卡片上的英文翻譯成亞洲各國的語言以便使情人們能相互交換愛慕的話語，你不妨再想一想。 談情說愛是世界相通的，不需要任何語言技巧。  由于在亞洲出售的大多數(shù)霍爾.馬克卡片是在當?shù)貒疑a(chǎn)的，因此，把卡片的英文譯成當?shù)匚淖炙坪跏呛茏匀坏摹榱诉m應(yīng)全世界消費者的需要，霍爾馬克用30種不同的語言印制賀卡。  因此，霍爾馬克卡片正在使用漢語和日語

21、印制，并計劃擴大語言范圍，如印度語，吉吉拉特語，泰米爾語。然而，對顧客的調(diào)查卻發(fā)現(xiàn)，這種努力沒有真正的必要。 英語就是這種時髦語言。  如果你真的想給你的中國女友或日本男友留下深刻的印象，不要給他們送日語或漢語賀卡。否則這會令人乏味。與霍爾馬克（卡片）公司的預(yù)料相反，亞洲的情人們更喜歡給他們的心上人送英文賀卡片，哪怕他們基本不懂或根本不懂英文。送英文賀卡是一件很時髦的事。  在了解了這一文化偏愛后，霍爾馬克（卡片）公司做出了快速反應(yīng)。盡管中國和日本的當代羅密歐與朱麗葉們現(xiàn)在能夠買到印漢語和日語的賀卡，霍爾馬克（卡片）公司還是確保供應(yīng)大量的英文賀卡。這樣，既展現(xiàn)了顧

22、客的時髦的世界性的品位，同時又能向他們的心上人表達至關(guān)重要的愛戀信息。 Passage B The Great Global DVD DivideParents all over the world complain these days that kids watch too much TV. Our solution, however, offers a paradox: Kids should watch even more TV. What's the catch? They should watch their favorite DVDs in a language

23、 other than their own. Since they already know Harry Porter by heart in their native tongue, they could intuitively improve their comprehension of French, German, Spanish or Mandarin Chinese. To implement our solution, however, the movie industry will need to take a broader view of its own business

24、logic. Whether you like it or detest it, Hollywood unites the world. People in every corner of the globe watch U.S. movies, many of them dubbed into their native languages. The faces of the same Hollywood stars grace the walls from Bangkok to Buenos Aires. And gossip magazines everywhere discuss the

25、ir love lives and periodic nervous breakdowns. Kids' role models That fascination runs even deeper among the world's children. Kids love watching movies, of course and they see their favorite ones over and over again. Soon, they know them by heart. Instead of dividing up the world with an el

26、ectronic "Iron Curtain," Hollywood should move to a truly global product. In a globalized world, this could be a brilliant way of teaching them lots of foreign languages and do so while they are having fun. Especially since the DVD technology allows the same film to be viewed with soundtra

27、cks as well as subtitles in a variety of different tongues. However, there is a snag. The truth is that the U.S. movie industry divides the world technologically even as it unites it culturally. It splits the world into regional markets. From the Iron Curtain to the DVD divide In each market, the mo

28、vie industry wants to release its films according to local movie-going seasons and at the convenience of the local distributor. This same "divide and rule" logic is also followed in the release of each movie on DVD. As a result, all DVD players sold around the world come with a region-codi

29、ng function. Naturally, there are semi-official hackers who can help you get around the regional code. In fact, in Europe, modified DVD players that can play disks from every region of the world are pretty common. Some 64% of DVD players in European countries have the multiregional capacity. But in

30、the United States, most DVD players remain locked in a single region variety. One reason is that the "Code 1" countries get the earliest releases of all the best movies. The built-in presumption is this: Only the movie buffs that love "art-house5" foreign flicks would need the mu

31、ltiregional function in America's market. Yet, the United States, the pre-eminent global power, is also a country where the native population speaks fewest foreign languages. American kids, in fact, could benefit the most if they could watch their favorite movies in foreign languages. They may a

32、lso be the ones who need a strong inducement to learn foreign languages and cultures. Myopic vision Of course, the U.S. film industry would be up in arms against this idea. Why? It may no longer be able to maximize their profits if they didn't have the ability to stack up their release on DVDs.

33、After all, the DVD market is rapidly becoming the most important money- making segment in the entertainment industry as DVD players become both cheap and widely diffused. Plenty of U.S. parents would probably buy DVDs as a learning tool for their children, if they could. However, this is surely a my

34、opic vision. Globalization has been the secret of Hollywood's success. It has contributed to its creativity as directors, writers and even movie stars now hail from every corner of the globe. It is also part of its financial success, as 25% of America's exports are comprised of entertainment

35、. Worldwide receipts on blockbuster movies routinely surpass sums earned in the U.S. market alone. Many films would never be made were it not for the built-in expectations of global receipts. As a result, anything that promotes globalization such as better knowledge of foreign languages among kids w

36、orldwide ultimately benefits Hollywood. Alternatively, anything that detracts from it such as creating different technological standards for DVD players is a long-term loss for Hollywood. Therefore, Hollywood and the entire U.S. entertainment industry should wise up and drop its artificial way of di

37、viding up the world with some new kind of electronic "Iron Curtain." Instead, it should move to a truly global product movie, DVDs, with wide pickings in alternate language tracks all as a part of the same package 全球性DVD劃分 你全世界的父母都抱怨當今的孩子們電視看得太多了。然而，我們的解決方法卻是一個反論：即孩子們應(yīng)該多看電視。其中有何道理？他們應(yīng)該多看他們最喜歡的非母語的外語DVD。由于他們已經(jīng)用母語把哈利.波特的故事牢記于心， 因此他們能夠憑直覺提高他們的法語、德語、西班牙語和漢語的理解能力。然而，為了實施我們的解決方法，電影工業(yè)需要修正其商業(yè)邏輯，拓寬視野。  無論你是喜歡還是厭惡好萊塢，它卻統(tǒng)一了世界。全球各個角落的人都能觀看好來塢的電影。許多好來塢的電影都被翻譯成他們的母語。好來塢影星們的同一副面孔無論是在曼谷還是在布宜諾斯艾利斯都到處可見，熠熠生輝。各地的小報雜志都談?wù)撍麄兊钠G史和周期性的精神崩潰。