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【红枫林】加航CEO不会法语 我们应谴责还是理解?
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红枫林新闻网
日期:2021-11-15 00:59:44
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(红枫林讯 记者 Paul Kearns)
虽然我是一个热衷于多种语言的人,但我也能理解,单语者不一定像我这样对多种语言抱有同样的敬佩。类似地,我也不禁对加拿大航空公司首席执行官迈克尔·卢梭(Michael Rousseau)最近的语言愤怒事件深表同情。显然,他承认自己不会法语时缺乏谨慎。但更糟糕的是,他表示在蒙特利尔生活了14年,他不需要学习讲法语。这显然是愚蠢的。话虽如此,也许他对法语能力重要性的低估是一种软弱而羞涩的尝试,试图掩盖他的语言缺陷。他对法语熟练程度的轻视是否应该受到谴责?我必须同时说:是也不是。他对法语重要性的轻描淡写是完全不可容忍的,但我发现至少可以想象,他自己的语言无能——也许——是可以原谅的。
就我个人而言,作为一名语言学习爱好者,作为一名用法语和汉语有效开展业务的加拿大人,我无法抑制对迈克尔·卢梭灾难的同情。在专业环境中说第二语言确实会导致很大的焦虑,类似于“怯场”的麻痹感。在中国生活的8年里,我开办了三所英语学习学校,亲眼目睹了即使是班上VIP高管,当被老师要求用英语说出一个简单的短语时,也会像一只鹿盯着汽车前灯一样困惑和恐惧——因为害怕失去身份。令人难以置信的是,我不止一次地看到这样的“大老板”崩溃和崩溃!
卢梭先生在谈到自己明显的语言缺陷时,可能发现自己也在走同样的下坡路,然后他试图表演一种自嘲的旁站式的已经过时的舞台表演。他谦恭而亲切地承认自己的法语能力不足,说:“我能在蒙特利尔生活而不说法语,我认为这是对蒙特利尔市的证明”…不再受到欢迎。在他过去的公开互动中,他直接承认自己在法语方面的不足,他的借口很可能被当地蒙特雷亚尔人轻松地一笑置之。毫无疑问,蒙特雷亚尔人配合他笨拙的提示,毫不起眼地随波逐流。然而,问题是,在当前的情况下,法语敏感性在法属加拿大的兴起,卢梭先生的评论促成了完美风暴。我们现在生活在一个准备抗议的社会……而这正是引发法语监管噪音的蝴蝶效应。
魁北克省以及法属加拿大的许多公民都在努力维护当地法语优先权,这是可以理解的——甚至到了减少或完全忽略英语标识、管理等的程度。但在迈克尔·卢梭的惨败案例中,在我看来,他似乎被当作法国语言强硬派发动了政治迫害。他的案子被利用在脆弱的政治上。
Air Canada CEO’s Admission of French Language Deficiency
Reprehensible or Understandable?
Though I am a passionate polyglot, I can also appreciate that monolinguists do not necessarily hold the same admiration for multilingualism that I do. Likewise, I cannot help but harbour feelings of empathy for Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau’s recent language outrage debacle. It is undisputable that his lack discretion in stating that he could not … but more errantly need not learn to speak French despite having lived in Montreal for 14 years was clearly witless and tone-deaf. That being said, perhaps his underplaying of the importance of French competence was a feeble and bashful attempt at sweeping his linguistic shortcoming under the rug. Was his dismissiveness on the relevance of French proficiency reprehensible? I must simultaneously say: Yes and no. His downplaying of the importance of French was outright outrageous, but I find it at least conceivable that his own linguistic ineptitude – perhaps – could be forgiven.
Personally, as an enthusiast of language-learning, and as a Canadian who effectively carries on my business in French as well as in Chinese, I cannot contain my empathy for Michael Rousseau’s calamity. Speaking a second language in a professional environment can really lead to overwhelming anxiety akin to a paralyzing sense of ‘stage fright’. Over my 8 years living in China, I operated three English-learning schools, and I witnessed first-hand even the most “VIP” C-Suite executives in class become confused and terrified like a deer staring into headlights when called upon by a teacher to utter a simple phrase in English – for fear of loss of status. Unbelievably, on more than one occasion, I have seen such ‘bigshot bosses’ break down and tear up!
It is possible that Mr. Rousseau found himself on a similarly slippery slope when confronted on the subject of his glaring linguistic shortcoming, where he then attempted to perform a self-deprecating side-stepping stage-act that has now gone out of style: His pose of humble and gracious admission of his French inadequacy stating: “I've been able to live in Montreal without speaking French, and I think that's a testament to the city of Montreal” … is no longer well-received. In his past public interactions where he directly acknowledged his own French deficiency, his excuses were likely light-heartedly laughed off in good humour among local Montrealers who undoubtedly cooperated with his awkward prompt to inconspicuously go with the flow. The issue, however, is that with a current resurgence of French-language sensitivity in French Canada, Mr. Rousseau’s comment has facilitated the perfect storm. We are now living in a protest-ready society … and this was exactly the butterfly-effect trigger needed to create noise on French language regulation.
It is understandable that the province of Québec as well as much of citizens of French Canada have struggled to uphold local French-speaking priority – even to the point of diminishing or completely omitting English signage, administration etc. but in the case of Michael Rousseau’s fiasco, it seems to me that he was leveraged as a pawn in a French language hardliner-driven witch hunt. His case has been capitalised on fragile politics.