C ritics say this makes it almost impossible for ethnic minority children to enter university or find good jobs because they only know basic Chinese. Instead of designated schools, critics have long urged the government to teach Chinese as a second language in mainstream schools for ethnic minority children. This way, ethnic minority children can mix and learn with students from the main population instead of studying in designated schools. RTHK invited the Education Bureau to send a representative to our show but the bureau refused. I cannot understand why since the parents of ethnic minority children are also taxpayers and the bureau has a duty to explain its policies to them.
Instead of sending a representative the bureau gave us a long written statement to explain its policies. The statement was such gobbledygook that I could not understand it even after reading it three times. My co-host Hugh Chiverton, a native English speaker, had a hard time making sense of it too. Gobbledygook means something that is full of nonsense because it contains too many technical and meaningless terms, which makes it hard to understand. The statement was a mixture of gobbledygook and bureaucrat-speak. Government officials are bureaucrats. When bureaucrats use a lot of technical and meaningless terms to avoid talking honestly, it is called bureaucrat-speak. The bureaucrat who wrote the gobbledygook statement should be fired. It is shameful that the Education Bureau can issue such nonsensical (adjective) statements.
每個星期三早上，我都會搭檔主持（co-host）香港電台英文台的一個節目。Co-host（動詞）是指與另一人共同主持節目，這個主持也叫作co-host（名詞）。上星期我的主持拍檔（co-host）和我在討論香港少數族裔（ethnic minority）的學童。習語ethnic minority是指與主要人口有相異種族與文化背景的社群。香港的少數族裔（ethnic minorities）包括巴基斯坦、印度與尼泊爾人。對這些少數族裔（ethnic minority）學童來說，在主流（mainstream）學校就讀是很困難的，因為中文不是他們的母語。他們當中有許多人別無選擇，不得不去那些指定（designated）學校就讀，在那兒只會學到很基本的中文。
批評者指，這就令到少數族裔（ethnic minority）兒童幾乎不可能入讀大學或找到好工，因為他們只懂基本中文。批評者一直敦促政府應在主流（mainstream）學校，以第二語言向少數族裔（ethnic minority）兒童教授中文，而非派他們到指定（designated）學校。這樣，少數族裔（ethnic minority）兒童就能融入主流學生與他們一同學習，而非在指定（designated）學校就讀。港台曾邀請教育局派代表上來我們的節目，但局方拒絕了。我不能理解他們的因由，少數族裔（ethnic minority）兒童的父母也是納稅人，而局方有責任向他們解釋政策。
局方沒有派員出席，倒是給了我們一份長長的聲明去解釋政策。那篇聲明非常冗長而官腔（gobbledygook），即使我反覆讀了三遍，仍然不能明白。我的拍檔主持Hugh Chiverton本身是操英語的，要理解它的意思亦甚感艱難。Gobbledygook解作言之無物的東西，因為太多技術性或毫無意義的字眼令它艱澀難懂。聲明混雜着冗長費解的話（gobbledygook）與官腔（bureaucrat-speak）。政府官員就是bureaucrats，當官僚（bureaucrats）用一些技術性又空洞的字眼去迴避說真話，就是bureaucrat-speak。寫這種冗長廢話（gobbledygook）聲明的官僚（bureaucrat）應該被炒。教育局發這等荒謬空洞（nonsensical）的聲明，着實丟臉。mickchug@gmail.com
中譯:七刻
Michael Chugani 褚簡寧
Source: http://news.hkheadline.com/dailynews/headline_news_detail_columnist.asp?id=256862§ion_name=wtt&kw=126