L ast February Ma Yan-kwok swore (used bad language) at Longhair Leung Kwok-hung in the Legislative Council. He said to Longhair: “You’re not even a f**king Chinese”. This sentence is grammatically incorrect in the way Ma Yan-kwok used it. He wanted to say that Longhair was not a proud Chinese because he always criticized China. But the expression “a f**king Chinese” is used by racists to insult Chinese people. For example, a British racist could say: “The f**king Chinese are buying up all the baby milk powder in London.” Ma Yan-kwok should have said to Longhair: “You’re not even f**king Chinese.” Removing the alphabet “a” before the word “f**king” changes the meaning of the sentence. “You’re not even f**king Chinese” means “You’re not even Chinese”. This is closer to Ma Yan-kwok’s intended meaning.
I was surprised that Ma Yan-kwok, who was invited to attend a Legislative Council panel meeting, used English profanities (swear words) to swear at Longhair. Legislative councillors and those invited to attend panel meetings rarely use English nowadays. Only legislative councillor Abraham Shek Lai-him uses it sometimes. He used English last week when Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying went to the Legislative Council to answer questions about his annual policy speech. Shek Lai-him asked a question in English, then used Chinese for another question. I thought Leung Chun-ying would answer both questions in Chinese. But he answered the first in English and the second in Chinese. Other officials and members should learn from C.Y. Leung and Shek Lai-him by speaking more in English to encourage the use of English in Hong Kong.
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政黨民建聯的黨員馬恩國是大律師。身為一位在澳洲居住的大律師，他理應能說上乘英語。可是，他說英文粗口（swears）和用英文諺語時，卻錯漏百出。上星期他在一個英語電台的訪問中說“All walks of lives”（各行各業的人）。這是一個很普通的諺語，他卻弄錯了。正確的諺語是“All walks of life”，應用單數life而非眾數lives。這並非一時口誤（a slip of the tongue），因為他在訪問中說錯了兩次。習語a slip of the tongue即是一時口快不小心說錯了話。
上年二月馬恩國在立法會以粗言罵（swore）梁國雄。他跟長毛說：“You’re not even a f**king Chinese”。馬恩國說這句話時，文法亦出錯。他想說的是，長毛並非自豪的中國人，因為他常常批評中國。但習語a f**king Chinese是種族主義者用來侮辱中國人的。例如，一個英國種族主義者會說：「他媽的中國人（The f**king Chinese）把英國的奶粉都買光了﹗」馬恩國該對長毛說：“You’re not even f**king Chinese.” 只要刪去“f**king”前的a，就已經把句子意思逆轉了。“You’re not even f**king Chinese”解作「你他媽的根本不是中國人」，這就比較接近馬恩國的原意。
我很意外，被邀請到立法會委員會會議的馬恩國，會用英文粗言穢語（profanities 或swear words）去咒罵（swear）長毛。現今的立法會議員和被邀到委員會會議的人士，很少會在立法會會議期間用英語。只有立法會議員石禮謙有時用到。特首梁振英上星期出席《施政報告》答問大會時，他就用英語發言。石禮謙以英語提問，再用中文問另一條問題。我以為梁振英會以中文回答兩條問題，但他首先用英語答，再用中文答第二條。其他官員和議員應該效發梁振英和石禮謙，多說英語，以鼓勵香港人活用英語。
mickchug@gmail.com
中譯:七刻
Michael Chugani 褚簡寧
Source: http://news.stheadline.com/dailynews/headline_news_detail_columnist.asp?id=271541§ion_name=wtt&kw=126