S ome readers sent e-mails agreeing with me that both are acceptable but others disagreed. One reader said it is far more important for students to learn how to write proper English than to speak it. I totally disagree with that. What is the use of writing English properly when you cannot speak it properly? People communicate more through speaking than by writing to each other. Hong Kong teachers place so much importance on grammar that they judge a student's English ability mostly on grammar and little else. That is why so many Hong Kong people, including senior government officials, are so lousy in English.
In the famous novel David Copperfield, the great English writer Charles Dickens wrote: "She is such a dear girl......a little older than me, but the dearest girl." Another famous English writer, Samuel Richardson, wrote in his novel Pamela: "For she being seven years older than me." Shakespeare wrote in Antony and Cleopatra: "Is she as tall as me?" These examples were used in a Washington Post article to show that "than me" and "as me" are as grammatically acceptable as "than I" and "as I". Even the world's greatest writers are not so obsessed with grammar. But Hong Kong's teachers would fail Charles Dickens, Samuel Richardson and Shakespeare. It is indeed a joke.
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我上星期在專欄中提及，今天說better than me比說better than I普遍。許多以英語為母語的人，慣性（habitually）都會說better than me，即使有些人寫作時用better than I，因為那比較正式。我在上星期的專欄中寫到better than me和better than I，因為在之前的專欄中，我提及友人陶傑講粗口比我好多了（far better than me）。許多讀者電郵給我，說那應是far better than I。因此我決定在上星期的專欄中闡釋，其實兩者同樣可以，香港人亦不應糾纏於文法之上。
有些讀者傳電郵給我，認同二者同樣可被接受，但也有人異議。一位讀者說，讓學生知道怎樣寫正統英語，比知道怎樣去講，更為重要。我完全不同意。 若你不能正確地說好英語，正確地寫又有何用？人們用言談多於寫作去溝通。香港老師多麼重視文法，重視得主要用文法而不是別的，去判斷學生使用英語的能力。也因而令許多香港人，包括一眾政府高官的英語糟透了。
在著名小說《塊肉餘生錄》中，偉大的英語作家查理．狄更斯寫道："She is such a dear girl...... a little older than me, but the dearest girl." 另一位著名英語作家，山繆．李察森，在其小說《潘蜜拉》中寫道："For she being seven years older than me." 莎士比亞在《安東尼與克利奧佩特拉》中亦寫道："Is she as tall as me?"這些例子都在一篇《華盛頓郵報》文章中一一列舉，以說明"than me" 和 "as me" 跟 "than I" 和 "as I"在文法上同樣是被接納的。即使世上最優秀的作家也不會那麼糾纏於文法之上。可是香港的老師就是會統統把查理．狄更斯、山繆．李察森和莎士比亞評定為不及格。那真是一個大笑話。
mickchug@gmail.com
中譯:七刻
Michael Chugani 褚簡寧
Source: http://news.stheadline.com/dailynews/headline_news_detail_columnist.asp?id=279428§ion_name=wtt&kw=126