W hy has Christopher Chung Shu-kun become the butt of jokes for speaking awful English when other legislative councillors often speak awful English too? Everyone is picking on him but no one picks on other legislators for making mistakes. James Tien Pei-chun always says "irregardless" even though I have pointed out several times before that the correct word is "regardless", which means "anyway" or "in any case". Gary Chan Hak-kan became the butt of jokes for mispronouncing "try my best" when he said "try my breast" instead. But it is understandable that he became the butt of jokes because his mistake was so funny.
When you are the butt of jokes, it means everyone is making fun of you or joking about you. To pick on someone, as I explained in my last column, means to criticize or bully that person. Maybe Chung Shu-kun became the butt of jokes because he suddenly switched from Cantonese to very bad English when he criticized MTR boss Jay Walder in the Legislative Council when the media was covering the event. Very few people would have noticed his bad English if the media had not been there. Even though everyone is picking on Chung Shu-kun, I hope he will not stop speaking in English. And I hope other legislators will not stop speaking in English too just because Chung Shu-kun became the butt of jokes.
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許多立法會議員都說糟透（awful）的英語。上星期，何秀蘭以英語跟記者交談時，把 year讀成ear，梁美芬在英語電台談及政改時，也把demonize讀錯了。Demonize即妖魔化某事，它來源自demon這個字，就指邪靈或惡魔。李卓人和長毛梁國雄說英語時，也不時犯上文法錯誤，我從前就曾指出過不少遍。
為甚麼當其他立法會議員不時說差劣（awful）的英語，鍾樹根卻因為說了爛透（awful）的英語而成為笑柄（butt of jokes）﹖人人都在挑剔（picking on）他，但沒有人挑剔（pick on）其他議員犯錯。田北辰常常說着"irregardless"，即使我已數度指出，正確的字是"regardless"，意思就是「無論如何」或「不管怎樣」。陳克勤錯誤把"try my best"讀成"try my breast"，也成為眾人嘲笑的對象（butt of jokes）。但他成為笑柄（butt of jokes）是可理解的，因為他的錯誤太好笑了。
當你成為butt of jokes，即是眾人都在取笑你。去pick on某人，正如我上一個專欄中解釋過，就是批評或欺凌某人。或許鍾樹根成為笑柄（butt of jokes），是因為他在立法會批評港鐵老闆韋達誠時，突然由廣東話轉換成糟透的英語，而被傳媒報道了整個過程。若果傳媒不在場，很少人會留意到他的差劣英語。即使人人都在挑剔（picking on）鍾樹根，我希望他不會停止說英語。我亦希望其他立法會議員不會因為鍾樹根成為了笑柄（butt of jokes），就不再說英語。mickchug@gmail.com
中譯:七刻
Michael Chugani 褚簡寧
Source: http://news.stheadline.com/dailynews/headline_news_detail_columnist.asp?id=287468§ion_name=wtt&kw=126