L egislative councillor Michael Tien Puk-sun sent me a message pointing out a mistake in my last column. He asked me to put the record straight. In my column last week I said James Tien Pei-chun, the elder brother of Tien Puk-sun, always says "irregardless" even though the correct word is "regardless". The Chinese translation of my column mistakenly said Tien Puk-sun always says "irregardless". That's why he wanted me to put the record straight. Legislative councillor Priscilla Leung Mei-fun also sent me a message about the same column. I said in the column that she pronounced the word "demonize" wrongly. She said in her message that even her son had told her she pronounced the word wrongly.
Last week's column was about legislative councillor Christopher Chung Shu-kun's bad English. It makes me happy that other legislators read the column and cared so much about their English that they sent me messages. Another legislative councillor contacted me last week but I will not name this person because I do not have permission to do so. This legislative councillor does not speak good English and wanted my help. It is good that legislators want to improve their English so they can use it more often. We must thank Chung Shu-kun for making other legislators realize that they also speak bad English and should improve. I hope Law Society president Ambrose Lam San-keung is reading this. He refused to answer a question in English at a press conference even though he can speak English.
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我希望在這裏澄清以撥亂反正（put the record straight）。習語put the record straight意思是去修正錯誤，以正視聽。譬如，行政會議成員張志剛早前曾道，港鐵車廂過份擠迫，純是因為本地人之故，而非每年湧進來的四千萬內地自由行。他被公眾猛烈抨擊（flak）後，也嘗試撥亂反正（put the record straight）。他說他的意思不是這樣，將錯誤諉過於自己糟糕的普通話。但即使他重申（put the record straight）過後，也沒有人相信他。
立法會議員田北辰傳短訊給我，指出我上一篇專欄中的錯處。他要求我澄清問題，以正視聽（put the record straight）。上星期的專欄中，我說田北俊，就是田北辰的兄長，常常說着"irregardless"，即使正確字眼為"regardless"；但我專欄的中譯版本卻寫成是田北辰常常說着"irregardless"。因此他希望我能澄清（put the record straight）。立法會議員梁美芬也就專欄傳來短訊。我在專欄中指出，她讀錯了demonize這個字；她在短訊中說道，即使她的兒子也告訴她，她讀錯了那個字。
上星期的專欄是有關立法會議員鍾樹根的爛英語。我很高興其他立法會議員有讀到這個專欄，也關注自己的英語水平，而傳來短訊。另外也有一位立法會議員聯絡我——但我不會在這裏開名，因為我沒有權這樣做——這位立法會議員的英語也平平，希望我能予以幫助。議員渴望改善英語，好讓自己能多用英語，這是一件好事。我們得感謝鍾樹根，令其他議員明白到，他們都說差勁的英語，也得改進。我希望律師會會長林新強也會讀到這篇文。即使他能說英語，卻仍拒絕在一個記者會上以英語回答問題。
（譯者七刻按：就上一篇專欄中錯誤翻譯所引起的誤會，而為田北辰先生造成不便，本人謹此致歉。）
mickchug@gmail.com
中譯：七刻
Michael Chugani 褚簡寧
Source: http://news.stheadline.com/dailynews/headline_news_detail_columnist.asp?id=287974§ion_name=wtt&kw=126