any young Hong Kong people nowadays avoid speaking English even if they know how to. They are afraid they will make mistakes and people will laugh at them. I think this is a stupid reason not to speak English. Practice makes perfect. This expression means that if you do something over and over again, you will become good at it. For example, if you play the piano every day, you will be very good at it. I used to live in a flat where my upstairs neighbor (neighbour in British English) played the piano all the time. It drove me nuts. The slang expression "drive me nuts" means to make me go crazy.
L
ast week I interviewed two young people on my English TV show who were not afraid to speak English. They were Agnes Chow Ting from the student group Scholarism and Johnson Yeung Ching-yin from the Civil Human Rights Front, which organizes the July 1 protest march every year. They spoke good, but not perfect, English during the show. They made minor grammatical mistakes, which is understandable since they are not native English speakers. What impressed me was their confidence in speaking English. They were able to express their political views clearly and intelligently in English. Chow Ting is in secondary school and Yeung Ching-yin just graduated from university. This shows you can acquire good English in Hong Kong schools if you try hard enough.
Both these young people put our senior government officials and legislative councillors to shame. The expression put someone to shame means to embarrass that person or make that person ashamed. Many senior government officials and legislative councillors, especially those from the pro-establishment camp, are so afraid of speaking English that they always refuse to come to my English TV show. That is why I say Chow Ting and Yeung Ching-yin put them to shame. They are not afraid to express their opinions in English. I wish senior officials and legislators from the pro-establishment camp would have the guts to do the same.
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天，許多香港年輕人都逃避說英語，即使他們懂得怎麼說。他們害怕有錯處時會被他人取笑。我認為這個不說英語的理由愚昧之至。Practice makes perfect，這個習語的意思就是熟能生巧。例如，你若天天練習彈鋼琴，最終都會精於彈琴。我以往住的地方，樓上有個鄰居長期彈琴，簡直把我迫瘋了（drove me nuts）。俚語drive me nuts就是令我發瘋的意思。
上星期我在自己的英語電視節目上，訪問了兩位年輕人。他們就是學民思潮的周庭和民間人權陣線的楊政賢，民陣於每年主辦七一大遊行。他們在節目上說着不錯的英語，即使不算最標準的。他們犯了一些輕微的文法錯誤，但那是可理解的，因為英語不是他們的母語。令我印象深刻的，是他們說英語的自信。他們都能清晰而聰慧地以英語表達政見。周庭還在讀中學，而楊政賢剛剛大學畢業。這就反映出，只要你夠努力，在香港學校唸書亦能操得一口好英語。
這兩位年輕人都令我們的政府高官和立法會議員自愧不如（put our senior government officials and legislative councillors to shame）。習語put someone to shame解作令某人尷尬或蒙羞。許多政府高官和立法會議員，尤其是建制派的，都害怕說英語，常常拒絕上我的英語電視節目。因此我說周庭和楊政賢令他們相形見絀（put them to shame）。他們不怯於以英語表達意見。我盼望高官和建制派的立法會議員，都有膽量這樣做。
mickchug@gmail.com
中譯:七刻
Michael Chugani 褚簡寧
Source: http://news.stheadline.com/dailynews/headline_news_detail_columnist.asp?id=292583§ion_name=wtt&kw=126
