课文翻译大学体验英语四

1、Unit 8 Globalization For and AgainstPassage A Hallmarks Asian Valentine The tradition of card giving on Valentine's Day seemingly an American phenomenon is taking root in Asia, too. Yet, when Asian customers buy Valentine's Day cards, they often choose the original English versions even when

2、 they don't speak the language. Hallmark's greeting cards are known throughout the world. The Kansas city-based company has developed into a $3.5 billion corporation, from its beginnings in 1910 when Joyce C. Hall started producing cards from samples he stored under his bed. Now, over 90 yea

3、rs later, Hallmark has developed into a global company with expansion into Asia a major part of its strategy. In Asia alone, the Kansas city-based firm acquired a company in Japan in 1994 and founded creative organizations in Hong Kong and Singapore in 1998 and in Shanghai in 1999. Hallmark represen

4、tatives like to point out that Asia has developed into an "area of emphasis." Hong Kong and Singapore are being turned from distribution centers into investment centers. In the United States alone, 67% of Valentine's Day activities consist of giving Valentine's Day cards as gifts t

5、o people. And in 2000, according to Hallmark, Americans spent more than $3.6 billion on Valentine's Day. But while the market in the United States is huge, the potential for Hallmark's 1,330 different Valentine's Day cards in Asia is even bigger. Based on the sales of Hallmark cards, it

6、appears that the number of consumer romantics in China, Japan and Korea is rising. This is not surprising, given that Hallmark greeting cards have proven to be a great way to overcome some of the emotional restrictions that still reign in a number of Asian societies. Becoming Don Juan without losing

7、 face The problem in Eastern societies is that cultural norms and romance often run into a dilemma: how do you tell a girl that you fancy her without putting yourself in a position in which you could "lose face"? In China, for example, because of cultural norms, men will perhaps never be m

8、istaken for Shakespeare's Romeo. Romance, of the Western variety, is simply not a Chinese man's cup of tea. So, how do you overcome this dilemma? To sidestep possible pitfalls of cultural impropriety, the Chinese Don Juan goes and buys his sweetie a Hallmark card for Valentine's Day. Thu

9、s, he can express his emotions through a pre-made message on paper, rather than through uncomfortable sweet talk in person. In Japan and Korea, the rules are somewhat different. Here men generally tend to be much less inhibited about their emotions and romantic interests. To assess just how emotiona

10、l Japanese men can be in all walks of life, just recall the occasional news feature of a top Japanese or Korean CEO apologizing in tears for the weak performance or bankruptcy of his company in front of his nation's TV cameras. In Japan and Korea, it is the women that are more emotionally inhibi

11、ted than the men. So, in order for them to display some affection in a suitable manner, women will send out the Hallmark Valentine cards to the object of their affection. But, if you think Hallmark cards need to be translated into the different Asian languages to enable lovers to exchange tender wor

12、ds, think again. Love talk is global, and no language skills are required. Since most of the Hallmark cards bought in Asia are produced within country, it seemed only natural that Hallmark cards would be translated into the local vernacular. To accommodate customers throughout the world, Hallmark pr

13、ints greeting cards in 30 different languages. Thus, cards are now actually being printed in Mandarin and Japanese with plans to extend the translations to various Indian languages, such as Hindi, Gujarati and Tamil. Customer surveys, however, revealed that this effort was not really necessary. Engl

14、ish is the hip thing You see, if you really want to impress your Chinese girlfriend or your Japanese boyfriend, don't send them a Japanese or Mandarin language card. This is a turn-off. Contrary to Hallmark's expectations, it turns out that Asian lovers prefer to give their sweeties English-

15、language cards even when they speak little or no English. It is just the hip thing to do. And upon learning of this cultural preference, Hallmark reacted quickly. Even though Chinese and Japanese descendants of Romeo and Juliet are now able to buy greeting cards in their native language, Hallmark ha

16、s made sure the supply of greeting cards in English is plentiful. Thus, their customers can achieve both a display of their hip cosmopolitan flair, while also sending their sweetie that all-important message of love at the same time. 霍尔马克的亚洲情人节 情人节赠送贺卡从表面上看是美国的作法，但这种现象也正在亚洲生根发芽。然而， 亚洲顾客在购买情人节卡片

17、时，他们常常选择带有英语原文的卡片，哪怕他们一句英语也不会说。全球主义者在此探讨情人节的全球化和美国公司在亚洲的作用。  霍尔马克问候贺卡在全世界人人皆知。自1910年霍尔.马克根据他储藏在床底下贺卡试样生产贺卡至今，总部设在堪萨斯的卡片生产公司已经发展成为拥有3.5 亿美元的企业。90多年后的今天，霍尔马克已成为一家全球化公司，并且把向亚洲扩展作为它战略决策的主要部分。  仅仅在亚洲，这家总部在堪萨斯的公司就于1994年在日本开设了一家公司，又于1998年在香港和新加坡，1999年在上海开办了数个富有创造性的机构。霍尔马克公司的代表指出亚洲已成为“一个重点区域”。香港和新

18、加坡正从分销中心变成投资中心。  单就美国而言，情人节67%的活动是给人赠送情人卡礼物。根据霍尔马克公司的说法，2000年的情人节美国人共花去了3.5亿美元。尽管美国的市场很大，但在亚洲销售1330种不同类型的情人节卡片的潜力就更大。  根据霍尔马克卡片的销售量，似乎可以看出，中国、日本、韩国的具有浪漫色彩的消费者的数量正在上升。这一现象并不令人吃惊，因为霍尔马克贺卡已成为一种绝妙的克服情感拘谨的好办法，而情感拘谨在亚洲许多国家仍然很普遍。 既作唐?璜式的风流才子，又不失脸面。  东方国家的人们由于文化的准则与浪漫的爱情常常陷入两难的境地，那就是： 你怎

19、样才能告诉一个女孩你喜欢她，但又不至于使自己“丢面子”呢？比如在中国，由于文化准则的缘故，中国男性大概永远不会被误认为是莎士比亚笔下的罗密欧，而西方的风流逸事也决不会成为中国男人茶余饭后的话题。因此，怎么克服这种两难窘境？为了避免文化习俗上的失误，中国的唐.璜们购买情人卡送给他们的心上人。这样，他可以通过卡片上事先印制好的文字来表达他们的感情，而不用当面说一些令人尴尬的甜言蜜语。  在日本和韩国，文化准则又稍有不同。总的来讲，日本和韩国男人对自己的感情和浪漫情趣较少抑制。评价日本男人在生活的各个方面是如何易动感情的，只需回忆一下一个日本和韩国的上层首席执行官在国家电视台的摄像镜头前，

20、泪流满面地为公司的不良运作和破产而道歉的新闻特写的情景就足够了。  在日本和韩国，女人要比男人更加克制自己的感情。因此，为了用恰当的方式表白自己的爱情，女性往往喜欢送霍尔马克卡给她们爱慕的对象。但是，假如你认为应该把霍尔马克卡片上的英文翻译成亚洲各国的语言以便使情人们能相互交换爱慕的话语，你不妨再想一想。 谈情说爱是世界相通的，不需要任何语言技巧。  由于在亚洲出售的大多数霍尔.马克卡片是在当地国家生产的，因此，把卡片的英文译成当地文字似乎是很自然的。为了适应全世界消费者的需要，霍尔马克用30种不同的语言印制贺卡。  因此，霍尔马克卡片正在使用汉语和日语

21、印制，并计划扩大语言范围，如印度语，吉吉拉特语，泰米尔语。然而，对顾客的调查却发现，这种努力没有真正的必要。 英语就是这种时髦语言。  如果你真的想给你的中国女友或日本男友留下深刻的印象，不要给他们送日语或汉语贺卡。否则这会令人乏味。与霍尔马克（卡片）公司的预料相反，亚洲的情人们更喜欢给他们的心上人送英文贺卡片，哪怕他们基本不懂或根本不懂英文。送英文贺卡是一件很时髦的事。  在了解了这一文化偏爱后，霍尔马克（卡片）公司做出了快速反应。尽管中国和日本的当代罗密欧与朱丽叶们现在能够买到印汉语和日语的贺卡，霍尔马克（卡片）公司还是确保供应大量的英文贺卡。这样，既展现了顾

22、客的时髦的世界性的品位，同时又能向他们的心上人表达至关重要的爱恋信息。 Passage B The Great Global DVD DivideParents all over the world complain these days that kids watch too much TV. Our solution, however, offers a paradox: Kids should watch even more TV. What's the catch? They should watch their favorite DVDs in a language

23、 other than their own. Since they already know Harry Porter by heart in their native tongue, they could intuitively improve their comprehension of French, German, Spanish or Mandarin Chinese. To implement our solution, however, the movie industry will need to take a broader view of its own business

24、logic. Whether you like it or detest it, Hollywood unites the world. People in every corner of the globe watch U.S. movies, many of them dubbed into their native languages. The faces of the same Hollywood stars grace the walls from Bangkok to Buenos Aires. And gossip magazines everywhere discuss the

25、ir love lives and periodic nervous breakdowns. Kids' role models That fascination runs even deeper among the world's children. Kids love watching movies, of course and they see their favorite ones over and over again. Soon, they know them by heart. Instead of dividing up the world with an el

26、ectronic "Iron Curtain," Hollywood should move to a truly global product. In a globalized world, this could be a brilliant way of teaching them lots of foreign languages and do so while they are having fun. Especially since the DVD technology allows the same film to be viewed with soundtra

27、cks as well as subtitles in a variety of different tongues. However, there is a snag. The truth is that the U.S. movie industry divides the world technologically even as it unites it culturally. It splits the world into regional markets. From the Iron Curtain to the DVD divide In each market, the mo

28、vie industry wants to release its films according to local movie-going seasons and at the convenience of the local distributor. This same "divide and rule" logic is also followed in the release of each movie on DVD. As a result, all DVD players sold around the world come with a region-codi

29、ng function. Naturally, there are semi-official hackers who can help you get around the regional code. In fact, in Europe, modified DVD players that can play disks from every region of the world are pretty common. Some 64% of DVD players in European countries have the multiregional capacity. But in

30、the United States, most DVD players remain locked in a single region variety. One reason is that the "Code 1" countries get the earliest releases of all the best movies. The built-in presumption is this: Only the movie buffs that love "art-house5" foreign flicks would need the mu

31、ltiregional function in America's market. Yet, the United States, the pre-eminent global power, is also a country where the native population speaks fewest foreign languages. American kids, in fact, could benefit the most if they could watch their favorite movies in foreign languages. They may a

32、lso be the ones who need a strong inducement to learn foreign languages and cultures. Myopic vision Of course, the U.S. film industry would be up in arms against this idea. Why? It may no longer be able to maximize their profits if they didn't have the ability to stack up their release on DVDs.

33、After all, the DVD market is rapidly becoming the most important money- making segment in the entertainment industry as DVD players become both cheap and widely diffused. Plenty of U.S. parents would probably buy DVDs as a learning tool for their children, if they could. However, this is surely a my

34、opic vision. Globalization has been the secret of Hollywood's success. It has contributed to its creativity as directors, writers and even movie stars now hail from every corner of the globe. It is also part of its financial success, as 25% of America's exports are comprised of entertainment

35、. Worldwide receipts on blockbuster movies routinely surpass sums earned in the U.S. market alone. Many films would never be made were it not for the built-in expectations of global receipts. As a result, anything that promotes globalization such as better knowledge of foreign languages among kids w

36、orldwide ultimately benefits Hollywood. Alternatively, anything that detracts from it such as creating different technological standards for DVD players is a long-term loss for Hollywood. Therefore, Hollywood and the entire U.S. entertainment industry should wise up and drop its artificial way of di

37、viding up the world with some new kind of electronic "Iron Curtain." Instead, it should move to a truly global product movie, DVDs, with wide pickings in alternate language tracks all as a part of the same package 全球性DVD划分 你全世界的父母都抱怨当今的孩子们电视看得太多了。然而，我们的解决方法却是一个反论：即孩子们应该多看电视。其中有何道理？他们应该多看他们最喜欢的非母语的外语DVD。由于他们已经用母语把哈利.波特的故事牢记于心， 因此他们能够凭直觉提高他们的法语、德语、西班牙语和汉语的理解能力。然而，为了实施我们的解决方法，电影工业需要修正其商业逻辑，拓宽视野。  无论你是喜欢还是厌恶好莱坞，它却统一了世界。全球各个角落的人都能观看好来坞的电影。许多好来坞的电影都被翻译成他们的母语。好来坞影星们的同一副面孔无论是在曼谷还是在布宜诺斯艾利斯都到处可见，熠熠生辉。各地的小报杂志都谈论他们的艳史和周期性的精神崩溃。