He or She? 在你的腦袋裝一個「英文警察」

世界公民文化中心

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2021-02-26 09:29

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很多世界公民文化中心的學生反應，講英文的時候老搞混「性別」，she/he或her/him。而且不斷地練習成效也不大。到底要怎麼辦？

明明懂規則，卻不能一出口就對，原因很簡單，因為你的腦子裡還沒有住一個「英文警察」，這位「英文警察」能在你的she/he脫口而出的時候，先幫你做"grammar check"。

請一個「英文警察」住在腦子裡並不難。你可以這麼做，在一周的時間裡，每次用英文講到人稱she或he時，你稍微停一下，想了再講，讓「英文警察」function。教學經驗告訴我們，經過50-120次停頓經驗，你開始對人稱性別有意識，之後犯錯的機率低於10%，漸漸它就變成你的語言慣性。「英文警察」起初會讓你覺得自己英文fluency變差，沒有關係，那是正確流暢以前的窒澀，必要過程，很快就過去。假如本周沒有很多機會講英文，就假想一個情境自己練。

儘管He和she對了，也還會有一個問題，就是談話中充斥著＂he or she＂，表達很冗贅，要避免冗句，請熟讀以下句子：

(錯): A department employee should make sure they dress appropriately.

(差) A department employee should make sure he or she dresses appropriately.

(好) Best: Department employees should make sure they dress appropriately. (以複數解決)

(差) The prudent executive needs to know where his money goes.

(好) Prudent executives need to know where their money goes.(以複數解決)

(好) As a prudent executive, you need to know where your money goes. (以句型解決)

(差) If the manager files his or her report by Wednesday, he or she will have the revised copy returned to him or her on Friday.

(好) Managers who file their reports on Wednesday will have a revised copy returned to them by Friday. (以複數解決)

(差) Don't judge someone simply on the basis of his sex or color.

(好) Don't judge someone simply on the basis of sex or color. (不必要的時，直接刪掉)

(好) Don't judge people simply on the basis of sex or color.