“蛇我其谁”的蛇年英语祝福！
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Hello,大家好,我是 Jenny,那蛇年快要到了,我们要预祝大家蛇年快乐,什么什么都好。 That's right, happy almost year of the snake, and we're already using these fun puns.

没错,那其实每一年的生肖年啊,我们都会根据那一年的生肖,然后通过它的谐音,对吧,玩一些可爱的文字游戏,送出最应景的祝福。 那今天我和 Jason 呢,就会跟大家分享,用蛇这个字,对吧,什么都好,什么都发,然后英语可以怎么样的把这些祝福送出去。

That's right, let's jump in. 好,那前面你说我们有很多 puns, pun 就是 p-u-n, 它的意思就是一些一语双关的这种文字游戏,对吧? Yeah, a pun is when you make a joke using words, so sometimes they have the same pronunciation or the same spelling or something, and it's a funny joke, a play on words.

A play on words. 或者有一个语言学的一个称谓,叫做 homophones,是吧? Yeah, that's right. Homophone, right? Homo meaning that it's the same and phone meaning sound. So same sound. So words that have the exact same or very, very similar pronunciation.

嗯,对,其实我们这个舌年啊,有很多的现在什么都好啊,想什么有什么,它和那个 what 什么不是完全一样,因为那个是 shen,什么,right? 然后这个是舌,but they sound similar enough. Yeah, so this is why it's a great play on words, right? It's close enough to make a funny joke, but just a little different, which I guess technically is called a paronym.

We call this the Chinese Zodiac.

那因为我们有十二个啊,所以是可以说 the twelve Chinese zodiacs 后面直接加 s

So the zodiac is actually the whole system. Instead, we should say something like the 12 zodiac signs or the 12 zodiac animals. Ah, okay. 或者我还听到人家就会说, What's your Chinese animal sign? 他讲的就是生肖。 Yeah, this means the same thing. You could say Chinese zodiac sign or Chinese animal sign. 嗯?

嗯,OK,好,那今年是蛇年嘛,我们在英语要表达这个概念的时候呢,又要有年,又要有那个动物,然后还要有两个定冠词的。 Year of the snake. Yeah, the year of the snake. 但在口语里面常常简化啊,就是 year of the snake。

通常 animal sign 前面的 the 是要的,就不会说 year of snake,是吧? 对,需要加这个 the,right? Because we're talking about this proper noun, the year of the snake, this year belonging to the Chinese zodiac. 它很特别,唯一的专属,是吧? 专属名词,the snake。

如果今年是你的本命年, so if the year of the snake is your Chinese zodiac year, 那这个时候你怎么告诉人家我属蛇? So if you don't know that you're talking about the zodiac, of course you want to say I was born in the year of the snake. But if it's obvious that you're already talking about the zodiac, you could say I'm a snake.

I'm a snake. 对,就像 Jason 说的最主要这个你们在讲什么语境要清晰,不然这样突然乍一听很奇怪的,啊,我是蛇,或者我属狗吗? I'm a dog. 哈哈哈哈。

I'm a pig,对,我真的是。 你真的数猪是吧? 讲到这些数蛇,a snake,不管是在中文或者是在英语里面, 蛇通常给人的一些联系联想都是比较负面的, 很狡猾,会去骗人是吧?

Yeah, if you call somebody a snake, you say, oh, that guy's a snake, right? It means that they cheated you or they cheat people. They're sneaky, right? Not to be trusted.

对,就是 sneaky 或者还有一个词,很 cunning,就意思是很狡猾,就你绝对不能信任他。 所以当你这样比喻一个人的时候,that's negative. 但是当我们讲到 when we're talking about the Chinese zodiac, then it's a completely different story. That's right, this is a positive thing, right? It's not that everybody born in the year of the snake is some cheating, cunning person, of course not.

因为今年是我小儿子,是我家弟弟的本命年,他是一个非常老实的孩子。 所以他那时候问我说,妈妈,为什么你要把我的蛇年生下来? 为什么我是蛇? Hey, well, snakes are really cool animals. So yeah, maybe we can help change the reputation of snakes.

哦,对,然后我就给他看很多可爱的祝福语啊,我说,希希,你今年是本命年,舌年,祝你舌年什么都好,他看到那个时候就很开心。 Nice, yeah, so kids love puns too, right? 没错,好,那我们现在呢就进入这些舌年和舌相关,然后文字游戏可爱的祝福语。

但是呢,我必须要说,在英语里面是没有办法把蛇,snake 这个词真的用在里面的。因为 it's a completely different language, it's a completely different system. Yeah, puns often don't translate very well because they are a play on words, right? So the play on words usually doesn't work in English.

对,好,那比如说今年我看到最多的一些祝福就是 祝你蛇年什么都好。 但是呢我们把那个,you know, the what 神就是用蛇来代替。 How would you say this in English? You could just say something like wishing you all the best in the year of the snake. Or wishing you all the best in everything you do in the year of the snake. 所以还是有 snake 了,但我们是在讲 the year of the snake。

那这个什么都好啊,就刚刚你说的 wishing you all the best, 我们在准备节目的时候还问 Jason, 我说有什么更加的能传递那种 in whatever you do, in everything you do 这个概念。

那你说虽然可以加,但是太冗长了是吧? Yeah, you don't want it to be too wordy, take too long, right? It might sound a little awkward, especially if you're speaking, right? You say this really long sentence. Yeah,但是我想如果你要发信息啊或者邮件就长一点没关系。

Yeah, that's right. If you were texting this, putting it in an email, maybe, then it'd be fine. Wishing you all the very best in absolutely everything you do in the Year of the Snake. That's right. Wishing you all of the best ever in the whole world and every possible little thing you do in the Year of the Snake.

对,对。 Oh, I like that. In every possible way. 不管什么都好,祝你。 Makes me think of every little corner of every room, there's just good blessings going around. 没错。 好,那我们怎么祝福别人舍年什么都有呢? 想什么有什么呢? You could say something like, have everything you will ever want, or have everything you'd ever desire.

Okay, so 又有这个 everything, right? Because we're talking about 哦,什么都有啊。

你前面说的是 you will ever want or desire 就是不管有多想多渴望的事情都有 So get it, you have it Get everything or have everything you wish for Or whatever you wish for, you shall have 是吧,也可以 Yeah, sounds very nice 对,还有一个很 nice 的 祝你什么都发

Making money in all kinds of ways and everything that you do. In every possible way. Wish you,不能直接说 wish you money, wish you make money, wish you get rich in everything you do.

Yeah, you need to add a verb in there between and have some way of acquiring the money, right? 那可以用 wealth 这个词吗?或者 wealthy? Yeah, you could say something like I hope you become wealthy in the year of the snake. That would work. Or you could use it as a noun and say I hope you find wealth in the year of the snake. Something like that. Oh, that sounds very nice. 好

好,那我还看到一个蛮好的,就是 祝你十年什么都不怕。 什么都不怕,nothing at all, not afraid of anything, including snakes, I imagine. 对,have no fear,是吧,fear nothing, nothing at all. Yeah, that's a good blessing, though a little fear I think sometimes is healthy, so you want to be a little careful, but need to be cautious still.

我想到其实我们现代人有很多烦恼,有很多焦虑嘛,怎么说,什么都不烦,什么都不焦虑。 Oh yeah, that's better than maybe fear, right? It's a little bit more specific. You could say something like, hope you don't have any anxiety or hope you don't have any worries in the year of the snake.

好,那看完了刚刚的这些 punch 以后呢,我们今天节目的最后一部分,它是取了很多的成语,跟成语谐音的这些舌年祝福。 首先要看的这个点舌成经,Jason 你知道它来自于哪个成语吗? 好像是点舌成经,right? 对,你中文真棒,你 HSK 几级啊?

我没考过诶。 就那个级别已经 off the chart,已经报表了是吧? 不会不会不会。 那还有一个小问题,成语英语要怎么讲啊? So a 成语 in English is an idiom, but because we're talking specifically about Chinese idioms, we often call them that, Chinese idioms.

Okay, so this point of time is in Chinese, and in English, there is also such a concept and saying. Yeah, we have this cautionary tale about a king named Midas who wanted to have this ability where anything he touched...

turn to gold, but of course he ends up touching his family and his loved ones, and literally everything turns to gold. So it's kind of about sometimes something that seems like a blessing is actually a curse, right? 对,就是来自古希腊神话的这个 Midas touch, 它的点是曾经其实是负面的, kind of like careful what you wish for, 对吧?

Yeah, you might want this superpower and think, oh, I could touch anything and turn it to gold. But of course, you don't want literally everything you touch to turn to gold. 对,它是一个警戒,但是呢,中文的点石沉浸基本上还是, you know, very positive. 所以这个可以怎么讲呢?

You could just say something like, turn anything into gold, right? So I hope anything you touch turns to gold. 对,我也听过有人在说一个很有能力的人的时候,形容的时候说, oh, you know, she's so capable, anything she touches turns into gold. 这个就是一个 positive,一个褒义的。

Yeah, if you're trying to compliment somebody who's really successful or really good at, you know, finances or growing companies or whatever, it's totally okay to say that. 可以说 he or she has the golden touch 吗? Or the gold touch? 可以,好像蛮创意的, but you could still say that. If you said he has the golden touch, she has the golden touch, I would definitely know what you meant, that whatever they do, whatever they're involved in is successful.

Wow, so we wish all of you guys have the golden touch. 大家都能点射成精啊。 好,那还有一个成语呢, 舍我欺谁? 一个有 golden touch 的人基本上也是 舍我欺谁,舍他欺谁啊,对不对? This one you could translate into something like, if not me, then who? Or who else but me?

基本上就是说你太厉害了,就是你了。 You're the guy, you're the girl, you're the one. Yeah, I'm the one. I'm the one who's going to be successful. I'm the one who should be chosen or something like that, right?

对,对。好,那在接下来的这个呢,让我想到了诸葛亮三国的故事,蛇姬妙算,当然来自于神姬妙算。 So this one could be something like always ten steps ahead, right? Always ten steps ahead of everyone, or a master strategist, something like that.

哦,对,我喜欢这个 a master strategist,不仅是一个有谋略的一个策略家,而且还是一个大师级别的。 Just like Zhuge Liang, right? 没错, Zhuge Liang 也蛮神通广大的,在蛇年我们可以说蛇通广大。

Ah, so we have 神通广大 here, very resourceful, somebody who's extremely capable, right? Someone who can do anything. 对,我觉得当我们说一个人神通广大的时候,就是别人做不到的事解决不了的问题, 诶,他可以, kind of, who else but this guy or this girl? Yeah, once again, we have this chosen person, the one that can get it all done, the one that can do it all.

是,是,然后这样的人可能通常还蛮神气洋洋或者蛇气洋洋的。 Snake spirits, maybe? So we could say something like in high spirits or very healthy and energetic, right? Or vigorous even? 对,vigorous 就是非常有活力的,对吧?

Yeah, vigorous gives me this feeling that they have lots of health and energy and lots of high spirit. 对,而且我觉得我们讲一个人很神气的时候,还有一种就是在说 they've got presence,就是气场很大。 对,like they walk in the room and you can almost feel their energy, right? 对,对,so they've got a strong presence,对。

接下来的这个呢,悲伤的成语是事事如意,但这里不是蛇,而是蛇发出的声音,那个丝丝如意。 Wow, this is a fun one, right? And for this one, we could just translate it into something like, may all of your wishes come true, or all of your hopes come true, all of your hopes be fulfilled.

或者能不能也说,may everything go according to your wishes. 因为你想要的嘛,然后都跟你想的一样,OK,也行哈。 Yeah, that's a good one too. Yeah, you could say everything goes according to your wishes or everything goes according to your plans maybe.

I can't snake you.

I can't snake you out of my mind. That sounds a little weird. I think maybe they'd understand what you mean. But you should say something like, I can't get you out of my mind, or I can't let you go.

Oh, can't let go of you,很好,我觉得这个是最对应那个舍不得,to let go of someone or something,对吧? Yeah, it has this feeling that you're still like hugging them or holding them in your heart, right, or your mind, and you just don't want to let go of them, you can't let go of them.

好,那非常感谢 Jason 今天跟我们分享了很多在舌年可以送出的祝福。 也希望大家在舌年想什么,有什么,什么都好,什么都发,什么都不怕,什么都不焦虑。 That's right, we hope you have the happiest, healthiest, most successful and prosperous year of the snake possible.

好,那我们今天的节目就到这儿。 过年的时间呢,大家好好休息,好好玩。 我和 Jason 也出去放松一下。 But we will be back after the Chinese New Year break. That's right. Enjoy your breaks and see you in the new year of the snake. 我们舌年再见。 再见。