If native speakers of English are not to become [w]international[/w] corporate pariahs, they will need to learn how to speak global English – in other words, to communicate with non-native speakers.如果英語母語人士不想被國際商業(yè)界所遺棄，他們需要去學(xué)習(xí)如何講通用英語——換言之，就是和非母語人士溝通。

[w=resentment]Resentment[/w] at the [w]complexity[/w] of native speakers' English is [w]widespread[/w] in international business. During a study carried out at Kone Elevators of Finland, one Finnish manager [w=blurt]blurted[/w] out: “The British are the worst . . . It is much more difficult to understand their English than that of other [w=nationality]nationalities[/w]. When we non-native speakers of English talk, it is much easier to understand. We have the same limited vocabulary.”在國際商界，針對母語人士英語復(fù)雜性的不滿普遍存在。在芬蘭通力電梯進行的一項調(diào)查中，一位芬蘭經(jīng)理人脫口而出：“英國人最差勁了……他們講的英語是所有國家中最難懂的。而我們這些非英語母語人士所說的話，要容易理解得多。我們都擁有同樣有限的詞匯量?！?/p>

How can native speakers of English make themselves more [w]comprehensible[/w] and more [w]likeable[/w]? The most obvious way is to learn someone else's language. The great benefit of learning other languages is that you have some idea of what non-native speakers are up against. However, news this week that fewer than half of English schoolchildren are learning a foreign language suggests that this is not going to be a [w]profitable[/w] route for many.英語母語人士怎樣才能使自己更容易為人理解和喜愛呢？最明顯的方法，就是學(xué)習(xí)其他人的語言。學(xué)習(xí)其它語言的一大好處就是你可以對其它非母語人士的問題有所了解。然而，有消息稱，只有不到半數(shù)的英國學(xué)童在學(xué)習(xí)一門外語，說明對很多人來說，以上建議并不是好方法。

So what should native English-speakers do to make themselves better understood? First, slow down, but not to the point where members of your audience think you are [w=patronise]patronising[/w] them. Second, avoid [w]idiomatic[/w] and [w]metaphorical[/w] s: that's the way the cookie [w=crumble]crumbles[/w], people in glass houses, and the like.那么英語母語人士應(yīng)該怎樣做，使自己能夠更好地被別人所理解呢？首先，放慢語速，但是不要慢到使你的聽眾覺得你是在遷就他們。第二，避免使用成語和比喻的表達方式：例如“餅干就是那么碎的”（that's the way the cookie crumbles，意指無可避免）、“玻璃屋中人”（people in glass houses，意指自身有問題和身處險境的人）等表達方式。

Jokes are a difficult area. You will not forget the silence that follows one that is found [w]baffling[/w]. On the other hand, when jokes work, they can be a huge success with a non-native speaking audience. If you have learnt other languages, you will know that very few achievements are as satisfying as understanding your first foreign joke. Try a few out with your non-native speaking audience; you will soon learn which ones are worth repeating.笑話是一個很難理解的領(lǐng)域。一個讓人難以理解的笑話會帶來一片沉默，這會使你難以忘懷。而另一方面，當(dāng)笑話起作用時，它們會為你在英語非母語人中帶來巨大的成功。如果你學(xué)過其它語言，你會知道，聽懂自己的第一個外國笑話，會帶來一種無可比擬的成就感。試著給非母語聽眾講幾個笑話后，你會很快明白哪些是值得重復(fù)的。

It is often unnecessary to avoid longer words such as “association” and “nationality”, which are common to the Romance languages and will be widely understood in Europe and Latin America.通常沒有必要去避免較長的單詞，例如“association”（協(xié)會、聯(lián)合） 和 “nationality”（國家、民族），這些詞在拉丁語系中很常見，在歐洲和拉丁美洲都能被廣泛理解。

Listen to verbal responses for signs of whether you have been understood or not. Make sure your non-native speaking colleagues have the chance to talk; they will often be paraphrasing your words in an attempt to satisfy themselves that they have grasped what you said.從人們的反應(yīng)中找尋自己是否被人理解的跡象。讓非母語同事有機會說話，他們常常會重復(fù)你說過的話，以此肯定自己已經(jīng)理解了你表達的意思。

Always remember that the greatest friend of the non-native speaker is [w]repetition[/w]. Find more than one way of getting your point across and [w]summarise[/w] frequently.切記，非英語母語人士最好的朋友就是重復(fù)。不要只用一種說法來表達自己的意思，同時要經(jīng)常進行總結(jié)。