词汇大师(Wordmaster)--'Heritage Speakers'

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster, Musa Nushi, a 27-year-old Iranian with a master's degree in English teaching from Tehran University.

MUSA NUSHI: "English is in high demand in Iran because lots of people are going on the Net and business is kind of booming¹, so they need English lots."

RS: But right now, Musa Nushi is in America, thanks to the I.I.E., the New York-based Institute of International Education. He arrived in September to spend ten months in the Persian Studies program at Portland State University in Oregon, on the West Coast.

MUSA NUSHI: "I'm a T.A. here, a teaching assistant. I'm teaching Farsi to heritage² speakers of Farsi. You know, 'heritage speaker' refers to a person who knows the language through his parents but does not necessarily read or write. So I've got this class, it's a multilevel class, and I have to cater³ to everybody's needs. But I just love it."

RS: "Is it forcing you in one way or another to take a deeper or closer look at your own culture?"

MUSA NUSHI: "It does. You see, I've picked lots of positive points that I'm going to take back to my country. One of them is just being friendly towards your students. In Iran, authority counts a lot. You have to be very respectful and at the same time fearful of your authority.

"But this is not the case here. By just being a little bit more friendly, you can just encourage your students to do more activities. But the authority thing is a big thing in Iran. So I will like to be a little more friendly towards my students -- and it works."

RS: "So was this something that surprised you when you came into the American university system?"

MUSA NUSHI: "God, I just came here wearing a suit. I was wearing a tie. I was dressed to nine. I thought that ... [laughter]"

AA: "Dressed to the nines, meaning very formally dressed."

MUSA NUSHI: "Yes, and then I went on and I saw that I don't have to be so formal. And I've got to take some courses too. So I'm sitting in class, and the prof came in, I just automatically⁴ got up, you see? And I looked at the other guys, they're just sitting, and I wondered. And then I understood that you don't have to get up for your prof. Of course, respect is good but the point is ... "

AA: "The professor probably wondered why is that man standing⁵?"

MUSA NUSHI: "Yes. Actually, then I came to know that it's not necessary to get up all the time when the prof comes in."

RS: "Tell us some other things that you've noticed in this first month in the United States."

AA: "And especially even about the language. What have you been learning on campus?"

MUSA NUSHI: "I don't have problems with vocabulary and things like that. I'm just getting the good phrases and writing them down. For example, 'google' something. For example, you google a name, you google an article, you google a place."

RS: "That's turning the Internet Google search engine into a verb."

MUSA NUSHI: "Yes. Another thing that I learned, 'look see' -- for example, to 'have a look see' at something. Look see means to look, or have a quick look actually, at something. So you can say, for example, 'I had a look see at the document and there was nothing wrong with it.'

"I heard the expression, 'He's sleeping with fishes.'"

RS: "He's what?"

AA: "Sleeping with fishes."

MUSA NUSHI: "Yes, it means he's dead, I guess."

AA: "I think that's sort of like Mafia slang⁶, you know. They throw someone in the water, right? And he's sleeping with fishes."

MUSA NUSHI: "Exactly. And I got it from a movie. [laughter]"

RS: Speaking of movies, Musa Nushi says violent American films gave him the wrong impression of American life. He says he wasn't prepared for how nicely people have treated him since he arrived last month.

MUSA NUSHI: "They are helpful and help you as much as they can, and sometimes more than you expect. I mean, it's something that really surprises me. In Iran, when I was there, I couldn't ask many questions because asking too many questions means how weak you are, or that you need others. But here you can easily pose⁷ your questions, your problems, and these the good things I'm seeing."

AA: "Now can I ask you one last question?"

MUSA NUSHI: "Go ahead."

AA: "Have there been any expressions or idioms or slang that you learned, let's say from a dictionary or a book, that feel flat when you used it, meaning the person just looked at you and sort of didn't understand?"

MUSA NUSHI: "Yes. For example, the other day I used the word 'rents' for my parents. And they got ... "

RS: "'Rents instead of parents."

MUSA NUSHI: "I said, 'Well, my rents are ... ' and the guy just thought I'm talking about renting a place. [laughter]"

AA: When, in fact, he was referring to his pa-rents. Musa Nushi from Iran is spending the school year at Portland State University, through the Foreign Language Teaching Assistant Program of the Institute of International Education.

RS: That's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is。。。。。。。And our segments⁸ are all on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble.

 

1 booming   

adj.急速发展的v.激增( boom的现在分词 )；猛涨；发出隆隆声；以低沉有力的声音说话

参考例句：

• The opera singer has a deep, booming, masculine voice. 这位歌剧演唱家有一副深沉而又浑厚有力的嗓音。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• He is booming as a teacher. 作为一位教师，他日趋成功。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 heritage   

n.传统，遗产，继承物

参考例句：

• The ancient buildings are part of the national heritage.这些古建筑是民族遗产的一部分。
• We Chinese have a great cultural heritage.我们中国人有伟大的文化遗产。

3 cater   

vi.(for/to)满足，迎合；(for)提供饮食及服务

参考例句：

• I expect he will be able to cater for your particular needs.我预计他能满足你的特殊需要。
• Most schools cater for children of different abilities.大多数学校能够满足具有不同天资的儿童的需要。

4 automatically   

adv.不加思索地，无意识地，自动地

参考例句：

• The machine cycles automatically.这台机器自动循环运转。
• She had automatically labelled the boys as troublemakers.她不假思索地认定这些男孩子是捣蛋鬼。

5 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

6 slang   

n.俚语，行话；vt.使用俚语，辱骂；vi.辱骂

参考例句：

• The phrase is labelled as slang in the dictionary.这个短语在这本字典里被注为俚语。
• Slang often goes in and out of fashion quickly.俚语往往很快风行起来又很快不再风行了。

7 pose   

vt.造成，陈述；vi.摆姿势，装腔作势；n.姿势

参考例句：

• He sat in a relaxed pose.他轻松自如地坐着。
• He always strikes such a dignified pose before his girlfriend.他总是在女友面前摆出这种庄严的姿态。

8 segments   

部分( segment的名词复数 )； 瓣； [计算机]（字符等的）分段； [动物学]节片

参考例句：

• He is eating oranges in segments. 他正在一瓣瓣地吃橘子。
• Gene cloning provides a means of purifying and propagating specific DNA segments. 基因克隆化提供了一种纯化和扩增特定DNA片段的方法。