一個在老牌英國公司的Hong Kong office做企業傳訊的朋友跟我說，她的英國人老闆有次問她，“Why do Hong Kong people like to use ‘on the other hand’ so often? Even when the situation doesn’t call for its usage!”
在我的學生中，讀本地學校的學生也經常在沒必要的情況下用“on the other hand”，所以我有理由相信，這個usage的源頭是學校。
那該如何防止濫用“on the other hand”？我先打個比喻，在鏡頭前說話的人都知道，
所以，要對抗 a misuse of “on the other hand”, 可以考慮只容許自己說有substance的內容。By way of illustration, let’s look at the contrast between the following writing samples:
Student
It is a well known fact that Hong Kong’s education has been under attack. On the other hand, in recent years, there has been a rising trend among parents to homeschool their kids, due to overall unhappiness with Hong Kong’s education system.
My rewrite
Since the imposition of nine years of compulsory education in Hong Kong, critics have decried the system’s emphasis on rote learning, likening this teaching approach to “stuffing a peking duck” – so much useless information is shoved down children’s throats that they’re fed up. In recent years, some parents have become fed up themselves, going as far as pulling their kids out of school and homeschooling them instead.
在我的rewrite, 我先指出學生fed up by填鴨式教育，再指出家長也 fed up, 我用fed up 來連貫段落，就能避免用on the other hand這個怪異的填充物。
Michelle Ng
英國牛津大學畢業，前《蘋果日報》和《眾新聞》專欄作家，現在身在楓葉國，心繫中國大陸和香港。
聯絡方式： michelleng.coach@proton.me
個人網站： https://michellengwritings.com
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