我以往在廣告界做過English copywriter，當時大陸地產行業蓬勃，所以我大部分的工作來自地產商，跟業界人士也有所接觸。我得悉雖然地產商知道客戶絕對不會因樓書裏的英文文案是native English而買樓，但這有助於打造國際化形象，所以檔次高的樓盤還是在意樓書裏英文的好壞。

後來，到2019年，當我看到港大校長張翔給學生發的一封信，信用蹩腳的英文勸學生不要在校園內搞抗爭運動。我就好奇，找人潤色張校長的英文很難嗎？張校長在大陸土生土長，又是理科出身，書寫英文不行很容易理解，但如果他的英文有人把關，雖然信中表達的觀點還是不受歡迎，但至少能避免校長的英文被人詬病，影響港大的國際化形象。當然，可能張校長根本不care沒權勢的人怎麽看他和港大。

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前幾天看到張校長用205萬買寶馬的新聞，我難免感到唏噓。從事件能看出張校長行使權力的任性，而短短幾年，無論是港大還是香港，都跟大陸房地產一樣，淪落到沒形象可維護的地步。當然，從學英文的角度，張校長那封信還是有研究價值的，趁這個機會重溫它吧：

Statement from HKU President and Vice-Chancellor Professor Xiang Zhang urging students to stay calm.

“With the situation on campus now, I appeal to all HKU members to stay calm and rational.

If there are any who are planning to do anything with serious consequences, such as actions likely to injure people, I appeal to them NOT to do so.

We want to protect our students and our beloved campus.

Please do NOT create any situation which will lead to police entering the campus to search, to investigate or to make arrests.

I urge you NOT to resort to violence as it will not solve any problems.

Please help the university. Please stay calm. We care about each of you.”

My comments:

“With the situation on campus now, I appeal to all HKU members to stay calm and rational”

Note the way Zhang doesn’t even bother to spell out what is bothering his students. It seems to me that in couching his students’ animosity towards the CCP in the vaguest language possible (“the situation on campus now), Zhang is inadvertently revealing his utter indifference to them and their concerns.

“If there are any who are planning to do anything with serious consequences, such as actions likely to injure people, I appeal to them NOT to do so.”

Straightening out this convoluted sentence isn’t rocket science: “I strongly advise against committing acts that are not only illegal, but also injurious to yourself and others.”

“I appeal to all HKU members to stay calm and rational”; “We want to protect our students and our beloved campus”; “I urge you NOT to resort to violence as it will not solve any problems”; “Please help the university. Please stay calm. We care about each of you.”

Zhang’s interchangeable use of “I” and “we” is telling. The most charitable interpretation of “we” is “HKU management.” But it’s also conceivable that Zhang has let his vigilance slip, that “we” is a group of CCP-related folks he’s answerable to, whose existence the public isn’t supposed to be aware of. A possible scenario: it was this group that urged him to issue some sort of warning when students showed signs of staging protests on university premises.To get his superiors off his back, Zhang dashed off a note with little forethought – hence its sloppiness.

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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