(青青英語教室)
眾所周知,people和person在英語裡分別是「人」的複數和單數形式,有一種說法叫「people person」,它可不能直譯成「人人」哦。「A people person」指的是什麼樣的人呢?先來看幾個例句:
eg. Tony is a people person. Wherever he is there is always laughter.
譯文:Tony人緣真好,有他的地方就有歡樂。
eg. Donna is a people person. She is warm, outgoing, and a good listener.
譯文:Donna熱情、外向,而且喜歡傾聽別人訴說,很受人歡迎。
eg. You are expected to go to the party even if you don’t know anybody there. You are a people personand by the end of the night you will have made lots of new friends.
譯文:我們很期待你參加晚會,你很擅長交際,就算晚會上全是新面孔,到最後你也一定收穫滿滿,結交到許多新朋友。
由此看來,a people person指的就是「人緣好、受歡迎、善交際的人」。
除此以外,英文中用來表達人緣好、好交際,還有這幾種說法與大家分享。
1. popular: 受歡迎的。
eg. He is a very popularteacher in the university.
譯文:他在大學裡很受學生歡迎。
更酷的一種表達法:student killer學生殺手,指老師非常受歡迎!
eg. My academic supervisor is really a student killer. So many students love him.
2. social: 好交際的,合群的,社交的。
eg. He had almost no social life.
譯文:他幾乎沒有社交生活。
eg. Eric has always been a social/ gregarious person, so we have never worried about him making friends or finding a place in the world.
譯文:Eric很善於跟人打交道,所以我們從不擔心他交不到朋友或找不到立足之地。
3. gregarious: gre- 意為group,-arious: 表示「愛……的」,意思就是「合群」,也指「(動物)群居的」。
eg. Snow geese are gregarious birds and feed in flocks.
譯文:雪雁是群居鳥類,會集群覓食。
另外,「交際花」的英文說法是「social butterfly」(注意不是「social flower」)是指聚會中在人群人自在遊走,喜歡與不同的人交流的人,就像蝴蝶在花朵間自由穿梭一樣。這種說法男女適用。
eg. You know they used to call me the social butterfly, and I think I’m flying again.
譯文:你知道嗎?人人都叫我「交際花」,我想我又開始坐不住了。
不過"social butterfly"通常不是什麼讚美的話,所以還是慎用為妙。