在中国的老外认为是eventually
谢天谢地2014来了,马上也成了新年流行语(buzz word )。这让在中国生活工作的老外朋友们有点郁闷,因为对他们来说mashang是他们在中国所遇到的最不喜欢的两个短句之一。当他们在中国第一次听到mashang的时候,还去查汉英字典:In the Chinese dictionary the word mashang consists of the Chinese characters ma (马), which is horse and shang(上,)which is on. So literally, mashang means at horse speed (照字面上看,马上是骏马奔驰的高速度).
但是,在现实生活中,这些老外们的体验是:Something coming on horseback could take either 30 seconds or it could take weeks - the basic time frame that mashang conveys. There is no average mashang it could be 2 minutes and it could be two hours. Failing that it could easily take two weeks .(马上没有一个平均的时间长度,可以是30秒,也可能是两个小时,但两个星期也还是属于马上的范畴)。
比如下面的外国朋友与中国服务人员的场景对话:
When will our food/plane/messiah(救世主) come?
Mashang.
Roughly how long?
Mashang.
5 minutes?
Mashang.
4 days?
Mashang.
综合考虑各种用到马上这个词的场合,细心揣摩其含义,有老外专门写文章认为mashang的准确翻译是eventually,就是很肯定,早晚会来的意思。
也许有读者问,除了mahang,另外一个让老外郁闷的短语句子是什么呢?这个嘛,meibanfa,啥也不说了,你懂的祝各位新老读者新年快乐、eventually有钱!