世界英文拼字季军不会英文？

Thai wordsmith Komol Panyasophonlert, 31, is one of the world's best scrabble players and ranked third in the world after memorising 90 per cent of the entire language.

31岁的泰国语言大师Komol Panyasophonlert，是当今世界上最好的拼字游戏玩家之一，他在记住90%的英文单词后拼字游戏排名世界第三。

He learned how to play from a tatty handbook he found lying around at home when he was 14 and trains by reading the dictionary for six hours a day.

他14岁时在家中发现一本破旧的手册，因此学会了怎么玩拼字游戏。他通过每天在家读上六小时的字典练习。

But remarkably, Komol can only utter a handful of words in broken English, can't string a sentence together and relies on Google Translate for written communication.

不过值得一提的是，Komol只会说一点不标准的英文单词，连一个句子也串不起来，并且需要依靠谷歌翻译来做笔头沟通。

He said: 'Scrabble is more about logic, memory, maths and being able to outsmart your opponent.

他表示：“拼字游戏更多的是考验逻辑、记忆、数学和比对手聪明的能力。”

'Plus, I train hard. Before competitions I spend all my free time reading the dictionary. In bed, in the bathroom, on the train - nearly every waking moment.'“

再者，我努力训练。每次比赛前我用所有的空闲时间读字典。在床上、厕所里、火车上——几乎所有走动的时候我都会用来读字典。

不过这篇《每日邮报》的报道，却让Komol本人不能认同。原来Komol选择笔头交流是另有原因，并非一点英语都不能说……

“Ok. it's time to defend myself. These are what I answered the journalist that made him think I used Google translate [sic],” Komol wrote on Facebook.

Komol在脸书上声明：“行，是时候为我自己正名了。这是我当时怎么回复那名记者的，也就是这回复让他认为我用了谷歌翻译。呵呵。”

In their conversation, Komol only suggested that it would be easier to respond via Facebook messages to give detailed answers. It did not say his reason was because he couldn’t speak English. So basically, Komol was doing the guy a favor to ensure he got his story.

在对话中，Komol只是建议通过脸书消息来沟通能更容易给出详细的答复。这并不能成为他不会说英语的理由。因而实际上，Komol当时是确保让那名记者能听懂他的故事。

Thais use English as a foreign language, and common Thai schools focus on teaching the students written English and grammar, rather than speaking skills. Therefore, some Thais may not have too much experience with casual conversation or need time to think about how they should arrange a sentence when they speak English.

英文被泰国人当做一门外语，而普通的泰国学校重视英文的笔头和语法教学，口头技巧却少有重视。因而一些泰国人也许没有很多日常对话的经验。或是说，他们在说英语时，会需要一些时间来组织语言。