用中文说“那个”，美国教授被停课！据说是冒犯黑人了……丨USC professor placed on leave

导读 

最近，美国南加州大学一名教授上课时，因说出的一个汉语词“那个”音似英语中种族歧视性词汇“Nigger”（意为“黑鬼”）直接导致他被学生投诉，且被校方停课。

The University of Southern California has placed a professor on leave after he said a Chinese word that sounds similar to a racial slur in English while teaching a communications class.

Greg Patton, a professor at the university’s Marshall School of Business, was giving a lecture about the use of "filler words" in speech during a recent online class when he used the word in question, saying, "If you have a lot of 'ums and errs', this is culturally specific, so based on your native language. Like in China, the common word is 'that, that, that'. So in China it might be 'nèi ge, nèi ge, nèi ge.'"

In an Aug 21 email to university administration, students accused the professor of pronouncing the word like the N-word "approximately five times in every communication class", and said he "offended all of the Black members of our class".

The students, who identified themselves as "Black MBA Candidates c/o 2022"  wrote that they had reached out to Chinese classmates as they were "appalled" by what they had heard. 

"It was confirmed that the pronunciation of this word is much different than what Professor Patton described in class," the students wrote. "The word is most commonly used with a pause in between both syllables. In addition, we have lived abroad in China and have taken Chinese language courses at several colleges and this phrase, clearly and precisely before instruction is always identified as a phonetic homonym and a racial derogatory term, and should be carefully used, especially in the context of speaking Chinese within the social context of the United States."

In response, Dean Geoff Garrett announced that a new instructor would immediately take over instruction for the remainder of the class.

Two days later, in an email to members of the USC Marshall Graduate Student Association Executive Board, Patton apologized, explaining that he has taught the course for 10 years and had been given the example by several international students years ago.

He added that the transcript of the session records his pronunciation as "naga" and that his pronunciation of the word comes from time spent in Shanghai. 

He said he had received positive feedback on the lesson in years past but accepted blame for failing "to realize all the many different additional ways that a particular example may be heard across audiences members based on their own lived experiences".

USC said in a statement that Patton "agreed to take a short term pause while we are reviewing to better understand the situation and to take any appropriate next steps".

According to a brief bio on the school's website, Patton is "an expert in communication, interpersonal and leadership effectiveness" who has received "numerous teaching awards, been ranked as one of the top teaching faculty at USC and helped USC Marshall achieve numerous #1 worldwide rankings for Communication and Leadership skill development".

"Professor Patton has extensive international experience, has trained, coached and mentored thousands of leaders worldwide, and created scores of successful leadership programs," the bio adds.

Source: National Review

编辑：张曦  

实习：秦琦

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