走进牛津大学丨第42期 钱钟书改名风波

Being connected with his knowledge, there is an anecdote.

有一件发生在牛津大学的趣事，也与他的博学有关。

It is recorded that he read his family name as Tieins，avoiding to be misunderstand as "dog".

据记载，钱钟书把自己的姓念作Tieins,以免被误解为“狗”。

At that time, it was common for Chinese to write their names in Pinyin Romanization.

当时，中国人通用罗马拼音写姓名，

His family name "qian" was spelled as "Ch, ien" in Pinyin Romanization,

他的姓“钱”的罗马拼音拼法是Ch'ien。

and westerners were prone to pronounce it similar to "shan"，which was the pronunciation of "dog' in. French.

西方人很容易把它读得类似于“闪”的发音，这正是法语中“狗” 字的发音。

If he had not known French, Qian won't do this kind of thing,

如果他不懂法语，也就不会有这样的趣事了,

which accurately proved his formidable erudition.

由此可见钱钟书学问之渊博。

Qian wrote English with a free pen,

钱钟书运用英文挥洒自如，

which had a close relationship with the strict training of his tutorial in Oxford.

这都跟在牛津大学时导师的严格训练有着密切关系。

The highest advantage of Oxford is keeping the old tutorial system,

牛津大学最大的优点是保留着古老的导师制，

one tutorial teaching one or two students.

一个导师带一两个学生。

One benefit of the tutorial system is that students receive direct feedback in a small discussion setting.

导师制的好处在于通过小组讨论，学生们能得到直接的指导。

Tutorials were assigned by the school when they entered and Qian's tutorial was Brett Smith,

导师是学生人学时由校方指定的，钱钟书的导师名叫布瑞特.斯密斯。

In the first year, they were asked to practice writing.

第一年训练作文，

Brett Smith was extremely rigorous, and required that the essays must be clear and brief, novelty is also necessary.

导师对他的要求非常严格，他要求写文章要清楚、简约，尤其是要选题新颖。

Generally speaking, Qian benefited a lot from the special tutorial system.

总之，这个特别的导师制使钱钟书获益匪浅。

读一些无用的书，做一些无用的事，花一些无用的时间，都是为了在一切已知之外，保留一个超越自己的机会，人生中一些很了不起的变化，就是来自这种时刻。by 梁文道

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