介绍： Your first failure is your failure to learn Chinese, which will come as a surprise to many because many of us thought you could speak Mandarin.
你谈到自己第一个失败在于没能学会中文，这会让很多人感到惊讶，因为我们中的许多人原以为你会说普通话。
Well, I have a family who speak Chinese. My partner is very interes...

介绍： Your first failure is your failure to learn Chinese, which will come as a surprise to many because many of us thought you could speak Mandarin.
你谈到自己第一个失败在于没能学会中文，这会让很多人感到惊讶，因为我们中的许多人原以为你会说普通话。
Well, I have a family who speak Chinese. My partner is very interested in China and has been for a long time. I'm fascinated by China. I have two children who speak Chinese. A large part of their early childhood, the whole house would be speaking Chinese. And I still can't speak it.
我家人是有会说中文的。我的伴侣对中国始终抱有浓厚兴趣，这种情结已持续多年。我本人对中国文化也非常向往。我们有两个会说中文的孩子，他们还是孩童的时候，家里大部分时间都在说中文。而我至今仍无法流利使用中文。
And in lockdown, I started to try and have lessons and then when I came out of lockdown, it got so busy. And now I have all this credit for being an actress who, you know, is has a high profile and is very interested in China. And I'm credited with being able to speak Chinese. And I can't. 
在新冠疫情封城期间，我开始尝试参加一些课程学习中文，但解封后，我的工作就变得异常繁忙。现在，我被视为一位知名度很高、对中国非常感兴趣的女演员，还被认为会说中文。其实我根本不会。
And the only thing I can say is something I said on the Graham Norton show, which is a sort of thing they call a Chengyu, which is a sort of idiom, a saying. And it's a very good saying. It's sort of like about not wasting your time. And it's sort of, you know, don't bother doing like that. it's like taking your trousers off to fart. [脱裤子放屁]
我说的唯一一句，就是在《诺顿秀》上说过的一句话，那是一种被称之为“成语”的东西，也就是一种谚语或者俗语。这句俗语非常贴切，大意是“不要浪费时间”，更切确地说就是“别费劲去做这种事”，就像脱裤子放屁一样。【脱裤子放屁】。
And I said this and this clip from the Graham Norton Show knockdown went viral all over China. And I am now known in China as the fart lady. I am the fart lady. People, you know, will come up to my face and say, "Oh, you're the fart lady."
我说完这话后，《诺顿秀》上那段犀利吐槽的片段就在中国火了。现在我在中国被称为“放屁女士”。我就是“放屁女士”。人们会走到我面前说：“哦，你就是‘放屁女士’。”
But, you know, when you've had I've had all the opportunity to learn this language, you know, it's been going on around me. Netflix has been on in Chinese. Peppa Pig has been on in Chinese and I still can't bloody speak it.
不过，你知道吗，明明我有机会学这门语言，它一直就在我身边。网飞有中文版的《小猪佩奇》，也一直播，可我TM还是说不出来。
Can you say anything more than the fart lady idiom?
除了这个“放屁女士”的俗语，你还能说出别的吗？
I mean, yes, I can say a few things. I know a few animals. I know some I know some You know what they say in Chinese if you're smiling for a photograph, you say “Qiezi”, which is aubergine. Aubergine, aubergine. “Qiezi”.
嗯，我能说几句。我认识几种动物。我认识一些……你知道中文里有句俗话吗？拍照时要笑，就说“茄子”，就是英语aubergine，茄子。
I this year I thought I'm going to actually set my mind to it, because I think it's just embarrassing that I get a lot of credit for being able to do it and and I can't actually do it.
今年我决定下定决心好好学一学，因为我觉得，别人总夸我能做好这件事，而我实际上却做不到，这实在太丢人了。
I mean it is infamously meant to be probably the hardest language to learn.
但众所周知，中文大概是世界上最难学的语言。
Well, I said I'm interested in the brain and it definitely works on a different part of your brain because you know you have these it's a tonal language, right? So you know the word if you have “Mǎ”[马] right, you can have “Mǎ” meaning horse.
嗯，我之前说过我对大脑很感兴趣，而学习这门语言确实会调动大脑的不同区域，因为这是一门声调语言，对吧？比如“Mǎ”这个音，中文里表示“马”，也就是英语“horse”。
No, “Mǎ” you probably do got it wrong as well. But you can have “mā” “má” “mǎ” “mà” and those are four completely different words. So you know woe betide that you get the wrong. There was a there was an NT Live I think or a play of something went out in China not of our play. But it was something like a Greek tragedy, something like Electra or something you know with matricide in or something really serious.
不，“Mǎ”，这个词你可能也搞错了。但“mā”、“má”、“mǎ”、“mà”这四个字完全不同。所以，要是搞错了可就糟了。记得NT Live频道看过一个节目，可能是在中国上演的某部戏剧，不是英国的剧目。大概是一部希腊悲剧，像是《‌厄勒克特拉》之类的，里面有弑母情节等非常严肃的题材。
And instead of the word for mother which is ““mā” they used the word “mǎ” which is horse. So at the end instead of my mother, my mother, it was my horse, my horse.
他们没有用“妈”这个表示母亲的词，而是用了“马”这个表示马的词。所以最后，原本该说“我妈，我妈”的地方，却变成了“我（的）马，我（的）马”。
And I have got these two sons who had this bridge into a world that I could never be, I could never experience China as I can now through through them. But the fact that I get such a lot of credit for it and I can't actually do it. Have you ever had that where you get a lot of credit for something that you actually sort of thing.
我有两个儿子，他们为我搭建了一座通往世界的桥梁，让我得以亲历中国，这种体验是过去无法企及的。但问题在于，我因此获得了如此多的赞誉，而实际上我根本做不到这些。你有没有过这样的经历：为某件事获得很多赞誉，但你心里其实觉得……
Don't think I get the credit in the first place? I used to be able to speak Russian and I'm very sad that I've lost all facility to do that because I didn't practice when I came back. So now I've got one...
难道一开始没有我的一份功劳吗？我曾经会说俄语，但如今完全丧失了这一能力令我深感遗憾，因为回国后未进行任何练习。目前仅保留了一点语言能力……
Yeah. So you feel a sort of shame. But I mean, there are lovely things in Chinese. It's probably like in Russian there are meanings like a laptop is a Diannao, which is an electric brain. And there are words like that in Chinese which I just I might have got the tones wrong, so the Chinese listener I apologize. It could easily be a totally different word, but for English it's fine.
是啊。所以你会感到一种羞耻感。不过我的意思是，中文里也有很美妙的东西。这大概就像俄语里有些词的含义一样，比如laptop在中文里叫“电脑”，意思是“电子大脑”。中文里也有类似词汇，只是我可能把声调搞混了，在此向中国听众致歉。这很可能完全是另一个词，但在英语中完全没问题。
When was the first time you can remember being fascinated with language?
你第一次对语言产生浓厚兴趣是什么时候？
Oh, I mean first it was accents. I was fascinated by accents cos I grew up in Earl’s Court and there was you know just so many accents. It was consider... it was very Australian at that time. There was...it was much rougher than it is now. There were just so many accents.
首先说说口音问题。我从小就对各种口音着迷，因为我在“伯爵大地”（英国伦敦西部的一个知名区域）这块长大，那里口音种类繁多。那时候的口音风格极具澳大利亚特色，比现在粗犷得多。当时各种口音真是数不胜数。
It was a big homeless problem. So we'd often in our block of flats, we'd often come out and there'd be people sleeping rough in the corridors and I just was exposed to so many different sounds and I loved that. And I always wanted to try and work out, because it felt like character to me.
当时无家可归现象十分普遍。我们公寓楼里经常有人露宿走廊，而我却能接触到各种各样的声音，这种环境让我着迷。我一直想设法去理解它，因为这对我来说就像在塑造人物形象一样。
Accent was always character. I heard my parents singing in other languages of course. There's a lot of operas in Italian or a lot of songs in French. 
口音始终是个人特质。我也听过父母用其他语言唱歌，比如有很多意大利歌剧，也有不少法语歌曲。