課堂重地，俚語免入？

Lindsay Johns： Michael， street slang is anathema to me， and I want it kept out of the classroom because， for me， and with the young people that I mentor down in Peckham in South London， I cou…I tell them “l(fā)anguage is power.”

When I hear young people speaking street slang， they sound as if they’ve had an exceedingly painful frontal lobotomy. “Lully， innit？ Ye git me， bluds？ Yeah， basicallys.” They sound stupid and uneducated. I want the young people that I mentor to be taken seriously by those who have the power to take decisions， which can affect their lives the better. For better or for worse， Ed Miliband and David Cameron do not speak street slang. Michael Rosen： Well， it’s very interesting， and if we talk about street slang， it is only one kind of slang. Somebody like David Cameron， he spoke another kind of slang when he was at school. He spoke Eton slang. So when we talk about slangs， we have to be pretty careful， because we all talk slang. We have no evidence that simply speaking one kind of slang， or one kind of local dialect， actually prevents you from speaking another. We are all capable of being bi-dialectal， that’s to say speaking two kinds of language or more. So the key issue is why don’t your mates in Peckham choose to speak standard English， or maybe they can， and， or maybe they know how to， and choose not to. So that’s one of the key issues.

Lindsay： If street slang was the lingua franca of power and the key to social mobility in this country， I would be the first to advocate it to the young people that I mentor in Peckham. But it’s not， so I don’t. I personally am not a big fan of code-switching or cultural relativism， because I think that actually， under pressure， for example， in that all-important college， job or university interview， the young people revert to type. So they revert to street slang， and therefore it prejudices their application.

Michael： Now， as far as I understand it， you think you should ban it. Now， my view would be “no， you study it.”

Lindsay： I have a zero tolerance policy with my young mentees down in Peckham， and I try and correct the way they speak. So for example， if it’s basically “you get me，” “l(fā)ike，” “brov，” “cuz，” all those kinds of slang terms， I think they are best kept out of the classroom.

Michael： You， if you go to Shakespeare， you’ll find that Shakespeare uses the word “cuz.” Now， my starting point would be， if， let’s say， one of your friends uses the word “cuz，” and say， “Well， let’s have a look at that word ‘cuz.’ Let’s see what its history has been in the English language. Let’s have a look. Here in this scene in Shakespeare， in Romeo and Juliet， OK， there is…there’s street violence going on in Romeo and Juliet. Here is a fascinating way in which street slang is being used by a dramatist. Let’s look at it.” So， we start from the language that your students， your friends， are using， and we say，“Let’s have a look. Here is this vehicle of theatre， this…this vehicle of…of language， sometimes a vehicle of power， Shakespeare， and he’s using some of the similar language using， that…that you use.”

Lindsay： I think that it’s very easy for liberal academics and writers， who are often， not always， but often cocooned in a very safe cossetted world and “ivory tower.” In my opinion I think it’s actually very hypocritical， because I think you’ll find that the majority， not all， but the majority of those liberal academics and writers， they themselves enjoyed the benefits of a “Rolls-Royce” humanities education， and， I’ll wager， with no slang whatsoever.

Michael： So how do you get from A to B？ How do you get from street slang to the way you’re speaking？ You see， this is the key issue. You start from the speech and the writing that your students have， and say， “Well look， here is another way of writing. Look， here it is in The Guardian newspaper. They don’t seem to be writing in the way you’re speaking. Why is that？” Simply banning won’t do the work. People have been trying to ban local speech， dialect， whether it’s Cockney， Geordie or whatever， they’ve been trying to ban it in education for over a hundred years. OK？ And the…the obvious survival of dialect in local speech is evidence that it has never worked.

林賽·約翰：邁克爾，我對街頭俚語簡直是深惡痛絕，我不想它污染了課堂。因為，你知道，我在倫敦南部的佩卡姆教書，我教導學生們“語言就是力量”。

學生們一說街頭俚語，我就覺得他們經(jīng)歷了一場無比痛苦的前腦葉白質(zhì)切除術。“很可愛，不是嗎？明白了嗎，好哥們兒？喲，差不多就這樣?！甭犉饋砑扔薮烙秩狈甜B(yǎng)。我希望我教的學生能讓決策者認真對待，從而給他們的生活帶來正面的影響。不管怎么說，現(xiàn)任工黨黨魁埃德·米利班德和首相大人戴維·卡梅倫可不說街頭俚語。

邁克爾·羅森：嗯，你的想法很有趣。我們說的“街頭俚語”只是俚語的一種。那些大人物，像卡梅倫，他學生時代說的是另一種俚語——伊頓俚語。所以對待俚語這個話題，我們應該嚴謹一點，畢竟所有人都說俚語。沒有證據(jù)表明只說一種俚語或方言的人就不會說另一種。我們都有運用兩種方言的能力，也就是說我們能說兩種甚至更多種語言。因此，問題的關鍵在于為什么你的學生不說標準的英語。他們可能會說，或者知道怎么說，但不愿意說。這才是重點。

林賽：在這個國家，如果街頭俚語是上層社會的通關密語，是平步青云的法門，那我肯定第一個贊成我的學生們說街頭俚語。但事實不是這樣，所以我不提倡。我個人不太喜歡“語言切換”的游戲，也不是文化相對主義的擁護者。我認為，面臨壓力的時候，比方說，參加一個特別重要的入學或工作面試時，年輕人會緊張得原形畢露，然后就會開始說街頭俚語，這不利于他們的求學或求職。

邁克爾：現(xiàn)在以我的理解，你認為應該禁止使用街頭俚語。而我的看法恰恰相反，你應該學習了解它。

林賽：我絕對不能容忍我在佩卡姆的學生說街頭俚語，而且我在努力矯正他們的說話方式。所以像“你懂我”“呃”“老兄”“因偽”之類的不正規(guī)用法，我不希望在課堂上聽到。

邁克爾：你若是翻閱莎士比亞的作品，就會發(fā)現(xiàn)他也用“因偽”這個詞。我要說的是，假設你的朋友也說了“因偽”，我們可以這樣說：“我們來看一下‘因偽’這個詞在英語中的起源。我們一起來了解一下。在莎士比亞的《羅密歐與茱麗葉》中……嗯……有一幕戲描寫的是街頭暴力。這里的街頭俚語用得多傳神啊。讓我們來看看他是怎么用的?！彼晕覀兊孟葟哪愕膶W生、你的朋友所用的語言入手，我們說：“看，這種戲劇的表現(xiàn)手法，這種語言的橋梁，或者說是表現(xiàn)力，在莎士比亞的戲劇里，他也會用跟你們的街頭俚語類似的表達?！?/p>

林賽：我認為自由派學者和作家通常，我并不是說一直如此，但他們通常都處于無人挑刺的安全地帶或是高居象牙塔，因此他們可以隨意地使用俚語。但在我看來，這種做法太虛偽了。因為你會發(fā)現(xiàn)他們中的大部分，當然不是全部，接受的其實是“精英式”的人文教育，而且我敢打賭，這些課程不會使用任何俚語。

邁克爾：那你要怎樣從一種狀態(tài)轉(zhuǎn)換到另一種？你要怎么讓那些說街頭俚語的學生們像你一樣說話呢？你知道，這才是關鍵所在?，F(xiàn)在你的學生用街頭俚語說話或?qū)懽?，然后你說：“聽著，我們還有另外一種寫作方式?？?，《衛(wèi)報》用的就是這種方式，他們不會像你們說話那樣來寫作。為什么呢？”簡單的明令禁止并不能起到什么效果。人們一直都試圖廢除土話或方言，包括倫敦東區(qū)話、泰恩賽德方言等。一百多年來人們都試圖在教育領域中消除這些語言，對吧？但是這些方言還是存活了下來，這就證明了那根本是辦不到的。