昨晚，本人贴了一段给阿里同学的简短留言。除了为大家增添点乐趣，亦想测试一哈各位朋友的语言能力。结局果然非常有意思。不仅阿里没有读懂。根据跟贴对话，很多本人一向敬重、聪明绝顶、在自己本行优秀的朋友也大都没有看懂。具体细节在下面展开。

关于英语，前段时间，大家发表了大量的宏论。大体都非常有道理。但是，或许是因为我们中华文化有急功近利的悠久传统，容易视天下万物甚至众生为达成目的的工具，语言也被悍然认为只是一件简单的工具，几乎被极端化到与鸟鸣兽语就功能性来说基本无区别。

除了中华急功近利思维带来的极端工具论，我们大部分同学又因唯物主义的熏陶，无敬畏心，凡事第一反应是不服。无论什么话题基本都是不在话下。犹如先帝所云的老子天下第一。因此又有懂了基本语法、稍有词汇量之后，便认为对语言的学习就达到了尽头。

个别同学如随便、阿里更是见到英文，不分青红皂白，劈头盖脸就是小学生程度的语法、拼写、和简短的三板斧。如同刚第一天学艺的木匠，新奇地举着榔头，见什么都是钉子，砸进木头便和师傅一样了。除了小木匠情结，或许因出身大都是理不理、文不文的工科，且大都是中国扼杀思维、创造力、一切以标准答案为准的基础训练，见到什么都像题海训练的作业，脑子里只有对和错两极。对语言也不例外。

语言固然是人类沟通的工具。但即使在功能性上，也绝非鸟鸣兽语可以相提并论的。即使撇开艺术一面，语言的功能也绝不是单纯的表达。在思维、尤其是抽象思维，语言不仅仅是思维的载体 ，语言会影响人的思维，制约或催生概念的形成和思维的完善。

撇开以上所有一切，就其表达，语言、尤其是英语，也有庞大复杂的容量，足以表述人类各种微妙的感情色彩。在精熟的驾驭下，可以丰富得令人眼花缭乱，以适应不同的场合、不同的对象，丝毫不爽地表达出言者的语气。

可惜，我们不少同学对此鲜有足够的认知。在阅读上对语言微妙细节的感受粗糙迟钝，满足于对、错两极的粗浅、极端，除了三板斧，还是三板斧。在表达上，则完全失去婉转、微妙、精准的能力，观点的表达形同大字报或呼口号，枯燥乏人，令人生厌。

不久前在阿里的询问下，本人曾直言阿里对文字的感受能力大约是能读懂五、六成，大抵是文字中大白话的部分，对付日常起居或科技的大碗茶语言或许戳戳有余，一旦遭遇含量丰富、多色彩层次的文字，则与老粗无异，比睁眼瞎好不到哪里去。阿里或许因此不悦。但本人绝非出于攻击的恶语相向。实在是出自肺腑的诤言也。

回到昨晚留言的理解。不少同学都将留言看作了橄榄枝，却没有看出其中春秋笔法的苦心。为便于大家理解，本人特意将留言的本文和应被轻易解读出的隐含意思（或曰大白话）一并贴在下面。供大家比较。朋友中如有好事者，欢迎出示给各自英语为母语的同事朋友，以资佐证。

一．本人昨晚留言的transcript：

Hey Alex. How are you? Judging from your ID, I guess that’s the first name you go by. So if I may. (I’m) Glad that we bumped into each other at this forum. Again.

I noticed that you like to shake up people a little bit. Maybe to people (whom) you don’t feel are exactly like you. To make yourself a little bigger, I guess? Where I am from, we don’t do that. But that’s OK with me. One piece of friendly advice though. Just don’t make too many assumptions about people. You may not know them as well as you feel you do. I used to do that too, by the way. Not as much as you do now. Then I learned my lesson. Assumptions didn’t always serve me well. Being cocksure about things we don’t really know actually makes us dumb, not smart.

I think you are a nice person otherwise. You may even be fun to hang out with in real life, if you keep an open mind about things. So I guess we will get along just fine at this forum.

Good night. See you tomorrow if you stop by and I happen to be there.

二．解读：

You like to annoy people in order to appear macho. It doesn’t make you any more macho. In fact, it shows that you are insecure.

You are presumptuous and biased. Contrary to what you intend to accomplish, i.e., making yourself appear superior to your opponent, you look stupid. (Very subtly　impplied) Your assumed superiority is groundless and your arrogance is ridiculous.

However, you may still be a worthy opponent if you become a little open-minded.