四個星期後就是聖誕節，節日氣氛逐漸濃郁，許多人視之為吃喝玩樂的日子，背後的風俗意義就不是那麼清楚了。
大多數人，包括教徒，對聖誕節的由來也是一知半解，甚至有很多錯誤，例如不知道今日的聖誕習俗，許多是來自基督教傳入歐洲之前的民間異教信仰，與聖經無關；以「12月25日」作為基督誕生的日子，聖經亦無記載。
英語教育網站 Linguaspectrum Interesting English，我以前介紹過的。這一集，有26分鐘的介紹：
旁述的先生的英語，發音很悅耳，令人聽得舒服。
聽力有困難的朋友，可以點擊屏幕右下方的一排按紐之中，左二那個字幕選擇，分段先看一次，隔一段時間看一次，或看多幾次沒字幕的，你的英文就有一點進步了。
字幕可能是電腦產生的，間中有錯，不過不影響大意。
聽得多，你不期然會改正一貫錯誤，改善自己的發音和語氣，有一點人所艷羨的「英國腔」了。
.........
多謝好介紹, 看MV學知識和英語.
回覆刪除感覺上 "聖誕節" 已經成為跨國界的 "感恩節"。
回覆刪除啲字幕有時係 "超錯"...i.e. 技術還需大大改進。
「英國腔」是好好聽，但學得唔好容易變成過度作狀。(從前有個洋人同事，啲英國音作狀到令我覺得佢個人都 "好假"。) 小心。
BTW，個洋人同事 "非 British" 。
刪除有人拿過英女王60年來的講話錄音來分析，發覺她的口音也趨向隨便、平民化。
刪除多謝多謝！
回覆刪除聖誕的由來
回覆刪除You may not know all the truth.
1) Jesus was born 2000 years ago but the Christians only started celebrating Christmas about 1600 years ago, after Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire.
2) There is no such word as “Christmas” in the bible.
3) Two gospels i.e. Matthew and Luke describe the Jesus birth story. Nevertheless those are two different stories.
4) Roman Empire did not have a census in the year Jesus was born. There was no requirement for anyone to return to their ancestors’ birth place to register.
5) There were no “Three Kings” mentioned in the bible. They were “Magi” or “Magus” and their number was unknown. Magi means magician, sorcerer.
6) The earliest gospel in the bible is Mark, which has no Jesus birth story. The earliest writings in the bible are St. Paul’s letters that contain no Jesus birth story.
7) Gospels Matthew and Luke were written around 80-85 AD, 50 years after Jesus death.
8) After becoming a Christian, Emperor Constantine’s mother wanted to find all places associated with Jesus. No one dared to tell Emperor’s mother that after over 300 years these places could no longer be found. Ultimately all “places”, birth, death and burial places, for Jesus were found. The finders must have made a fortune for that.
Samson
Ontario, Canada
Samson有研究。
刪除信仰與事實，很多時是自說自話，各不相干的。
你向信徒講歷史，他們的分應是：「可能你是對的，不過，係又點？總之.....」
不知道天主教怎樣，基督教已有人探討過上述的 "歷史問題" (and thus they are not really "surprises" nor "new")。 [照計天主教也人有探討過同樣的"問題"卦。]
刪除中秋節沒有嫦娥、重陽節那天不需要登高避禍、過年時沒有出現 "年獸"... 至今還未影響那些 "節日"。Likewise to Christmas, which is no longer solely 屬於 天主+基督教徒 的。
如來英國腔是值得去艷羨的。。。
回覆刪除這什麼是值得艷羨（艷羨是重字，門檻應很高），個個摽標準不同，但有些人的標準，確令我眼界大開。
Chris,
回覆刪除I just got a question about the difference between 'as you like it' and 'as you like'. 到底中文日常說的'隨你喜歡'是 as you like it還是as you like? I asked two native speakers, one British, one Canadian. Both of them could not answer me because they said it really depended on the context. The 'it' in 'as you like it' can be interpreted as the subject matter. They said it was hard to say this was a wrong usage. I feel curious about it because most of us, especially second language learners would think as you like it is referring to the play by Shakespeare, not an idiom. What's your opinion about this?
Sorry. 近來好忙，很少留言。
我覺得兩者的意思分別很微，只是如果劈頭就回答對方 As you like 有點怪，通常會有個動詞在前面如 Do, Take 之類。
回覆刪除不加動詞的話，用As you like it 比較自然。