美国驻华使馆道歉

近日，美国使馆签证处在一条微博中，将申请赴美签证的中国学生比作“想出去玩耍的狗狗”，但在引发批评后删除。

对此，美国驻华大使馆一名发言人解释称，微博本意是轻松幽默的，“对所有中国人都怀有最深敬意，包括中国学生。如果有人被冒犯，我们为此道歉，那绝非我们的本意。”（We have the utmost respect for all Chinese people, certainly including Chinese students. We apologize if anyone was offended. That was certainly not our intention.）

无注释原文：

‘Are You Like This Doggy?’ U.S. Embassy Asked Chinese Students. It Backfired.

The New York Times

The U.S. Embassy in Beijing had good news to share: Student visa applications for Chinese nationals were resuming after a yearlong hiatus.

“Spring has come and the flowers are in bloom,” the embassy wrote in a Chinese-language social media post on Wednesday that included a video of a dog trying to jump over a fence. “Are you like this doggy who can’t wait to go out and play?”

It backfired, big time.

The post on Weibo, a Twitter-like platform in China, could be read as a ham-handed attempt to be cute. It set off criticism — and accusations of racism.

The embassy quickly removed the post and apologized, but the damage was done.

Some Weibo users wrote that the U.S. State Department had deliberately tried to insult Chinese students by likening them to dogs. The Global Times, an English-language Chinese tabloid, piled on, aggregating criticism of the post and criticizing former President Donald J. Trump’s visa policies.

Early last year, Mr. Trump imposed restrictions on travelers from China, including students, prompting criticism from Beijing. The Weibo post on Wednesday by the U.S. Embassy’s consular section announced that student applications had resumed under President Biden’s administration.

Not everyone who criticized the embassy’s post in China expressed full-throated outrage. Some Weibo users said that they were more disappointed than angry, adding that the post was tone deaf rather than deliberately malicious.

“There was no need for the Weibo post to include that line about the dog,” said Susan Chen, a student from the southern Chinese province of Guangdong who returned to China last year after starting a master’s program in Connecticut. “It could have simply said ‘Spring has come and the flowers are in bloom, come get the visa.’”

A spokesperson for the embassy said on Thursday that the United States had the utmost respect for all Chinese people and that the social media post was meant to be “lighthearted and humorous.” The spokesperson, who spoke on the condition of anonymity under embassy rules, said staff members took down the post as soon as it became clear that many Chinese people saw the message differently.

About a million international students enroll in American universities every year. More than a third were from China in the 2019-2020 academic year, according to data compiled by the Institute of International Education.

But experts say that universities in the United States and other English-speaking countries could lose billions of dollars in the coming years because of travel restrictions and anger among Chinese students and parents about what they see as a permissive attitude toward public health during the pandemic.

Last year, the Trump administration abandoned a plan to strip international college students of their visas if they did not attend at least some classes in person. Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and attorneys general of 20 states had sued over the proposed policy, saying it was reckless, cruel and senseless.

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注：中文文本为纽约时报官方译文，仅供参考

含注释全文：

‘Are You Like This Doggy?’ U.S. Embassy Asked Chinese Students. It Backfired.

“你是不是像这只狗狗一样？”美国驻华使馆微博用词引争议

The New York Times

The U.S. Embassy in Beijing had good news to share: Student visa applications for Chinese nationals were resuming after a yearlong hiatus.

美国驻北京大使馆有好消息要分享：中国公民的学生签证申请在中断一年之后恢复了。

visa /ˈviːzə/ 表示“（护照的）签证”，英文解释为“a stamp or mark put in your passport by officials of a foreign country that gives you permission to enter, pass through or leave their country”如：to apply for a visa 申请签证。

表示“（中断后）继续，重新开始”，英文解释为“If an activity resumes, or if you resume it, it starts again after a pause.”举个🌰：

Normal services will be resumed in the spring.

春天将恢复正常服务。

📍《经济学人》（The Economist）一篇讲述疫情之下学生上课问题的文章中提到复课就用的resume classes：As well as letting final-year secondary-school students facing exams resume classes, Denmark has also begun to reopen crèches and primary schools. 丹麦除了让面临毕业考试的中学毕业班复课外，还开始逐步重开幼儿园和小学。

hiatus /haɪˈeɪtəs/ 表示“间歇；空隙；间断；停滞”，英文解释为“A hiatus is a pause in which nothing happens, or a gap where something is missing.”

🎬电影《模范贱兄弟》（Role Models）中的台词提到：Well, I'm kind of on hiatus right now,我现在暂时休息中。

📍组合解散/休团/停歇？时，多有媒体会用这个词hiatus，比如，英国单向组合（One Direction）解散后拟于7月份十周年之际重聚，“自解散后”媒体就用的，since their hiatus.

“Spring has come and the flowers are in bloom,” the embassy wrote in a Chinese-language social media post on Wednesday that included a video of a dog trying to jump over a fence. “Are you like this doggy who can't wait to go out and play?”

“春暖花开，”周三，大使馆在一篇中文社交媒体帖子中写道，其中包括一段狗试图跳过围栏的视频。“你是不是像这只狗狗一样，迫不及待想出去玩耍了呢？”

It backfired, big time.

结果事与愿违。

表示“事与愿违，（计划或行动）发生意外，产生事与愿违的结果”，英文解释为“if a plan or action backfires, it has the opposite effect to the one you intended”，举个🌰：

The company's new policy backfired when a number of employees threatened to quit.

公司的新政策事与愿违，有好几名员工威胁说要辞职。

🎬电影《被拒人生》（Freeheld）中的台词提到：Listen to me, listen to me, this is a circus, it's gonna backfire. 听我说，这有些儿戏了，会适得其反的。

表示“很大程度上，非常”，英文解释为“If you do something big time, you do it to a great degree.”举个🌰：

"How was the interview?" "Terrible, I messed up big time."

“面试怎么样？”“糟透了，我完全弄砸了。”

The post on Weibo, a Twitter-like platform in China, could be read as a ham-handed attempt to be cute. It set off criticism — and accusations of racism.

这则发布在微博（中国类似Twitter的平台）上的帖子可能会被解读成装可爱的拙劣尝试。此举引发了批评以及关于种族主义的指责。

ham-handed = ham-fisted，表示“笨手笨脚的；（与人交往时）笨拙的”，英文解释为“doing things in an awkward or unskilled way when using the hands or dealing with people”举个🌰：

The report criticizes the ham-fisted way in which complaints were dealt with.

这份报道批评了处理投诉的拙劣做法。

The embassy quickly removed the post and apologized, but the damage was done.

大使馆很快撤下了帖子并道歉，但损害已经造成。

Some Weibo users wrote that the U.S. State Department had deliberately tried to insult Chinese students by likening them to dogs. The Global Times, an English-language Chinese tabloid, piled on, aggregating criticism of the post and criticizing former President Donald J. Trump's visa policies.

一些微博用户写道，美国国务院故意把中国学生比作狗来侮辱他们。中国小报《环球时报》的英文版也加入进来，汇总了对这篇帖子的批评，并批评前总统唐纳德·J·特朗普（Donald J. Trump）的签证政策。

表示“侮辱，辱骂”，英文解释为“to say or do something to someone that is rude or offensive”举个🌰：

First he drank all my wine and then he insulted all my friends.

他先喝光了我的酒，然后又辱骂了我所有的朋友。

近义词compare，表示“将…比作”，英文解释为“to say that someone or something is similar to another person or thing”举个🌰：

Critics have likened the new theater to a supermarket.

批评者称新剧院就像是一个超市。

tabloid /ˈtæblɔɪd/ 表示“通俗小报（文短图多，内容多为名人逸事，常被视为不太严肃；版面通常比大报小一半）”，英文解释为“(sometimes disapproving) a newspaper of this size with short articles and a lot of pictures and stories about famous people, often thought of as less serious than other newspapers”举个🌰：

The story made the front page in all the tabloids.

这件事成了所有小报的头版新闻。 

表示“加入一起批评某人”，英文解释为“to join other people in criticizing something or someone in usually an unfair way”。

表示“集合；聚集；总计；合计”，英文解释为“to put together different items, amounts, etc. into a single group or total”举个🌰：

The scores were aggregated with the first round totals to decide the winner.

此次得分与第一轮所得总分合计决出胜者。

Early last year, Mr. Trump imposed restrictions on travelers from China, including students, prompting criticism from Beijing. The Weibo post on Wednesday by the U.S. Embassy's consular section announced that student applications had resumed under President Biden's administration.

去年年初，特朗普对包括学生在内的中国旅行者实施限制，引发了北京方面的批评。美国大使馆领事处周三在微博上宣布，拜登政府已将学生申请恢复。

表示“推行；强制实行”，英文解释为“to officially force a rule, tax, punishment, etc. to be obeyed or received”举个🌰：

Very high taxes have recently been imposed on cigarettes.

最近对香烟开征很高的税。

📍《经济学人》（The Economist）一篇分析拜登贸易政策的文章中提到：The other matter is what Mr Biden will do with the tariffs imposed by Mr Trump. 另一件事是拜登将如何处理特朗普实施的关税。

consular /ˈkɒnsjʊlə/ 表示“领事的；领事馆的”，英文解释为“Consular means involving or relating to a consul or the work of a consul.”如：the consular office 领事办公室。

Not everyone who criticized the embassy's post in China expressed full-throated outrage. Some Weibo users said that they were more disappointed than angry, adding that the post was tone deaf rather than deliberately malicious.

在中国，并非所有批评大使馆那篇帖子的人都表示强烈愤慨。一些微博用户表示，他们更多是感到失望而不是愤怒，并且说，该帖子只是语气不对，没有故意的恶意。

表示“（声音）洪亮的；高声喧嚷的”，英文解释为“A full-throated sound coming from someone's mouth, such as a shout or a laugh, is very loud.”

表示“愤怒；义愤；愤慨”，英文解释为“a strong feeling of shock and anger”举个🌰：

The judge's remarks caused public outrage.

裁判的话引起了公愤。

常见意思表示“不能辨别音高的”，英文解释为“unable to hear the difference between musical notes”，此处显然不是这个含义，词典中发现还有这个解释：having or showing an obtuse insensitivity or lack of perception particularly in matters of public sentiment, opinion, or taste. 字面解释就是在公众情绪、观点、品味等方面缺乏感知，表现出愚钝、不敏感，没眼力见，不识相，中文该怎么形容好呢？

📍Just as a literally tone-deaf person is unable to comprehend the differences between musical notes, a metaphorically tone-deaf person is unable to comprehend the different facets/nuances of a given situation.

表示“恶意的，恶毒的，意在伤人的”，英文解释为“intended to harm or upset other people”如：malicious gossip 用意歹毒的流言蜚语。

“There was no need for the Weibo post to include that line about the dog,” said Susan Chen, a student from the southern Chinese province of Guangdong who returned to China last year after starting a master's program in Connecticut. “It could have simply said ‘Spring has come and the flowers are in bloom, come get the visa.’”

“这条微博没必要写狗的那句话，”来自中国南方省份广东的学生苏珊·陈（Susan Chen，音）在康涅狄格州（Connecticut）读硕士课程，去年回到中国。她说：“它可以只说一句‘春暖花开，快来拿签证吧。’”

A spokesperson for the embassy said on Thursday that the United States had the utmost respect for all Chinese people and that the social media post was meant to be “lighthearted and humorous.” The spokesperson, who spoke on the condition of anonymity under embassy rules, said staff members took down the post as soon as it became clear that many Chinese people saw the message differently.

美国大使馆的一名发言人周四表示，美国对所有中国人怀有最大的尊重，这则社交媒体帖子的目的是为了“轻松幽默”。这名发言人表示，一旦发现许多中国人对这一信息有不同的看法，工作人员就立即撤下了帖子。根据大使馆的规定，这位发言人要求匿名。

表示“轻松的；愉快的；无忧无虑的”，英文解释为“intended to be amusing or easily enjoyable rather than too serious；cheerful and without problems”举个🌰：

She felt lighthearted and optimistic.

她感到无忧无虑，很乐观。

About a million international students enroll in American universities every year. More than a third were from China in the 2019-2020 academic year, according to data compiled by the Institute of International Education.

每年大约有100万国际学生进入美国大学。根据国际教育协会（Institute of International Education）汇编的数据，2019至2020学年，超过三分之一的学生来自中国。

表示“（使）加入；注册；招（生）；吸收”，英文解释为“If you enrol or are enrolled at an institution or in a class, you officially join it.”举个🌰：

I was enrolled at the University in 2016. 

我是2016年上大学的。

表示“汇编；编纂；编辑；编制”，英文解释为“to collect information from different places and arrange it in a book, report, or list”举个🌰：

We're compiling some facts and figures for a documentary on the subject.

我们正在为一部有关这个主题的纪录片汇编资料。

But experts say that universities in the United States and other English-speaking countries could lose billions of dollars in the coming years because of travel restrictions and anger among Chinese students and parents about what they see as a permissive attitude toward public health during the pandemic.

但专家表示，美国和其他英语国家的大学可能在未来几年损失数十亿美元，原因是旅行限制，以及中国学生和家长对他们心目中这些国家在疫情期间对公共卫生的放任态度感到愤怒。

表示“纵容的，放纵的”，英文解释为“A person or society that is permissive allows behaviour that other people might disapprove of.”举个🌰：

It's a very permissive school where the children are allowed to do whatever they want.

这是一所放任自流的学校，孩子们想做什么都可以。

Last year, the Trump administration abandoned a plan to strip international college students of their visas if they did not attend at least some classes in person. Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and attorneys general of 20 states had sued over the proposed policy, saying it was reckless, cruel and senseless.

去年，特朗普政府放弃了一项计划，即如果国际大学生不能到场参加一些课程，就将剥夺他们的签证。哈佛大学（Harvard）、麻省理工学院（Massachusetts Institute of Technology）和20个州的总检察长都对这项拟议中的政策提起了诉讼，称其草率、无情、没有意义。

2019年泰国王妃被剥夺全部头衔时，各大媒体几乎都用了strip这个词，后接of，strip of表示“剥夺（财产、权利）；撤销（头衔）”，英文解释为“To strip someone of their property, rights, or titles means to take those things away from them.”举个🌰：

The soldiers have stripped the civilians of their passports, and every other type of document.

那些士兵们已经夺走了市民的护照以及所有其他证件。

reckless /ˈrekləs/表示“轻率的；鲁莽的；不顾后果的”，英文解释为“not caring or worrying about the possible bad or dangerous results of your actions”，举个🌰：

He was accused of causing death by reckless driving.

他被控因鲁莽驾驶致人死亡。

表示“不明智的；无意义的；愚蠢的”，英文解释为“not having good judgment or a good or useful purpose”如：a senseless argument 无意义的争论。

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