Anyone who has learned a foreign language knows how uncomfortable the experience can be. But learning a new language is also enjoyable, meaningful and humorous.
任何学过外语的人都知道这种经历是多么不舒服。但学习一门新语言也是令人愉快、有意义和幽默的。
The play “English” explores those ideas and more. The comedy is about four Iranian students in an upper-level English class preparing to take the TOEFL, the Test of English as a Foreign Language. The play is set in Iran over the course of one term.
戏剧《英语》探索了这些想法以及更多内容。这部喜剧讲述了高级英语班的四名伊朗学生准备参加托福（英语作为外语的考试）的故事。该剧以伊朗的一个学期为背景。
The students are all adults with different English abilities and different reasons for taking the class.
学生都是成年人，具有不同的英语能力和不同的上课原因。
Elham is hoping to go to medical school in Australia but must first pass the TOEFL. She has already failed the test five times and sometimes seems to hate English.
埃勒姆希望去澳大利亚上医学院，但必须首先通过托福考试。她已经五次考试不及格了，有时似乎讨厌英语。
Goli is the youngest of the group. Of all the students, she is the most excited about learning the language. Roya wants to learn English so she can communicate with her grandchildren who live in Canada. And Omid is already very good at English. It is unclear why he wants to be in the class.
戈利是这群人中最年轻的。在所有学生中，她对学习语言最为兴奋。罗亚想学习英语，这样她就可以和住在加拿大的孙子们交流。而且奥米德的英语已经非常好了。目前还不清楚他为什么想参加这个班。
The teacher, Marjan, lived in Britain for several years. But she is worried about losing her fluency .
老师 Marjan 在英国生活了几年。但她担心失去流利的语言。
“English” was first released in New York City in 2022. It began showing in Washington, D.C., in January. It finishes its run in the nation’s capital on March 12.
《English》于 2022 年在纽约首映。1 月开始在华盛顿特区上映。它于 3 月 12 日在该国首都结束运行。
“English” recently won the Obie Award for Best New Play. The Obie awards honor theater that is off-Broadway.
《English》最近荣获奥比奖最佳新剧奖。奥比奖荣誉剧院位于百老汇之外。
Sanaz Toossi, an Iranian-American, wrote the play. In a press release, she said that giving up a native language to move someplace else “can be an immensely painful experience for so many people…”
该剧的编剧是伊朗裔美国人萨纳兹·图西 (Sanaz Toossi)。她在一份新闻稿中表示，放弃母语搬到其他地方“对很多人来说可能是一种非常痛苦的经历……”
“I wanted to capture that, but I also wanted to honor how funny, textured , and sometimes contradictory Iranians (and all of us) can be.”
“我想捕捉到这一点，但我也想向伊朗人（以及我们所有人）的有趣、有质感、有时甚至是矛盾的一面致敬。”
The students in the class play word games, listen to English-language songs, and watch American romantic comedies. Marjan has banned the use of Farsi in the class. But the rule is often broken.
班里的学生玩文字游戏、听英文歌曲、看美国浪漫喜剧。马里安禁止在课堂上使用波斯语。但规则常常被打破。
The play is entirely in English. But through changing their voices, the characters show that they are "speaking" Farsi. When the students speak English, they do so in a strong Persian accent. Their sentences are often simple, because they are learning and speaking a foreign language. Words are spoken incorrectly.
该剧完全是英文的。但通过改变声音，角色们表明他们正在“说”波斯语。当学生们说英语时，他们带有浓重的波斯口音。他们的句子通常很简单，因为他们正在学习和说外语。言语说得不正确。
But when the characters speak English in a perfect American accent, that means to the audience that they are speaking Farsi. When the characters speak Farsi, also called Persian, they can communicate much more clearly and can better express themselves.
但当角色用完美的美国口音说英语时，这对观众来说就意味着他们说的是波斯语。当角色说波斯语时，他们可以更清晰地交流并更好地表达自己。
The play explores how one’s personality can change or even be lost when speaking a foreign language. It also deals with how speaking a different language can make a person question their sense of identity.
该剧探讨了当说外语时一个人的性格如何改变甚至迷失。它还涉及说不同的语言如何使一个人质疑自己的身份感。
Elham, who is a proud person, feels shame when she speaks English. When speaking English, Elham says she feels “like idiot ” (“Like an idiot,” Marjan, the teacher, corrects her).
埃尔哈姆是一个骄傲的人，当她说英语时却感到羞耻。当说英语时，埃勒姆说她感觉“像个白痴”（“像个白痴”，老师马里安纠正了她）。
Marjan says she feels more like herself when she speaks English. But Roya does not feel like she can have an honest discussion with her son in English.
马里安说，当她说英语时，她感觉更像自己。但罗亚觉得她无法用英语与儿子进行诚实的讨论。
Tara Grammy is the actor who plays Elham. She was born in Iran and raised in Canada. Unlike the character Elham, Grammy enjoys learning languages. She speaks both English and Farsi fluently and also knows some German and French.
塔拉·格莱美是饰演艾尔哈姆的演员。她出生于伊朗，在加拿大长大。与埃尔哈姆这个角色不同，格莱美喜欢学习语言。她能说流利的英语和波斯语，还懂一些德语和法语。
Grammy told VOA, “Different parts of us come out in different languages when you’re multilingual.” She said that English, which she is most skilled in, is the language of her intellect. Farsi is her language of love, she said.
格莱美对美国之音说：“当你会说多种语言时，我们的不同部分就会以不同的语言表现出来。”她说，她最擅长的英语是她智力的语言。她说，波斯语是她的爱的语言。
“When I see a baby or I see a dog or something I speak to them in Persian,” Grammy said.
“当我看到婴儿或狗或其他东西时，我会用波斯语与他们交谈，”格莱美说。
In the play, Goli says she likes English because it is like rice—you can make it however you would like. It is much different than Farsi, which she says always tries to sound like poetry.
剧中，戈莉说她喜欢英语，因为它就像米饭一样——你可以随心所欲地做它。这与波斯语有很大不同，她说波斯语总是试图听起来像诗歌。
Grammy agrees. “English is simple, it’s to the point. It's accessible , it's universal. Whereas Persian is absolutely poetry. It’s ancient. It's complex,” she said.
格莱美同意。 “英语很简单，切中要害。它易于理解，是通用的。而波斯语绝对是诗歌。它古老。它很复杂，”她说。
“You could learn English from reading a book,” she added. “But I feel like Persian you have to learn from people, because it's so layered and … just one phrase could mean 10 different things.”
“你可以通过读书来学习英语，”她补充道。 “但我觉得波斯语你必须向人们学习，因为它是如此的层次化……仅仅一个短语可能意味着 10 种不同的东西。”
Grammy thinks personality is not lost when speaking different languages. Instead, she said, “the more languages you know the more access you have to expressing different sides of yourself.”
格莱美认为，使用不同语言时，个性并不会丢失。相反，她说，“你知道的语言越多，你就越能表达自己的不同侧面。”