Announcers on China Central
Television (CCTV) will need to do some fast talking to replace the popular
English acronyms(首字母缩略词) they’re now forbidden to use. Shanghai Daily reports that “anchors
at China Central Television [CCTV] have been banned from saying the English
acronyms NBA, CBA, GDP, and the like in their programs.”
The replacement for those handy
acronyms? Chinese presenters must use the full Chinese name, standardized by
the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television.
Although CCTV (oops, we mean
China Central Television) presenters must already have a score of at least
94 in their government-rated oral Mandarin proficiency exam(普通话等级考试), saying the full
name of organizations like the CBA or WTO ― 10 and 6 character’s long
separately ― is sure to challenge even the most skillful anchors. CCTV sports
anchor Sun Zhengping tells Shanghai Daily, “A full Chinese explanation of the
English acronyms must be followed if my tongue slips. It is a little trouble
but a necessary one because not every audience member can understand the
acronyms.”
Although the government isn’t
giving any official explanation for the shift, it is believed to have to do
with a proposal (提案) by Huang Youyi, director of the China International Publishing Group,
at March’s NPC meeting. In his speech, Huang said, “With more and more
publications mixing Chinese with English, measures and regulations should be
adopted to avoid English invading Chinese. If we don’t pay attention and don’t
take measures to stop the expansion of mixing Chinese with English, Chinese
won’t be a pure language in a couple of years.”
Although China is far from the
first country to take measures to protect local languages (the French and
Québécois beat them to it by a long way), acronyms are more about saving time
than they are about corrupting a language, we would think. Good luck to the
CCTV anchors.
1.
CCTV anchors have to “do some fast talking” because they can no longer ______.
A. speak as slowly as
they like B. mix English into Chinese
C. use shortened Chinese
expressions D. have so much time for their program
