Cow? Chow? Congressman says ’Just call me Joseph’ 考？喬？眾議員說：「叫我約瑟夫就行了」

◎張沛元

Cow? Chow? Congressman says： ’Just call me Joseph’

考？喬？眾議員說：「叫我約瑟夫就行了」

You too can be on a first-name basis with a freshman congressman from New Orleans - because people can’t seem to get his last name right.

你也可以跟一名來自紐奧良的新科國會眾議員攀親帶故地直呼其大名──因為人們似乎都無法唸對他的姓氏。

Republican Anh "Joseph" Cao （gow） won election last December. Since then, he has heard his name mispronounced - usually as "cow" or "chow" - by newscasters and public officials, including President Barack Obama.

共和黨人Anh "Joseph" Cao（發音gow，高光映，越南裔美國人）去年12月勝選。此後，他就聽到自己名字被新聞播報員與公職人員，包括總統巴拉克．歐巴馬唸錯──通常被唸成「考」（cow，意為「乳牛」）或「喬」（chow，意為「鬆獅犬」）。

And he’s noticed debates about the pronunciation on Internet blogs. So he issued a tongue-in-cheek open letter over the weekend, humorously trying to set the record straight.

然後他注意到網路部落格上有關於（他的姓氏的）發音的論戰，於是在週末時發表一封開玩笑似地公開信，企圖透過幽默把事情說清楚講明白。

To pronounce it correctly, start with a hard "G" sound, as in go or grass, and then make it rhyme with "pow" or "how." But in the end, Cao seems resigned to his last name being botched. "On second thought, never mind," he advises. "Just call me Joseph."

為了正確發音，先像是唸go或grass時用力地唸G的音，然後接著押pow或how的韻。但最後，高光映似乎對自己的姓氏被人亂唸認命了。「再三考慮後，別麻煩了，」他建議。「叫我約瑟夫就行了。」

新聞辭典

on a first-name basis：俚語，與某人很熟，熟到可以直呼其大名。

tongue- in-cheek：俚語，不誠心地，開玩笑地。例句：He made a tongue-in-cheek remark to his girlfriend, and she got mad because she thought he was serious.（他對他女友說了些玩笑話，她生氣了，因為她以為他是認真的。）

set the record straight：俚語，針對一直沒有被正確報導的事予以澄清說明真相。