喜樂美語

核心畫面

Picture a soft layer between people that stops them from against each other — woven from the rules of what you are supposed to say and do in a given situation. Because it is a set of forms, it can be filled with real care, or left empty.

人跟人之間有一層看不見的軟墊，讓大家靠近的時候不會刮傷彼此。這層墊子是由一套「這個場合該怎麼說、怎麼做」的規矩織成的…更多收起人跟人之間有一層看不見的軟墊，讓大家靠近的時候不會刮傷彼此。這層墊子是由一套「這個場合該怎麼說、怎麼做」的規矩織成的——說謝謝、讓人先走、不打斷別人。重點在於它是「規矩」：它是社會講好的形式，所以它可以裝著真心（你真的替對方著想），也可以只有形式空著（你只是照做）。英文的 politeness 一個字同時涵蓋這兩種狀況，中文則會分成「禮貌」和「客套」——這正是這個詞最值得學的地方。

One branch

那層軟墊：真心的與空的

同一套形式，看裡面有沒有東西。裝著真心是禮貌，空的就是客套——英文用同一個字，靠上下文分辨。

politeness · noun · B2

The way of behaving and speaking that is correct for the social situation you are in, and that shows you are careful to think about other people's needs and feelings.

禮貌

原始詞典資料2 筆記錄

以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。

politenessnoun/pəˈlaɪtnəs/

  • 1

    The quality of being polite.

    • At school, where politeness is not one of the compulsory subjects, I was "Pup", "Puggy", "Ki-ki", "Balcombe Beauty", "Snarleywow", and other shafts of endearment. I was not petted.
  • 2

    A polite act.

    • These politenesses left Miss Marley floundering for initiative, holding Jasper and being solemnly inspected by Podson, who clearly depended on her the convention of an afternoon call.

資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。