编者按： 随着2008年奥运会的逼近，民众越来越关心“中国”品牌的树立，学习英语的热情也被点燃。越来越多的外宣干部和业内同行向我们表达了期待看到双语栏目的期望。因此，我们在2006年第一期开办《双语视窗》栏目满足广大读者的需求。
看看周围的媒体，《北京青年报》、《参考消息》、《国门时报》上有许多精粹的小短文，像一只只啄木鸟，善意地提醒了中国人习以为常的行为背后“尚未和国际接轨”的细节，读后让人回味不已，在获得借鉴意义的同时，也带来更深入的思考。我们效仿中英文对照的版面形式，旨在通过外国友人的视角来看中国，从中折射出东西方观念、习俗的异同。通过一篇篇这样的文章，让读者在领略异域文化的同时，也能达到学习英语的目的。
在英语中，我们会说“人如其食”，意思是一个人的身材取决于他的饮食。因此，如果你吃的是炸薯条和肥腻的牛肉汉堡，就可能变得像土豆那样圆，甚至像奶牛那样胖；相反，常吃水果和蔬菜则会成为一个更为苗条的人。
然而，如今的消费并不只限于食物。随着我们消费的时装和名牌越来越多，我想起了另一则谚语：“人如其衣”，选择穿什么样的衣服反映着我们的取向、价值观和个性――总之，从衣着便可看出我们是什么样的人：整洁？穷困？有教养？保守？森林保护者？工商业人士？等等。如果一个在得克萨斯州牧场土生土长的牛仔――每天套马，嚼着烟叶，走起路来大步流星，穿上了细条纹西装，那么他就俨然是个银行家（或者是总统），人们会不假思索做出这样的判断。但他自己可能很快就觉得领带勒得慌，好几层衣服热得慌，而最难为他的是，他会觉得穿着新装引人注目，不知所措，因为他的新形象并没有改变他的思维以及处事方式。
有鉴于此，中国时下流行穿饰有英文的衣服就特别有意思，或许这也是“英语热”的一部分，然而，显而易见的是，穿印有英文的衣服并不意味着会说或看得懂英文。
在上世纪90年代初，我妻子每次来中国，总会买几件印有英文短语的T恤带回美国送给朋友，因为她发现T恤上的英文因为没有任何意义而很滑稽可笑，如“两个男孩有最高感觉的感情”。
自从2001年回到中国，我不无惊讶地看到，印着毫无意义的英文的T恤越来越多了。更糟糕的是，有些还含有色情内容，而那些十几岁的中国青少年却全然不知，他们自豪地穿着，而在外国人眼里却显得很愚蠢。
每当看到班里有学生穿这种衣服，我就问他们懂不懂衣服上英文的意思，多数人不知道。几个星期前，我去裁缝店取我定做的唐装，在那儿见到一位容貌娇好的中年女顾客，她穿着一件T恤，上写“我是你的玩物”。惊讶之余，我用汉语问她知不知道那英文是什么意思，她说不知道，听我解释之后很是尴尬。肯定更为糟糕的是，有一天在校园里我看到一位美丽的年轻女子，身穿一件有很多英文的T恤，当走近时，我震惊了，T恤上写着“十种与我做爱的方式”――与我做爱是我改后的一种干净的说法，T恤上印的是那个难于启齿的四个字母的脏字，接下来就罗列了那十种方式。此情此景，但愿这女子不是“人如其衣”。
在很多情况下，这种衣服确实能反映出你的某些情况：首先，你大概不认得、不理解英文；非常可能的是，你不是一个细心的购物者，而且盲目追赶潮流。也许，你不在乎别人怎么看你，但更可能的是，你在乎，却不知道你的衣服所起的作用与你想要达到的效果适得其反。就我而言，我从来都不穿有字的T恤，哪怕是设计者的名字或者标志，因为我不想成为任何公司的移动广告――不管它们的衣服有多漂亮。
因此，对于时尚一族，我有几句忠告：如果你想赶时髦，穿有外文字的衣服，至少要读懂它们的意思，人们才不会认为你就是衣服上所说的那号人。
（本文作者现在北京第二外国语学院任教）
原文：
In English, we say that "you are what you eat," meaning that your figure depends on your diet. So if you consume French fries and fatty beef burgers, you probably are a potato and will in a sense become a cow. Regular consumption of fruits and vegetables, on the other hand, will result in a slimmer person.
Yet, consumption these days isn"t only limited to food. As we increasingly consume fashion and brands, another saying comes to mind: "clothes make the man." The clothes we choose reflect our preferences, values, and personality, all in all, the people we are: tidy, poor, educated, conservative, a tree-hugger, a businessman, and so on. If a lasso-tossing, tobacco-chewing, wide striding cowboy, born and raised on a Texan ranch, were to put on a pinstriped suit, he would look like a banker (or the president), and judgments would be passed without a second thought. But he might quickly feel strangled by the necktie, hot under the many layers, and most of all, conspicuous and unsure of how to act in his new attire, for his new look did not change his thoughts or ways.
In light of this, the fashion of wearing English-embossed clothing in China is particularly intriguing. Perhaps it is part of the English-learning craze, but it is clear that just because people wear English does not mean they can speak or read it.
In the early 1990s, each time my wife came to China, she would buy T-shirts with slogans like "Two Boys have a Top Sense Feeling" to take back to friends in the US. She found the English on the shirts hilarious in their absolute meaninglessness.
Since moving back to China in 2001, I have been surprised to see a growing number of shirts with senseless English. What"s worse, some have pornographic connotations, completely unbeknownst to the Chinese teenagers who don them proudly but look foolish in the eyes of foreigners.
Whenever I see my students wearing clothing like that in class, I ask them if they understand the meaning of the words they wear. Most do not. The other week, I walked into my tailor"s shop to pick up some tangzhuang I had made and saw a very nice-looking, middle-aged Chinese lady customer wearing a T-shirt that read, "I"m your plaything." Surprised, I asked her in Chinese if she understood what it said. She said she did not and was quite embarrassed to learn. Decidedly worse was a beautiful young lady I saw on campus one day wearing a shirt with a great deal of writing on it. When I got closer, I was shocked to see that the shirt enumerated in detail "Ten Ways To Have Sex With Me" -- and that is the clean version of the title. In this case, let"s hope that the clothes don"t make the woman.
In many cases, these clothes do reveal some things about you. First of all, you probably can"t read and understand English. Very possibly, you are not a careful shopper and blindly follow trends. Perhaps you do not care what others think of you, but more likely, you do care and don"t realize that your clothing has an effect opposite to what you intended. As for me, I never wear a shirt that has writing or even a designer name or logo on it because I do not want to be a walking advertisement for any company, no matter how nice their clothes may be.
So my advice to you fashion-conscious types is: if you want to be trendy and wear clothes with writing on it, at least read and understand what you wear so that people won"t think that you are what your clothes say you are.
（感谢北京青年报“双语视窗”栏目张爱学编辑对本文提供的支持。）
责编：周瑾