 |
Let's talk Words about Pens
|
|
|
|
E: Hi. Welcome to "Let's talk". Today we're going to be talking to you about pens. And I know everyone likes pens, pens and pencils too. Because you can have your own favorite pen that you use for school or at work, can't you?
R: That's true actually. This is part of our office tools series. We'll probably move on to big machines. But really what's more important than the pen you write with?
E: Do you have a favorite pen? Do you use a fountain pen? This is an example of my old fountain pen. You see it's red. I really liked it. It's a special pen that we use it for western calligraphy. And in a little while I'm going to show you how we do calligraphy (书法) in the west. It's not the same as China.
R: When my children were going to school in Germany they started learning to write with pencil obviously. But then they moved straight to fountain pen where you put a little ink cartridge inside. And it's very messy and difficult. And I thought that was interesting that they began with the more difficult kind of fountain pen writing and eventually got around the old ball point pen and everyone use these, very convenient and simple to use. And these are, these you can buy a huge package of twenty, right?
E: In the late 1800s they started with fountain pen but then about 1938 or in the 1930's they came out with this fancy modern pen. But you know what our grandparents what they have used and what, say George Washington the first president of US, would have used? They used the feather.
R: My grandfather used to whenever he has this tips, a pen tip, which also called a nib, anyway they would cut off a piece of it to sharpen it, and that's what they did with the feather quill, the quill pen. They will keep cutting it, dipping it into the ink. I think that was a lot of trouble 很麻烦.
E: We did that when I was a kid. We were get feathers and try to write with them.
R: And dip it. I prefer to use this markers. You make beautiful colors and actually modern designers and artists use markers a lot.
E: These markers are actually just recent maybe fifty years ago and they all have different names, so we thought we might tell you some of their names. You can see the name on this one is called a "highlighter", and it just adds a little color so your eyes will go to that spot so you may underline something with your highlighter. It's not called pen, it's called the "highlighter".
R: And this marker is called "felt tip", and I think that's to distinguish it from a hard metal ballpoint tip. There is the felt tip, so you can see these are all felt tip markers. I am always trying to get my children to understand the difference of markers because there are very specific now. Some like this one are permanent, some are only for marking on whiteboards, special boards you know as we have in China. And some markers which are permanent we'll ruin your board. We even have a special set at home just for burning CDs, and those CD markers are best for the small CD 盘子but not for using on paper. So actually pens are very specific now for what you're using for.
E: You know you can use the word "pen" as a verb. You can say I penned him a few lines in his autograph book.
R: We also have this expression "She is my pen pal." That's an old expression but it's still used and it's very quaint. Your pen pal is someone you write to could be a friend whom you loved had has moved away or even a relative but more likely its someone maybe you've never met.
E: You know in the west we have Calligraphy too. I think sometimes my Chinese friends think that calligraphy is only something that happens in Chinese. So I'm just going to pen you a few lines using my calligraphy pen and you can see what good calligraphy would look like for English. Okay, watch this.
This is my pen and it has a flat tip, and you hold it so it's at a forty-five degree angle, and you never change the angle. So I'll write you some words and you'll see how pretty it comes out.
R: This is also a felt tip, a soft pen not a hard tip. Many people will spend hours and hours writing very slowly and beautifully in English calligraphy for very special invitations. Some people even will pay a calligrapher, a person to use beautiful writing like this for their wedding invitations and then gave them to all friends.
E: And so you can see some of its fat and some of its thin, and you'll see I've written to you a "goodbye message". Well, see you next time.
|
|
|
|
|
谈一谈钢笔
|
|
|
|
今天我们要谈一谈钢笔
我知道你们都很喜爱钢笔和铅笔
因为你们在上学或工作的时候
都要用到自己最喜爱的钢笔
这是我们办公用品系列的一部分
我们将来可能会讲到大的设备
但有什么比写字用的钢笔更重要呢
你有最喜爱的钢笔吗
你用自来水笔 fountain pen 写字吗
这支是我用过很久的一只自来水笔
它是红色的 我很喜爱它
这是一只用来练英文书法的笔
一会儿我会给你示范西方的书法
和中国的书法很不同
当我的孩子们在德国上学的时候
他们最开始学习用铅笔写字
然后就用钢笔写
钢笔里有小墨水盒 cartridge
这很容易弄脏 也不好用
我觉得很有意思
他们开始用较难的自来水笔写字
最后还是用更常用 更方便的圆珠笔
它写起字来很方便
这样的笔 你买一包就有20支
在19世纪末人们开始用钢笔
而到20世纪30年代
这种时髦的圆珠笔产生了
但你知道我们的祖辈们用什么吗
比如美国的第一任总统乔治·华盛顿
他们用鹅毛笔写字
我的祖父用鹅毛笔时
总是用很尖的笔头 叫做tip
也叫 nib（鹅毛笔的尖端）
总之他们将它削尖了用
他们就是这样用quill pen 鹅毛笔
不断地削尖 蘸上墨水写字
我觉得这非常麻烦
我们小的时候就是这样用鹅毛笔写字
我更喜欢用 "marker" 记号笔
你用它画出美丽的色彩
现代的设计师和画家经常要用记号笔
这种记号笔只有大概50年的历史
它有很多不同的名字
我们将要告诉你它们都是什么
这支叫 "highlighter"
用它在纸上加一点颜色
你的眼睛就会注意这些颜色记号
所以用 "highlighter" 划线强调
它不叫钢笔而叫荧光记号笔
这种记号笔叫 "felt tip" 毡尖笔
我想那是为了区分金属头的圆珠笔
所以记住这是 "felt tip marker"
我设法让我的孩子明白它们的区别
因为它们是用途明确的
有些笔的颜色是持久不褪色的
还有些只用于在白板上写字
这里也有这种特殊的写字板
持久不褪色的记号笔会毁掉写字板
还有专门在自制的CD盘上写字的笔
CD记号笔 专门用于CD
而不写在纸上
因此各种钢笔有其特殊的用途
"pen" 也有动词的用法 你可以说
我在他的签名簿上题了几行字
还有一种表达方法
"She is my pen pal（笔友）."
这是很老的用法但到现在还很常用
听上去有点奇怪
你的笔友是和你通信的人
可以是你所爱的朋友
但已经离开你身边 或是你的亲戚
但更可能是你从没见过的人
你知道我们西方也有书法
有些中国朋友认为只有中国有书法
所以我要用书法钢笔写几行给你看
你就知道英语的书法是什么样子了
这是我的钢笔 它有个平头
你倾斜45度角握住它
不要改变角度
我写几个字 你就知道它有多好看了
这笔也是"felt tip" 笔尖是软的
很多人会上花几小时
用漂亮的英文书法写特殊的邀请
有些人甚至花钱请书法家用英文书法写婚礼邀请
送给他们的朋友
你看到有些字母比较宽 有些较窄
我留了个再会的便条 下次见
|
|
