常常遇到很多人以為自己的英文水準非常了得，他們通常有數個特徵：
1. 祇會說破爛英語，對文法與拼字一知半解；
2. 既然是破爛英語，每當遇上英文詞彙貧乏的時刻，就隨意拿其他語言的詞彙填補之；
3. 每當寫電郵、工作報告或文章，隨便亂寫can（助動詞）、few（形容詞、限定詞）、will（助動詞）等等他們以為理順文句的字眼。真正懂文章的人，看了都會覺得很好笑；
4. 自己居住的地方的正規英文新聞也是聽得一知半解。即使他懂得百分之八九十以上，你要他聽英美加紐澳的英文新聞或論壇，他就真的有聽沒有懂了。
語文能力是不斷精進、提升的過程。容易自滿的人，其英文能力無法達到國際要求，於是常常需要我們這英文譯者和編輯提筆相助，讓他們的文章在全世界可以見人。
I have come across many who always thought themselves to have superb English proficiency. Among some of their traits:
1. All they know is broken English, and they don’t know much about grammar and spelling;
2. Given their broken English, they know few vocabularies. When they want to express something but become wordless, they borrow those terms from another language;
3. Whenever they need to write an email, work report or some articles, they tend to use some words such as can (auxiliary verb), few (adjective / determiner) and will (auxiliary verb) excessively. They thought this is how to express their ideas in writing. For those who read and write well, these writings are definitely amusing;
4. They can only understand half of the English news in the place they live. Even if they understand eighty to ninety per cent of it, they often find themselves struggling to figure out what is said and written in those news reports and pieces produced in UK, US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
Language proficiency is all about keep on improving yourself. You either make progress or start to regress. Those who are complacent often need help from us the English translators and editors to polish and improve their writing so that their pieces are presentable and comprehensible for all readers across the globe.
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