Not long ago I sat in on a meeting of senior people at a large, well-known company. There were 12 around the table: two Brits, an American, a South African, two Germans, a Frenchman, an Italian, an Argentine and three further people whose accents I couldn’t quite place. All were successful, and all presumably bright or else they would not have survived in a company that does not employ slouches. All spoke goodish English and were debating a subject vital to their business. Yet this was the most dreary, pedestrian and jargon-bound business discussion I think I’ve ever witnessed.
不久之前，我旁聽了一個會議，與會者都是某大型知名企業的高層人士。當時會議桌旁坐了12個人：其中有英國人兩名，美國人一名，南非人一名，德國人兩名，法國人一名，義大利人一名，阿根廷人一名，此外還有三個人我無法從口音辨認出他們的國籍。所有這些人都非常成功，而且想必都非常聰明，不然他們無法在一個不聘用笨蛋的公司中生存下來。所有人的英語水準都還不錯，正在圍繞一個對於公司業務至關重要的問題展開討論。但我認爲，這或許算得上是我所見過的最沉悶、最乏味、最術語連篇的商務討論了。