As a gesture of good faith, think twice before you post
I still remember my father's sheepish expression at breakfast the morning after he'd been invited to have dinner at a colleague's house. Freshly arrived in Brazil, back in the dark ages, before the ease of being able to look things up on the internet, he'd offended his hosts, who had prepared a lavish spread of Brazilian delicacies, by making a hand gesture that he'd always used - a circle with the thumb and index finger. He had always understood it to mean "OK", but in Brazil, it meant something quite different.
我还记得我父亲在被邀请到他同事家吃晚饭后的第二天早上吃早餐时窘迫的表情。那时候科技还不发达，上网查资料还没有像现在这么容易，刚到巴西的他做了一个手势，冒犯了为他准备了一大桌丰盛巴西美食的主人。那是一个他经常用的手势——用拇指和食指比划一个圆圈。他一直都把它理解为“OK”的意思，但在巴西，这个手势有完全不同的意思。
sheepish adj.窘迫的；难为情的；不好意思的
lavish adj.大量的；给人印象深刻的；耗资巨大的；慷慨的
delicacy n.美味；优美；精致；微妙
To make matters worse, he'd raised his fingers to his lips and made a kissing sound, which again, he meant as a way of indicating that something - in this case the meal he'd just been asked to comment on - was delicious.
更糟糕的是，他还把手指举到嘴边，发出一个亲吻的声音。当时主人问他觉得饭菜怎么样，他觉得这样做是在表示某种食物很美味。但是他又错了。
to make matters worse 更糟糕的是
The faux pas was swiftly forgotten. My father's colleague and his wife understood that he probably wasn't yet aware of the local meaning of the gesture, and after gently explaining why it was something best not repeated unless you planned to start a fight, the episode was filed away under "things not to be done in Rio".
他这个失礼的小举动很快就被忘记了。我父亲的同事和他的妻子明白，他可能还没有意识到这个手势在巴西当地的含义。他们温和地解释了为什么最好不要再做这个手势（除非你想打架），然后这个小插曲就被我父亲归类到“在里约不要做的事”之列了。
faux pas 失礼
file away 归档
I was reminded of this moment myself a few months into my stay in China. After I replied to a colleague's WeChat message with a Van Gogh sticker that I thought meant "keep fighting", a second colleague intervened, telling me that I used it wrong.
在中国待了几个月后，我自己的经历让我想起了我父亲这件事。当时我用了一张梵高的表情包回复我一个同事的微信消息，我以为这个表情包是是“加油”的意思。然后第二位同事走过来告诉我，说我表情包用错了。
intervene v.介入；干扰；出面；插嘴
"The Chinese version is a bit different," she said, taking out her phone. "See these characters?" I squinted myopically at the screen. "They mean 'I will hit you'," she said.
“这个表情包的中文版有点不一样。”她说着拿出手机，“你看到这些汉字了吗？”我眯着眼睛凑到屏幕上看。“这几个字的意思是‘我要打你’，”她说。
squint v.斜视；眯着眼看
myopically adv.近视地
Life is full of crossed meanings. The reverse peace symbol popularized by hip-hop has a very different meaning in the United Kingdom. In India, you beckon to a person palm down, not up. And in the Middle East, you never use your left hand for, well, anything public.
生活中充满了复杂交错的多重含义。嘻哈文化中流行的反V和平手势，在英国有着非常不同的含义。在印度，你召唤某人时手掌要向下摆手指，而不是向上。在中东，你永远不要用左手在公开场合做任何事情。
beckon v.招手示意；举手召唤；吸引；诱惑
As adults, we understand that even if it stings, a mistake is only an insult when it is deliberate. Intention, much like possession, is nine-tenths of this law. Yet as we look around us, so much friction stems from misunderstanding, and history is full of the unfortunate outcomes of crossed communication.
作为成年人，我们认为，即使冒犯会让人不高兴，但只要不是故意的，不小心的冒犯也算不上对他人的侮辱。就像一句法律谚语说的，“现实占有，败一胜九”，交流的意图很重要，它决定了是否是有意冒犯。然而，环顾四周，人与人之间有许多摩擦都源于误会，历史上也有许多跨文化沟通所带来的令人遗憾的结果。
sting v.刺；蜇；叮；（使）感觉刺痛
To my point, then. My father's pre-internet Brazilian faux pas was forgiven because of context - he had just arrived, he could not know, it didn't make sense that he'd be deliberately offensive. But when context is absent or simply differently understood - especially in the nuance-free echo chamber that is social media - perhaps it is time we all think thrice before typing or talking, especially when the ramifications can be much more severe than the misuse of a WeChat sticker.
在我看来，我父亲在巴西的失礼举动能够被原谅是因为当时的背景——那时候网络还没有普及，他又是刚到巴西，他不可能知道那些手势有别的意思，而且他也没有理由要故意冒犯主人。但是，当背景情况缺失或者他人对背景情况理解不同时——尤其是在社交媒体这种不存在细微差别的，高度同质化的“回声室“中——也许我们是时候需要在打字或说话之前三思而后行了。尤其是当不小心说错话的后果可能比误用一个微信表情包要严重得多时，我们更要谨言慎行。
echo chamber 回声室
ramification n.结果
