又中又英——Get Out Of My Face

　　Being in the US has reminded me of many American slang expressions I seldom used in Hong Kong. I knew most people would not understand them. I heard two recently. One was “get out of my face”. This is an interesting expression that even people in English speaking countries such as Britain or Australia may not understand. You can get out of a house if it is on fire but how do you get out of a person's face? It is, of course, not possible to physically get into a person’s face and then get out. It is used when someone is annoying you or getting involved in what you are doing when you don’t want that person to get involved.
　　You can then say “get out of my face”. It is a rude way to tell someone to go away, to stop annoying you, or to mind that person's own business. If a friend is always annoying you by criticizing your clothes or always asking how much you earn, you can say “get out of my face”. Another interesting American slang expression I recently heard is “get out of here”. This is not a rude expression even though it sounds rude. It does not literally mean you are telling someone to get out of, for example, your house. The expression is used in a friendly way to express disbelief.
　　If you tell your parents you passed your exam with flying colours, they can say “get out of here” which means they are happy with disbelief. The expression “with flying colours” means doing something very successfully. You can say you passed a job interview with flying colours which means you did very well in the interview. If you tell your parents you passed the interview with flying colours and got the job, they can say “get out of here”. This means they are surprised you got the job but are happy you got it. I will explain more interesting expressions soon.

　　身处美国，令我想起了许多我在香港很少会用到的美式俚语说法，因我知道香港大部份人都不会明白其意思。我最近就听到两个习语，其中一个是“get out of my face”。这是一个有趣的习语，即使是一些英语国家如英国或澳洲的人，也未必搞懂。若一间屋起火，你可以逃离（get out of）屋子，但你又如何可以「逃出」一个人的脸？当然，物理上你是不可能走进一个人的脸又走出来的，这是当某人在烦扰你，又或干涉你正在做的事情，而你又不想那个人参一脚，就可用到此习语。
　　那么你便可以说“get out of my face”——是较为粗鲁地去叫人滚开，不要再烦着你，又或叫那人别多管闲事。若一位朋友常常批评你的衣着，又或问你赚多少钱，惹你生气，你便可以说“get out of my face”。另一个我最近听到的有趣美式俚语是“get out of here”，它并非无礼的习语，即使它听起来好像有点粗鲁。它并非按字面意思解为你叫某人离开某处，例如从你的屋子滚出去；这个习语是友善地表达某种怀疑或不信。
　　若你告诉父母，你以优异的成绩（with flying colours）通过了考试，他们便可以说“get out of here”，意思即是他们喜出望外，难以置信。习语“with flying colours”是指做某事做得非常出色、成功。你可以说你passed a job interview with flying colours，意即你面试时表现出色。若你告诉父母，你表现出色（with flying colours），通过了面试并成功获取录，他们便可以说“get out of here”，意即他们很意外你找到了工作，但也很为你高兴。我很快会再解释多些有趣的习语。

中译:七刻
Michael Chugani 褚简宁