AEE 2491: 为什么在英语中不能称某人为"yellow"？

这里是《全神贯注学英语》播客第2491期。为什么在英语中不应该称某人为'yellow'（胆小）？

This is an All Ears English podcast episode twenty four ninety one. Why should you not call someone yellow in English?

欢迎收听下载量突破2亿次的《全神贯注学英语》播客。是否觉得英语学习陷入瓶颈？我们将教你如何通过关注沟通而非完美，变得自信流利。您的主持人是来自美国亚利桑那州和纽约市的美国主播米歇尔·卡普兰（纽约电台女孩）和雅思专家奥布里·卡特。想要实时获取文字稿并创建个性化词汇表，请尝试适用于iOS和安卓的《全神贯注学英语》应用。

Welcome to the All Ears English podcast downloaded more than 200,000,000 times. Are you feeling stuck with your English? We'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection, not perfection. With your American host, Michelle Kaplan, the New York radio girl, and Aubrey Carter, the IELTS whiz, coming to you from Arizona and New York City, USA. To get real time transcripts right on your phone and create your personalized vocabulary list, try the All Ears English app for iOS and Android.

立即登录allearsenglish.com/app开始7天免费试用。

Start your seven day free trial at allearsenglish.com/app.

你是个胆小鬼吗？今天学习四个形容人胆小怯懦的短语，并了解为何在英语中不该用'yellow'称呼他人。

Are you a scaredy cat? Today, learn four phrases for calling someone scared or cowardly, and discover why you should not call someone yellow in English.

你是否曾准备充分走进预算会议，却在高管提出质疑时失去对话主导权？你的专业能力扎实，但英语表达的精细度尚有差距——这种差距会让你错失晋升、项目机会和尊重。为此我们开发了《专业英语二级课程》，这绝非基础商务英语。

Have you ever walked into a budget meeting completely prepared, but the moment executives start pushing back, you lose control of the conversation. Your expertise is solid, but your English sophistication doesn't quite match it. And that gap, it costs promotions, projects, and respect. That's why we created Professional English Level two. This isn't basic business English.

这是专为关键场景设计的沟通 mastery（精要），比如主导预算会议、呈现风险分析、处理谈判和解决冲突。本周限时开放报名，可享100美元优惠，但个人辅导名额有限。别让下一个机会溜走，立即访问allearsenglish.com/career加入专业英语二级课程。再次提醒：请前往allearsenglish.com/career。

It's communication mastery designed for high stakes moments like leading budget meetings, presenting risk analysis, handling negotiations, and resolving conflict. Enrollment is open now and this week only, you save a $100 off the normal price, but spots for personal coaching are limited. So don't let the next opportunity slip by. Visit allearsenglish.com/career and join professional English level two today. Again, go to allearsenglish.com/career,career.

你好啊米歇尔，最近怎么样？

Hello, Michelle. How are you?

我很好，奥布里。你呢？我状态很棒，很期待这次录音。

I'm doing well, Aubrey. How are you? I'm great. Excited to record to

能和你一起录节目真好。我知道，每次我们在麦克风前合作总是很有趣。林赛这周出城了，我已经迫不及待想听她回来分享旅行见闻了。

you with you. I know. It's always fun when we get to join each other in the mic. Lindsay's out of town this week. I'm excited to hear about her trip when she gets back.

话说回来，你有个... 嗯，很棒

In the meantime, you have a Yeah, great

我们可以录音了。

we get to record.

是的。

Yes.

不过奥布里，今天我想先问你一个问题...

So, but Aubrey, I would like to start today with a question for

好的，没问题。

Okay, alright.

你有没有看过一部老剧，发现里面有些内容或台词

So have you ever watched an older show and seen or heard something that wouldn't be

在今天的剧里不会出现？经常有。实际上这种事发生的频率高得惊人。那些我们现在不再使用的歧视性用语，或者提到某些不恰当的内容，真的让人难以置信这种情况如此频繁。

in a show today? All the time. I can't believe how often this happens actually. Terms that we wouldn't use any longer that are discriminatory. References to, you know, something being inappropriate or it's crazy how often this happens.

你呢？是啊。我是说，就连很简单的事情比如

What about you? Yeah. I mean, even something as simple as

这不是贬低，比如你看《我爱露西》的时候——你看过《我爱露西》吗？

I mean, this isn't a dis like, even when you watch I Love Lucy, do you ever watch I Love Lucy?

没看过。不过，嗯。你是说？

No. But, yes. Mean, what you mean?

就是有时候，我们之前聊过这个话题，有些内容经不起推敲对吧？《我爱露西》虽然是经典剧，但很多地方都过时了。比如他们睡在分开的床上。嗯。

Like, there it's sometimes, you know, I think we've talked about this something holding up. Right? You watch I Love Lucy, it's such a classic show, but there's a lot that doesn't hold up. I mean, including, like, you know, they're sleeping in separate beds. Mhmm.

当时不允许他们说...我记得这是第一部在电视上说'怀孕'这个词的剧。哦有意思。所以时代不同了。还有露西和瑞奇的关系也是，她总是...而且剧里经常拿瑞奇的口音开玩笑。

They weren't allowed to say like like, they were the first show, I think, on TV to say the word pregnant. Oh, interesting. So so just things were different. Also just like the relationship between Lucy Right. And Ricky, she was So and also there's a lot of making fun of Ricky's accent.

有些情况就是这样，我是说，这种事经常发生，你会觉得，哦，今天感觉不太对劲。

There are just certain things that I mean, this happens all the time where you think, oh, that doesn't it doesn't feel right today.

没错。我们正努力更尊重他人的文化、语言和性取向。所以很多过去在节目中广为接受且有趣的内容，现在很少见了。一个很好的例子是《回到未来》，你还记得这部电影吗？《回到未来》系列？

Right. We're trying to be more respectful of other people's culture, language, sexual orientation. And so a lot of things that used to be very accepted and funny in shows, we won't see much anymore. A good example is Back to the Future. Do you remember the movie, the Back to the Future series?

我很喜欢。是的。但我记得有个角色称某人为‘yellow’。这在剧中经常用来表示胆小。他们会说，没人能叫我‘yellow’。

I loved it. Yeah. But I remember one of the characters calling someone yellow. This is said a lot in the show to mean cowardly. They're like, nobody calls me yellow.

现在我们不再使用这个词了。实际上我们收到了一个关于这个的问题，今天我很高兴能深入探讨为什么我们不建议称某人为‘yellow’，以及更好的、我们可以使用的替代方式，因为你可能需要

And now we don't use this term. So we actually got a question about this and I'm excited to dive in today to why we don't recommend calling someone yellow and better things, better ways that we can call because you might need

称某人为胆小。是的。这种情况确实会发生。所以这个问题来自YouTube。

to call someone cowardly. Right. It happens. Yeah. So this comes from YouTube.

奥布里，你想让我读一下这个问题吗？好的。那么这是来自穆斯塔法的提问，他说，你好，我是来自叙利亚的穆斯塔法。

Aubrey, would you like me to read the question? Yeah. Alright. So this is from Mustafa and he says, hello. I'm Mustafa from Syria.

感谢你们精彩的节目。我听到一个习语‘别对我变黄’，它是什么意思？我什么时候可以使用它？哦，非常感谢穆斯塔法的问题。感谢你的收听。

Thanks for beautiful episode. I heard an an idiom to not turn yellow on me. What is its meaning and when can I use it? Oh, well, thank you so much Mustafa for your question. Thanks for listening.

而且，是的，这真是个很棒的问题。很多人

And, yeah, this is a really great question. A lot

说到这个，你会在老电影里经常听到。黄色过去常用来表示懦弱，对吧？不勇敢。你会听到‘黄肚皮’这样的说法。

And to talk about you will hear this a lot in older movies. Yellow used to mean cowardly, right? Not brave. You'll hear and often yellow bellied.

黄肚皮。没错。你会听到‘黄肚皮的某某某’之类的。

Yellow bellied. Yes. See You the yellow bellied blah blah blah.

对吧？正是如此。所以如果你还没听过，现在可能就会了。老西部片，很多老电影里，这是个非常常见的词汇。

Right? Exactly. So you if you haven't heard it yet, you probably will now. Old Westerns, lots of old movies. This was a very common term.

通常人们说这个词时，并没有歧视的意图，但这个词的起源确实带有歧视性。所以它现在不再被普遍使用了。鉴于这个词的历史，我们绝对不建议使用它。

And usually when it was said, there was no intent of it being a discriminatory term, but the origins of this term are discriminatory. And so that's why it's no longer used commonly. We definitely wouldn't recommend it because of the history of this word.

是的，确实如此。我们可以这样描述这个词：它是一个歧视性词汇，也是个贬义词。‘贬义’是个新词汇。奥布里，‘贬义’是什么意思？

Yeah, definitely. Yeah, one way that we could describe this word is, well, we could say it's a discriminatory term. It's also a pejorative. That's a new vocabulary word. Aubrey, what does pejorative mean?

对，这是个很好的词。它指的是表达轻蔑或反对的词。也可以作为形容词，表示表达轻蔑或反对的。对吧？所以任何带有种族主义、歧视或偏见色彩的词都属于这类。

Yeah, this is a great word. It's a word expressing contempt or disapproval. So it's also used as an adjective meaning to express contempt or disapproval. Right? So this is any term that has some kind of racist or discriminatory prejudicial feeling behind it.

没错，所以这是个非常重要的词汇。但今天我们要分享更高级的词汇。当有人说'yellow'时，他们到底想表达什么意思？

Right, so yeah, really important word to know. So, but today we're going to share better vocabulary. So I mean, when somebody did say yellow, what did they mean?

是的，这个词意味着懦弱。我们将分享一些仍在使用的非贬义好词。第一个是'spineless'，意指缺乏勇气，也可表示缺乏道德力量。例如：他太懦弱了，不敢对不公平的规则提出异议。

Yeah, it meant cowardly we're going to share some great words we still use that aren't pejoratives. The first one is spineless. This means lacking courage. It can also mean lacking like moral strength. So for example, he was too spineless to speak up against the unfair rules.

我们通常这样使用这个词：当某人本应勇敢，有理由勇敢却不敢行动时，我们会称其为懦弱。

So this is often the way we use this is someone should be brave. There's a reason to be brave and they don't dare. They're afraid, we'll call them spineless.

对。或者你也可以说：'我不想显得懦弱，但由于我完全不擅长对抗，所以很难开口。'我想我们都有过这种经历。你不想发生冲突，但在某些情境下，这可能就是懦弱的表现。

Yeah. Or another thing you could say is, I don't want to be spineless, but it's hard to say anything since I'm not confrontational at all. So, yeah, I think we've all been there. You don't wanna have a confrontation, but, yeah, someone might say that could be in certain situations, that could be spineless. And this is a yeah.

注意不要随意用这个词称呼别人懦弱，这是相当严重的侮辱。

If you if you you don't wanna just throw this word around and call anybody spineless. That's a pretty big insult.

确实如此，对吧？这个词分量很重，我们不会开玩笑地用。

It is. Right? This is heavy. We don't really use this playfully. Right?

如果你说某人懦弱，对方很可能会感到被冒犯或受伤。所以这是个相当严肃的词汇。我们有时也会变体使用，说某人'没有脊梁骨'，这种说法在不太严肃的场合也会用。

If you're calling someone spineless, they're likely to be offended or maybe have their feelings hurt. So, yeah, that's good to know. It's a pretty serious word. And we also will sort of change the word and say someone has no spine. And we do use it a in less serious situations.

比如，如果你在鬼屋前有人不敢进去，你可能会说，哦，你真没骨气。

Like, if you're at a haunted house and someone doesn't go in, you might be like, oh, you're so spineless.

你没有。但我觉得接下来这些词更像是，我喜欢你对‘没骨气’的描述。这是个很重的词。是的。接下来的词更轻松些。第一个是‘胆小鬼’。

You have no But I think that these next words that we have, these are more like, I like how you described spineless. It's a heavy word. Yeah. These next ones are lighter. So this first one is scaredy cat.

这更多是指容易受惊的人。我觉得‘胆小鬼’更适合形容看恐怖电影时的情况。林赛和我最近讨论过我们是否喜欢恐怖电影，或者鬼屋，或者坐过山车，如果你说‘不，我是个胆小鬼’，对吧？这是指容易受惊的人。

And this is more of a person who is easily frightened. I think of scaredy cat more for, you know, scary movies. Lindsay and I have recently talked about scary movies if we like them, or haunted houses or, you know, going on a going on a ride, a scary ride if you say, no, I'm a scaredy cat. Right? You it's a it's a person who is easily frightened.

所以你可以说，别这么胆小鬼了，只是打雷而已。

So you could say, stop being such a scaredy cat. It's just a little thunder.

是的。或者说，她看恐怖电影时真是个胆小鬼。差不多就是这样。

Yes. Or she's a real scaredy cat when it comes to horror movies. That's about

我想，这就是我。

me, I think.

那就是你。看情况吧。我喜欢好的惊悚片，但不太喜欢突然的惊吓。哦，我讨厌那种。

That is you. Depends. I like a good thriller, but I don't really like jump scares. Oh, I hate that.

这个我做不到。比如当我知道有人要突然跳出来，你也知道接下来会发生什么，音乐、氛围都在往那个方向引导，我实在受不了。

That I can't. Like when I know someone's gonna pop out and you know what's happening, the music, it's all leading there, I can't take it.

对吧？我干脆直接躲到另一个房间去。是啊是啊，真的不行。嗯，有趣的是这正好凸显了害怕和懦弱之间的区别。

Right? Like I'm just gonna go in the other room. Yeah. Yeah, can't. Yeah, it's interesting how this sort of highlights the difference between being afraid and being cowardly.

这两者确实不同，对吧？当说一个人不够勇敢时，往往暗含着某种他们应该勇敢的理由——比如面对不公正待遇时需要挺身而出。而像鬼屋、过山车这类恐惧又是另一回事。

It is different, right? Where if someone isn't brave, often it's more of an implication that they should be for some reason. They're facing some kind of injustice or unfair treatment, and they need to be brave and stick up for themselves. And then there's also fear of things like this, haunted houses, roller coasters. Right?

所以我们称呼别人（不论是玩笑与否）的方式，往往会根据他们所害怕的对象而有所不同。

So often what we would call someone, whether playfully or not, will be a little bit different depending on what we're saying they're scared of. Right.

没错。就像'scaredy cat（胆小鬼）'也可以用'chicken'来表达，'scared'或'cowardly'既可以作形容词也能当名词用。

Right. Yeah. Exactly. And similar to a scaredy cat is chicken. So this is scared or cowardly can be used as an adjective or a noun.

有意思的是，我觉得这个词可以同时适用于两种恐惧类型。比如你可能会听到'你是胆小鬼吗？'或者'你怂了吗？'

So it's interesting. I would say this one could also be kind of both kinds of things that you're scared of. Right? So for example, you might just hear, are you a chicken? Or are you chicken?

对吧？

Right?

没错。这里用作名词。你是只鸡吗？意思是，你害怕吗？你不勇敢吗？

Exactly. Used as a noun there. Are you a chicken? Meaning like, Are you scared? Are you not brave?

你可能会说，我才不跳过那道篱笆呢，我太胆小了。或者你也可以说，我胆子太小了。无论你是把它当名词还是形容词用。

You might say, I'm not jumping over that fence. I'm way too chicken. Or you could say, I'm too big of a chicken. Either you're using it as a noun or an adjective.

对。但我们也可以说临阵退缩。那是什么意思呢，奥布里？是的，这个

Right. But we also might say chicken out. So what's that Aubrey? Yeah, this

就像一个短语动词。是个习语。意思是因害怕而决定不做某事。比如，我本来打算尝试蹦极，但最后一秒我退缩了。

is like a phrasal verb. It's an idiom. But it's to decide not to do something because you're afraid. So for example, I was going to try bungee jumping, but I chickened out at the last second.

那说的就是我。或者她答应要在全班面前发言，但后来临阵退缩了。

That would be me. Or she promised she'd speak in front of the class, but then she chickened out.

是啊。我们经常用这个说法，对吧？它不像说‘她没骨气’那么重，更带点玩笑意味，轻松一些。

Yeah. And we use this a lot. Right? It's not as heavy as saying, like, then she was spineless. It's a little more playful, a light lighter.

对吧？不过，我喜欢你说的‘鸡’可以两用。比如，哦，我得跟老板谈这事，但我太怂了。对，你也可以说没骨气。

Right? But, yeah, I like how you said chicken can be used for either. You'd be like, oh, I need to talk to my boss about this, but I'm too chicken. Right. You could say spineless.

这取决于情况的严重程度。

It depends on sort of how heavy the situation is.

对，对，对。这些称呼你都不愿意被叫，但如果我要叫你胆小鬼，奥布里，你宁愿我说你没骨气还是——

Right. Right. Right. And all of these, you don't wanna be called these things, but like, if I were to call you a scaredy cat, Aubrey, like, you rather I call you spineless or a

胆小鬼？绝对是胆小鬼。没错，这是所有称呼里最戏谑的一个，对吧？

scaredy cat? Definitely a scaredy cat. Yes. That one's the most playful of all of these. Right?

是啊，我可不想被叫胆小鬼。但这真的要看具体情况，明白吗？

Yeah. Like, I don't wanna go in the Scaredy cat. Yeah. But it really depends on the situation. Right?

比如我们在一部恐怖片里，我全程尖叫着要离开，这时候说'你真是个胆小鬼'就更合适。而其他那些词反而暗示了勇敢——要知道在恐怖片里害怕并不代表你不勇敢，对吧？

If you and I are in a horror movie and I'm screaming the whole time we leave, that would be more appropriate to either to just be like, you're such a scaredy cat. Whereas these others imply bravery more. Which that's, you know, being scared in a horror movie doesn't mean you're not brave. Right?

没错，你只是不喜欢那种——

Right. You just don't like that kind of

东西。对，正是这样。好了，我们有个角色扮演要用到这些词：在这个情景里，我们正计划去鬼屋玩。

stuff. Yeah. Exactly. Alright, we have a role play here. To use some of these terms, you and I are planning on going to a haunted house in this role play.

是啊，天哪，我可不喜欢那样。

Yeah, oh boy, I don't love that.

我也不喜欢那样。不过没关系。万圣节快到了。那我们就这么定了。鬼屋八点开门。

I don't love that. But that's okay. Halloween is coming up kind of soon. So here we go. Okay, the haunted house opens at eight.

你准备好了吗？

Are you ready?

老实说，我不知道。我有点害怕。你知道我对这种事很怂的。

Honestly, I don't know. I'm kind of scared. You know I'm a chicken about this stuff.

噢，奥布里，别这么胆小。我听说这个一点也不吓人。

Oh, Aubrey, don't be such a scaredy cat. I heard this one isn't bad at all.

我会陪你去，但我保留临阵退缩不进去的权利。绝对不行。你不能计划当个胆小鬼。你得

I will go with you, but I reserve the right to chicken out and not go inside. Absolutely not. You can't plan on being spineless. You have

保证会跟我一起进去。我绝不可能一个人去。好了，现在谁才是胆小鬼？

to promise you'll come in with me. There's no way I'm doing it alone. Okay, who's the chicken now?

角色扮演得不错。是的，这样很好，因为它展示了所有这些都可以很有趣。即使是‘没骨气’这个词，对吧？不会冒犯人。你不可能计划着变得没骨气。

Good role play. Yeah, like this because it shows how all of these can be playful. Even spineless there, right? Not offended. You can't plan on being spineless.

你不可能提前计划着不勇敢。对吧。

You can't plan ahead on being not brave. Right.

是啊，是啊，是啊。我们以这种轻松的方式展现出来真的很棒。这样很好。

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It is really good how we showed it in that lighter way. So that's good.

那我们再梳理一遍。你说过，我有点害怕。你知道我是个胆小鬼。我对这种事很胆小。

So let's go through it. So you said, I'm kind of scared. You know I'm a chicken. I'm a chicken about this stuff.

对。你可以用两种方式表达。这里，我用作名词。我是个胆小鬼。我对这种事很胆小。

Yeah. And you can use either way. Here, I'm using as a noun. I'm a chicken. I'm a chicken about this stuff.

或者我也可以直接说，你知道我很胆小。意思是，你知道我很害怕。嗯。然后你说，别这么胆小如鼠。这样就很完美，对吧？

Or I could have just said, you know I'm chicken. Meaning, like, you know I'm scared. Mhmm. And then you said, don't be such a scaredy cat. And this is perfect, right?

这并不真的刻薄。有点开玩笑，逗趣的意思，就像在说，别这样

It's not really mean. It's teasing a little bit, poking fun, being like, Don't

别害怕，我们能行的。对吧？然后你说，我会跟你一起去，但我保留临阵退缩不进去的权利，对吧？所以改变我的主意吧，因为我害怕。

be scared, we got this. Right. And then you said, I'll go with you, but I reserve the right to chicken out and not go inside, right? So change my mind because I'm scared.

没错，对吧？这就是它作为短语动词的用法。然后你说你不能计划做个懦夫。所以，你看，这些表达都适用。你不能计划当个胆小鬼、懦夫，但'没骨气'在这里也适用。

Exactly, right? This is what it's like used as a phrasal verb. Love And then you said you can't plan on being spineless. So this, you know, any of these would work. You can't plan on being a chicken, a scaredy cat, but spineless works here.

它的意思是勇敢。你不能计划不勇敢。

It means brave. You can't plan on not being brave.

对。然后你说，因为我说我不想一个人做。而你说，哦，现在谁才是胆小鬼？所以现在你反将我一军。

Right. And then you said, because I said I don't want to do it alone. And you said, Oh, who's the chicken now? So now you're throwing it back at me.

没错，我在说你是胆小鬼。这意味着你害怕，你不勇敢，你不想独自进去。谁会想呢？是的。想象一下独自进入鬼屋。

Yep, I'm telling you a chicken. This means you're scared, you're not brave, You don't want to go in alone. Who would? Yes. Imagine going into a haunted house alone.

我不想

I don't want

去，即使有10个人一起。

to go even with 10 people.

我当然不会一个人去。没错。我们想分享一期节目，以防你错过了。Allers English 2497期是关于掌握或理解这些棘手的英语词汇技巧的。我想到这个是因为如果有人表现得胆小，你可能会告诉他们要振作起来。

I'm certainly not going alone. Right. We wanna share an episode in case you missed it. Allers English twenty four ninety seven was grip or grasp tips for this tricky English vocabulary. And I thought of this one because if someone's being a chicken, you might tell them to get a grip.

所以确保你不会

So make sure you don't

错过那期节目。是的，完全正确。朋友们，也别忘了查看那一期，如果还没关注的话，请确保在收听All Ears English播客的地方点击关注，这样你就不会错过任何内容了。是的。

miss that episode. Yes. Absolutely true. And guys, also check that one out, but also make sure if you haven't already, make sure you hit follow wherever you're listening to the All Ears English podcast so you never miss anything. Yes.

太棒了。作为

Awesome. As a

今天的要点，我们都有害怕的时候。这实际上是一个很好的建立联系的时刻。看看这个角色扮演，多好的机会啊——计划做某事的同时承认自己有点害怕，展现这种脆弱，还能以玩笑的方式轻松对待。

takeaway here, we all have moments when we're scared. This is actually a great connection moment. Look at this role play. What a great connection moment to, like, be planning on doing something but admitting you're a little scared, admitting that vulnerability, and being kind of teasing and playful about it.

是啊，没错。好吧，Aubrey，这次录制真是太有趣了，很高兴我们一起完成了。

Yeah. True. Alright, Aubrey. Well, this was so much fun. I'm glad we recorded together.

那么，我们很快再见。

And, yeah, we'll see you soon.

太棒了。下次见。再见。再见。

Awesome. See you next time. Bye. Bye.

感谢收听《全神贯注学英语》。你想知道自己的英语水平吗？参加我们两分钟的测试。访问allearsenglish.com/fluencyscore。如果你相信连接而非完美，现在就点击订阅，确保你不会错过任何内容。

Thanks for listening to All Ears English. Would you like to know your English level? Take our two minute quiz. Go to allearsenglish.com forward slash fluency score. And if you believe in connection not perfection, then hit subscribe now to make sure you don't miss anything.

下次见。

See you next time.