去年在韩国出差时，韩国同学李熙罗给我推荐看动画片 How to train your dragon。我一查，中文译名叫“驯龙记”或“驯龙高手”。我就好奇地问韩语译名叫什么。熙罗说，就叫 How to train your dragon啊。原来韩国人习惯把英文片名用韩语拼音进行音译。这样有两个好处：慢慢提高老百姓的英语水平；谈起这一话题时跟外国人好交流。
影片很精彩，可惜没有条件在电影院看3D版的。我喜欢这部影片的一个理由是，开头和结尾的旁白很精彩。开头：
This is Berk. It’s twelve days north of hopeless and a few degrees south of freezing to death. It’s located solidly on the meridian of misery. My village. In a word, sturdy. It’s been here for seven generations, but every single building is new. We have fishing, hunting and a charming view of the sunsets. The only problems are the pests. You see, most places have mice or mosquitoes. We have — dragons.
结尾：
This is Berk. It snows nine months of the year and hails the other three. Any food that grows here is tough and tasteless. The people that grow here are even more so. The only upsides are the pets. While other places have ponies or parrots. We have — dragons.
结构相同，句式相似，前后照应很有节奏的美感。开头的“12天”和结尾的“9个月”，开头的“sturdy”和结尾的“tough and tasteless”，特别是开头的“The only problems are pests…mice or mosquitoes”和结尾的“The only upsides are pets…ponies or parrots”，那个pests和pets以及两个m两个p打头的并列单词，真是我这个不会英文写作的人爱不释手。