The benefits of schadenfreude
幸灾乐祸的好处
Neil: Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English, I'm Neil. This is the programme where in just six minutes we discuss an interesting topic and teach some related English vocabulary. And joining me to do this is Rob.
大家好，欢迎收听BBC六分钟w88中文，我是尼尔。在本期节目中，我们将在六分钟的时间内讨论一个有趣的话题，并教授大家一些相关的w88中文词汇。和我一起主持节目的是罗伯。
Rob: Hello.
大家好。
Neil: In this programme we're discussing schadenfreude.
在本期节目中，我们要讨论的是“幸灾乐祸”。
Rob: Hold on, Neil - schadenfreude - that's a German word.
等等，尼尔，“schadenfreude（幸灾乐祸）”是一个德语单词。
Neil: Schadenfreude is what we can call a loanword - a word from one language that is used in another language without being changed.
“Schadenfreude（幸灾乐祸）”就是我们所说的外来词，外来词是指一个从一种语言引入另一种语言但拼写丝毫未变的词。
Rob: So you're right - schadenfreude is used in English and am I right in thinking it describes the satisfying feeling you get when something bad happens to someone else?
所以你说得对，“Schadenfreude”在w88中文中是用来形容一种幸灾乐祸的感觉的，我说的对吗？
Neil: You're right, Rob. Imagine you're in a queue at the supermarket and someone pushes in, but when they got to pay, their credit card doesn't work - think of the feeling you might get just seeing their misfortune - another word for bad luck.
你说得对，罗伯。想象一下“你在超市排队时，有人插队挤进来，但当他们付款时信用卡却用不了”的情景，想想看他们的不幸会给你什么样的感觉，（misfortune）是表达坏运气的另一种说法。
Rob: Yes, that is a very satisfying feeling - but it's quite a mean feeling too.
是的，幸灾乐祸是一种非常爽的感觉，但是略微有点卑劣。
Neil: It is but we'll be discussing why that feeling could actually be good for us. But first, let's set a question for you, Rob, and our listeners at home, to answer. This is about false cognates - also called false friends - words that look the same in two languages but have different meanings. So in English we have the word 'rat' but what does that mean in German? Is it...
没错，但是我们会讨论一下为什么这种感觉对我们有好处。但是首先，罗伯，给你和听众出个问题。这个问题是关于虚假同源词的——又称“假对应”——是指两种语言中拼写一样但含义完全不同的单词。在w88中文中，我们有‘rat’（老鼠）这个单词，但在德语中，这个单词是什么意思呢？这个单词的意思是：
a) a big mouse b) annoyed or c) advice
选项a) 一只大老鼠 选项b) 恼怒的 还是选项c)建议
Rob: That's tricky because I don't speak German. So I'll guess and say b) annoyed.
这个问题太难了，因为我不会说德语。所以我瞎猜答案是b)恼怒的。
Neil: Well, I'll have the answer later on. Now, let's talk more about schadenfreude. Enjoying someone's misfortune can certainly make us feel good.
好的，我稍后会公布答案。现在，让我们来谈谈关于幸灾乐祸这件事。幸灾乐祸当然可以让我们觉得很爽。
Rob: And studies have shown this feeling is quite normal - particularly when is happens to someone we envy. If we see a wealthy celebrity suffering on a reality TV show, or are exposed for not paying their taxes, we feel good. We say they've had their comeuppance.
研究表明这种感觉很正常，尤其是当不好的事是发生在我们嫉妒的人身上的时候。如果我们看到一位富有的名人在电视真人秀节目中受苦受难或者因为不纳税而被曝光时，我们会感觉很好。因为我们认为他们罪有应得。
Neil: That's a good word - meaning a person's bad luck that is considered to be deserved punishment for something bad that they have done.
“comeuppance”是个好词，意思是某人走霉运是因为他们做了坏事受到了应受的惩罚。
Rob: Let's hear from psychologist Wilco Van Dijk from the University of Leiden, who's been talking about this on the BBC Radio 4 programme, All in the Mind. What have his studies found about our enjoyment of others misfortune?
让我们来听听来自莱顿大学的心理学家威尔科·范·戴克是怎么说的，他在BBC广播4频道的《心理作用》节目中谈到了这个问题。他的研究在关于幸灾乐祸方面有何发现？
Wilco Van Dijk, psychologist, University of Leiden
威尔科·范·迪克，莱顿大学心理学家
People especially feel schadenfreude when they think the misfortune is deserved. Then the question is where this joy arises, is this actually joy experienced towards the misfortune of others or is it also at least partly about a just situation - that this misfortune of another actually appeals to a sense of justice. That's also the reason why we like the misfortune of hypocrites because if they fall down that also is a deserved situation.
当大家认为对方是罪有应得时，会尤其感到幸灾乐祸。接下来的问题是这种乐是从何而来的，这种快乐真的是对他人不幸的喜悦？还是至少在一定程度上也是正义使然——即他人的不幸实际上唤醒了你的正义感？这也是为什么我们乐见伪君子遭遇不幸的原因，因为如果他们失败了，这可能是他们得到了报应。
Neil: OK, so Wilco Van Dijk's studies found we get joy when someone's misfortune is deserved - there is justice - in other words, the punishment someone receives is fair.
所以威尔科·范·戴克的研究发现，当一个人的不幸是应得的时候，我们会感到快乐，因为代表老天有公道，换句话说，这个人受到的惩罚是应得的。
Rob: And a just situation means a fair situation - it is right. So I guess he's saying we're not just being mean.
公正的情况意味着是应得的结果，这个结果才是对的。所以我猜他是在说我们幸灾乐祸并不代表我们刻薄。
Neil: Yes. And he also mentioned the type of people whose misfortune is just and deserved, are hypocrites - people who claim to have certain moral beliefs but actually behave in a way that shows they are not sincere.
是的，他还提到了那些遭遇应得不幸的人是伪君子，伪君子即那些声称有一定的道德信念但实际行动却证明他们并不真诚的人。
Rob: The All in the Mind programme also heard from another expert on the subject - author and historian of emotions, Dr Tiffany Watt-Smith. She talked about how schadenfreude is a subjective thing - based on our feelings - and it's not as simple as deciding what is right or wrong. What word does she use that means to express sympathy to someone about someone's bad luck?
《心理作用》节目还采访了另一位这方面的专家——情绪研究方面的作家和历史学家蒂芙尼·瓦特·史密斯博士。她谈到幸灾乐祸是一种基于我们感觉的主观情绪，并不像决定是非对错那么简单。她用了什么词来表达对某人的不幸表示同情？
Dr Tiffany Watt-Smith, author and historian of emotions
蒂芙尼·瓦特·史密斯博士，情感史学家
We don't really experience emotions, you know, as either-or things, it's not black or white. I think it's perfectly reasonable that we could genuinely commiserate with someone else's misfortune at the same time as a terrible sly smile spreading across our lips because, you know, something we've envied about them has turned out not to work out so well or whatever it is. You know, we have a much deeper ability to hold contradictory emotions in mind, much more so than your average moral philosopher would allow.
我们并没有真正感受到情绪，你要知道，情绪并不是二选一，也不是非黑即白的东西。我认为这是完全合理的，我们可以真诚地对别人的不幸表达同情的同时，也在嘴角露出一个可怕的狡猾的微笑，因为，你懂的，我们羡慕嫉妒他们的那些因素最终导致的结果却并不是美好，或诸如此类的。你要知道，我们有一种更深层的能力，能把矛盾的情绪记在心里，这种能力比一般的道德哲学家所认为的要强得多。
Neil: Interesting stuff. She says when something goes wrong for someone, we have the ability to commiserate with them - that's the word for expressing sympathy to someone about their bad luck.
很有意思。她说，当某人倒霉了，我们可以同情（commiserate）他们，“commiserate”这个词的意思是对某人的霉运表示同情。
Rob: So overall, Tiffany Watt-Smith thinks we have a range of emotions when we experience schadenfreude - but these are contradictory emotions - different and opposite emotions. Maybe, Neil, we should just be nicer people?
总的来说，蒂凡尼·瓦特·史密斯认为当我们对别人幸灾乐祸时，我们会有一系列情绪，但这些情绪都是矛盾的情绪——不同的或相反的情绪。也许，尼尔，我们应该做个更善良的好人？
Neil: No way! I loved seeing Germany getting knocked out of last year's World Cup - not really! Talking of Germany, earlier we mentioned false friends and I asked in English we have the word 'rat' but what does that mean in German? Is it...
没门！我乐意看到德国在去年的世界杯赛上出不了线，我开玩笑的。说到德国，节目开始时我们提到了“假对应”，我问在w88中文中我们“rat”这个单词在德语里是什么意思？选项有：
a) a big mouse b) annoyedc) advice And, Rob, you said...
选项a) 一只大老鼠 选项 ；b) 恼怒的； 选项c)建议。罗伯，你选的答案是什么？
Rob: I said b) annoyed.
我选的是b)恼怒的
Neil: And that is the wrong answer, I'm afraid. The right answer is c) advice. Well done if you knew that at home. Now on to the vocabulary we looked at in this programme.
恐怕你答错了。正确答案是c)建议。如果在家的各位听众答对了，你们棒棒的。现在来看看我们本期节目中所学习的词汇。
Rob: So today we've been talking about schadenfreude - that describes the satisfying feeling you get when something bad happens to someone else.
今天我们讨论的是schadenfreude(幸灾乐祸)，意思是当别人遭遇不幸时你体会到的那种满足感。
Neil: And that's an example of a loanword - a word from one language that is used in another language without being changed. In this case German.
这是一个外来词的举例，外来词（loanword）是一种语言中的一个词在另一种语言中使用时拼写不变。此例（schadenfreude）是德语。
Rob: We mentioned comeuppance which describes a person's misfortune that is considered to be deserved punishment for something bad that they've done.
我们还提到了comeuppance，意思是一个人遭遇的不幸大家认为是因为所做的坏事应受的惩罚。
Neil: Next we mentioned justice - that's the punishment someone receives that is fair for what they've done. And the word just describes something that is fair and right.
接下来我们提到了justice（正义）——这是指对某人所做的事情的公平惩罚。这个词形容那些公平和正义之事。
Rob: Hypocrites are people who claim to have certain moral beliefs but actually behave in a way that shows they are not sincere.
伪君子（Hypocrites）是指那些声称自己有某种道德信仰，但实际上表现得却不真诚的人。
Neil: And finally commiserate is a word that means expressing sympathy to someone about their bad luck. That's the verb. The noun form is commiseration.
最后，commiserate这个词的意思是对某人的霉运表示同情。这是个动词，其名词形式是commiseration。
Rob: Well commiserations, Neil. We've run out of time for this programme. See you soon, goodbye.
好可惜，尼尔。我们本期节目就要结束了。下期再会，再见。
Neil: Goodbye!
再见!
小ew88中文Jewel翻译！