《哈利·波特》适合中国小孩读吗？
The following article is from 英文悦读 Author 魏剑峰
国内有不少家长喜欢让小孩读原版《哈利·波特》，一个理由是《哈利·波特》是儿童读物，趣味性很强，小孩子容易读进去。虽然《哈利·波特》在英美国家确实是儿童读物，但这并不意味着它们适合国内的小孩读。
英美不少分级阅读网站会建议8岁以上的小孩阅读《哈利·波特》，但这是针对英美儿童的建议。根据词汇量测试网站testyourvocab.com 的统计结果，英语国家8岁儿童的平均词汇量已经达到了10000——这已经接近国内英语专八的词汇量要求了，而且英美儿童在成长过程中还积累了大量文化背景知识。对于他们来说，要读懂《哈利·波特》是可以的，但国内的小孩要读懂就非常困难了。
举个例子，《哈利·波特》开篇就有这么两句话：
Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you’d expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn’t hold with such nonsense.
第一句里面的thank you very much国内小孩可能也认识，但是它并不是我们理解的那个“谢谢你”。这是一个特殊的英式英语用法，意思很微妙，它用来表达讽刺意味（expressing indignation that anyone could doubt the preceding statement.）。
德思礼夫妇对哈利一家的巫师身份非常介意，他们在收养了哈利·波特之后非常害怕被其他人视为“不正常的人家”，因此总是非常骄傲（同时又心虚）地宣称自己是正常家庭。下文也有一句话作为呼应：The Dursleys had everything they wanted, but they also had a secret, and their greatest fear was that somebody would discover it. They didn’t think they could bear it if anyone found out about the Potters.
结合语境，第一句应该理解为：家住女贞路4号的德思礼夫妇总是得意地说他们是非常规矩的人家——拜托别再怀疑这一点了。
书中类似这样的语言细节还有不少，这些细节对于英美儿童来说可能不是什么问题，但是对于非母语读者来说难度会比较高。
又比如，这是《哈利·波特》第一部中的片段节选：
At half past eight, Mr. Dursley picked up his briefcase, pecked Mrs. Dursley on the cheek, and tried to kiss Dudley good-bye but missed, because Dudley was now having a tantrum and throwing his cereal at the walls. “Little tyke,” chortled Mr. Dursley as he left the house. He got into his car and backed out of number four’s drive.
It was on the corner of the street that he noticed the first sign of something peculiar — a cat reading a map. For a second, Mr. Dursley didn’t realize what he had seen — then he jerked his head around to look again. There was a tabby cat standing on the corner of Privet Drive, but there wasn’t a map in sight.
上面加粗的单词都是难词，像tantrum/chortle这样的单词甚至属于GRE词汇。这些单词对国内不少大学生来说都很困难，更别说儿童了，如果词汇量太低读起来很容易打击阅读兴趣。实际上，要想比较舒服地阅读《哈利·波特》，词汇量差不多要达到英美八岁儿童的水平，也就是1万左右。
当然，如果小孩确实对《哈利·波特》系列很感兴趣，那么读原版书也是可以的。可以先看完电影或者中文版再来阅读原版书，这样更加容易理解。如果实在读不懂也不必强求，因为它确实不适合非母语儿童阅读。
感谢“英文悦读”授权转载。