用普通話解說NCAA大學籃球賽

As if on cue, Yiqing Zhou and Xueyin Shi let out the same response when asked how they will feel about having their commentary heard on national television.

被問到自己的解說將在全國電視臺上播出時感覺會怎麼樣，週一清（Yiqing Zhou，音）和史雪銀（Xueyin Shi，音）彷彿約好了似的，做出了同樣的回答。

“A little bit nervous,” they both said through laughter.

“有點緊張，”兩人都笑着說。

Zhou and Shi, you see, do a lot of things together. They are both 25-year-old second-year graduate students studying electrical engineering at the University of Dayton, whose men’s basketball team won the Atlantic 10 regular-season championship. They are a couple. And they are both broadcasters for Flyers games.

如你所見，週一清和史雪銀有很多事情是一起做的。他們都是25歲的二年級研究生，在戴頓大學(University of Dayton)學習電氣工程，這座大學的男子籃球隊贏得了大西洋十聯盟(Atlantic 10)的常規賽冠軍。他們是一對夫婦。他們一起解說飛人隊(Flyers)的比賽。

But theirs are not just any broadcasts: They call Dayton games in Mandarin Chinese, for broadcasts distributed on the university’s athletics website. And on Friday night, when the No. 7 seed Flyers take on 10th-seeded Wichita State in the first round of the N.C.A.A. tournament, CBS plans to toss a brief part of the game action to Zhou and Shi.

但他們不是一般的播音員：他們在戴頓的體育網站上用中文普通話解說校隊的比賽。週五晚上，當7號種子隊飛人隊在NCAA（美國大學體育總會）賽事第一輪中迎戰第10號種子隊威奇托州立大學隊(Wichita State)時，CBS電視臺計劃把賽事的一小部分時間分配給週一清和史雪銀。

Zhou and Shi are members of a rotating cast of five broadcasters who call the games for Dayton in Mandarin. Their energy, among other factors, helped them draw the season’s two prime assignments from Michael LaPlaca, Dayton’s associate athletic director for multimedia. The Atlantic 10 tournament in Pittsburgh last week was the first time Dayton had the international commentators on-site for a road game. The N.C.A.A. trip this weekend will be the second.

週一清和史雪銀是五名輪候播音員中的兩位，他們用普通話解說戴頓隊的比賽。他們的活力以及其他一些因素，令戴頓負責多媒體的體育副主管邁克爾·拉普拉卡(Michael LaPlaca)將本賽季最重要的兩場解說任務交給了他們。上週在匹茲堡舉行的大西洋十聯盟賽事是戴頓第一次有國際評論員在客場進行現場解說。本週末NCAA的比賽將是第二次。

“They just have a chemistry that just clicks on air,” LaPlaca said. “I don’t even know Mandarin all that well, but when you hear them broadcast, it goes incredibly well.”

“他們之間有化學反應，在播出中效果很好，”拉普拉卡說。“我甚至不懂普通話，但是當你聽到他們播音時，感覺是非常好的。”

The Mandarin broadcast, which is in its second year at Dayton, is LaPlaca’s brainchild, the product of an initiative by a university looking to engage more with the international students on campus. After noticing that the University of Illinois started an online Mandarin broadcast for its football games during the 2015 season, Dayton saw an opportunity to try something similar.

這是戴頓有了普通話解說的第二年，此事由拉普拉卡一手策劃，也是該大學發起倡議，令國際學生更多參與校園生活的結果。注意到伊利諾伊大學(University of Illinois)於2015賽季開始在線播放橄欖球比賽的普通話解說後，戴頓覺得自己也有機會嘗試類似的舉動。

“Basketball is such a level game,” LaPlaca said. “It’s a sport that crosses all languages, all boundaries. So it made sense for us to be able to start this program and to allow international students to be able to broadcast the games and also reach an audience out in China.”

“籃球是一種勢均力敵的運動，”拉普拉卡說。“它是一個跨越所有語言、所有國界的運動。所以，我們開展這個項目，讓國際學生能夠解說籃球比賽，並且接觸到中國聽衆，這是有意義的。”

When the program was started before last season, the university estimated that its enrollment of about 11,000 included more than 600 Chinese students. Additionally, Dayton has an institute in the China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park, near Shanghai.

當這項計劃在上賽季開始之前，戴頓大學估計，學校大約1.1萬名註冊學生中有600多名中國學生。此外，戴頓在上海附近的中國-新加坡蘇州工業園區內設有一個研究所。

LaPlaca said 64 students initially showed interest in the broadcasting venture. He narrowed the field by sending applicants a video clip of a game-winning shot by Dayton guard Jordan Sibert during a First Four game of the 2015 N.C.A.A. tournament. The clip had nothing but ambient crowd noise; LaPlaca told the aspiring students to improvise and announce the play. He worked with a Dayton professor who speaks Mandarin to rate the best students.

拉普拉卡說，最初有64名學生表現出對解說事業的興趣。爲了縮小範圍，他給申請人看了一段2015年NCAA的1/4決賽的比賽集錦，戴頓隊後衛喬丹·西伯特(Jordan Sibert)投出致勝一球。這段視頻裏只有人羣發出的噪音；拉普拉卡讓有興趣的學生即興發揮解說比賽。他與一名會說普通話的戴頓教授合作，選出了最好的學生。

Zhou and Shi had met at Shanghai Normal University and went to Dayton — which has a working relationship with Shanghai Normal — for their senior years, sticking around for graduate school. They quickly became rabid followers of the Flyers’ basketball program and, despite no media experience, decided that pairing on a broadcast would be a great way to share a hobby and connect with friends and family back home in China.

週一清和史雪銀是在上海師範大學認識的，之後他們來到了與上海師範大學有合作關係的戴頓大學讀大四，之後又進入研究生院。他們很快成了飛人隊籃球賽的狂熱追隨者，儘管沒有媒體經驗，他們認爲，搭檔解說會是分享愛好，並與中國的朋友和家人聯繫的好辦法。

“We love U.D.,” Zhou said. “Why don’t we share what we know about U.D. basketball?”

“我們熱愛戴頓大學，”週一清說。“所以爲什麼不來分享一下我們對戴頓大學籃球隊的瞭解呢？”

The two have gotten familiar with all of Dayton’s opponents, regularly poring over game notes, brushing up on injuries and studying the backgrounds of visiting coaches. They watch highlights of recent games to fill in any gaps in their knowledge.

兩人已經熟悉了戴頓大學隊的所有對手，他們定期瀏覽比賽記錄，瞭解球員傷情，研究客隊教練的背景。他們觀看近期比賽集錦，填補自己知識中的任何空白。

“When we do the broadcast, we need to control our emotions sometimes, because we are crazy U.D. fans,” Shi said. On broadcasts, she added, “we need just to talk as clear as possible. We can’t bring our emotions in because we need to talk U.D. a lot, but we also need to talk other teams sometimes. So I think the hardest thing for me is just to control my emotions.”

“做解說的時候，我們有時需要控制自己的情緒，因爲我們都是瘋狂的戴頓球迷，”史雪銀說。在解說時，她補充說，“我們只需要儘可能清晰地說話。我們不能帶入自己的情緒，因爲我們需要談很多關於戴頓大學隊的事，但我們也需要說其他球隊的情況。所以我覺得對我來說，最難的就是控制自己的情緒。”

Zhou said the nervous feeling they will experience Friday night is nothing new; they both get nervous before each tipoff, but they quickly ease their way into the flow of the game. While Friday’s audience will be far larger for a few plays, the routine mostly remains the same, save for a little extra explaining of the concept of March Madness to a Chinese audience.

週一清說，週五晚上他們會感到緊張，但這並不是什麼新鮮事；他們都在每次解說前都會緊張，但之後他們很快就能放鬆下來，沉浸在比賽之中。雖然對於這幾場比賽來說，週五的觀衆將會多得多，但是除了要向中國觀衆多解釋一點“瘋狂三月”(March Madness)的概念之外，流程大致保持不變。

“The Chinese fans have no idea how the seeds come out and everything,” Shi said. “So we will do like a brief introduction to them to let them know how the N.C.A.A. tournament works.”

“中國球迷不知道種子隊是怎麼出來的，諸如此類的事情，”史雪銀說。“所以我們會做一個簡單的介紹，讓他們知道NCAA比賽是怎麼運作的。”