小天的週記

之前我外國朋友教我什麼是white elephant。

他一開始是跟我說他爸買了一台樂器，但從不彈這樂器。

他說，在英文裡面，很貴又不實用的東西，就是white elephant。

他是這樣描述的:

"I don't really understand why my dad wants to have an electric piano.

He just likes buying new toys, I think. He already has his keyboard

connected to the computer, where he writes his music. He never plays

the piano downstairs. The electric piano is supposed to be exactly the

same as playing a traditional piano, so I don't see why he should play

it more. Do you remember when he bought an electric organ and put it

in my old bedroom? He hardly played it, and eventually he sold it. It

was what we call a white elephant."

他如此解釋:

"The expression 'white elephant' is well known, meaning something that

is usually expensive but quite useless. For example, some people might

describe the bridge between Hong Kong and Macau as a white elephant. I

just looked at the Wikipedia page, and the expression is thought to

originate in the gifts the Thai king gave to people he didn't like. He

gave them an albino elephant that would be expensive and inconvenient

to look after."

所以這典故來自泰皇把一隻患有白化症的大象送給他不喜歡的人飼養...

但誰想照顧大象啊?

而前一陣子，我在BBC新聞看到這句話"an elephant in the room"。

上網爬文，是指說一個問題很龐大、很複雜，但大家都漠視這問題。

然後今天又在BBC新聞看到"white elephant"了:

"Over the years BRI projects have also been accused of creating wasteful 'white elephants',

fuelling local corruption, exacerbating environmental problems, exploiting workers,

and failing to live up to promises of bringing jobs and prosperity to local communities."

新聞出處: 

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-67120726

之後我爬文，還發現有人早已在痞客邦寫過white elephant、an elephant in the room，

那個人還順便提pink elephant。簡單講就是幻覺。

英文裡面真的還挺多跟大象有關的片語、諺語啊!

相關連結

什麼是粉紅大象以及白色大象呢? 意思是? 

https://lastlun.pixnet.net/blog/post/454217822