地道英语

Ham-fisted 笨手笨脚，笨拙

内容简介

你知道 “ham-fisted” 的意思吗？“Ham” 的意思是 “火腿”，“fisted” 的意思是 “握成拳头的”。它俩组成的这个合成词 “ham-fisted” 在日常生活中很常用，意思和 “笨拙” 有关。听节目，学习 “ham-fisted” 的用法。

文字稿

（关于台词的备注: 请注意这不是广播节目的逐字稿件。本文稿可能没有体现录制、编辑过程中对节目做出的改变。）

Feifei 
大家好，欢迎收听 BBC英语教学的 “地道英语” 节目。在每期节目中，我们都会介绍一个英语母语人士或讲英语流利的人会用到的表达。I'm Feifei and I'm here with Phil. How are you, Phil?  

Phil
I would say I'm very well, but I'm actually a bit frustrated.

Feifei 
Oh, no. What's happened? 

Phil 
My phone case fell apart – I'm trying to fix it, but I just can't put it back together. 

Feifei 
Oh, you are so ham-fisted, Phil! 

Phil 
Ham-fisted. Well, that's the expression that we're looking at in this programme. The adjective 'ham-fisted', which is all about being clumsy. Now, it might help if we start by looking at what a fist and a ham literally are. 

Feifei 
Yes, your fist is when you close your hand and put your fingers together in a ball. It's what boxers use to hit each other. A ham is a big round bit of pork, usually cooked. For example, I often use it to make a sandwich. But, in the expression 'ham-fisted', what has ham got to do with someone's fist? 

Phil 
OK, think about it visually. Imagine instead of hands, you just had two big round bits of meat, and then trying to do something. It probably wouldn't work very well. It often has this idea about having strength, but no precision or skill, as if you are hitting things with a big piece of meat. Things get broken, rather than fixed if you're ham-fisted.

Feifei 
Yes, so this expression is all about being clumsy. Are you ham-fisted, Phil? 

Phil 
Me? Definitely! When it comes to doing DIY around the house, if I get a hammer, I'm probably going to break something rather than fix it. When I'm cooking, the number of times I cut myself when I'm cutting vegetables, or I drop a plate and it smashes. I think I'm really ham-fisted. 

Feifei 
You certainly sound like you are very ham-fisted! Here are some more examples of the expression 'ham-fisted'. 

Examples 
So, I was drawing yesterday with a pencil, and I broke it 'cos I'm really ham-fisted, and then I borrowed another one from my friend, but I broke that one as well! 

I wanted to learn the piano, but I'm too ham-fisted. I just kept hitting the wrong keys.

Beth brought me a coffee to my desk this morning, but I knocked it on the floor. I'm so ham-fisted. 

Phil 
Feifei, in the examples we've heard, ham-fisted was used to talk about literal, physical clumsiness, but are there other ways of using it?

Feifei 
Yes, it can also be used in a metaphorical way. For example, you can talk about a ham-fisted approach to solving a problem. If an approach is ham-fisted, then it is done without much thought, with no subtlety or nuance.

Phil 
So, a ham-fisted approach to solving a disagreement at work might leave everyone unhappy. It keeps this idea of using force rather than skill.

Feifei 
是的，“ham-fisted” 既可以形容人是 “笨手笨脚的”，也可以比喻在与人打交道的时候做事 “笨拙”。比如：a ham-fisted approach to solving a disagreement at work 的意思就是 “在工作中解决分歧时的笨拙做法”。 

Phil
That's all from us. We'll be back next time with another useful English phrase. See you then. 

Feifei 
Bye-bye.