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New French-Language Scrabble Champion Doesn’t Speak French
Host： To win the French World Scrabble Championship you’d think you’d need to speak French， right？ Well， the winner of this year’s tournament， held in Belgium， does not. He’s Nigel Richards， a New Zealander based in Malaysia， who speaks no French， though he’s apparently a Scrabble legend. Stefan， you’ve written about this Scrabble 1）virtuoso， Nigel Richards. What makes him so 2）enigmatic？
Stefan Fatsis （Reporter）： What makes him enigmatic is his personality， and he’s got this big long beard that goes down to about the middle of his chest. He’s perceived as a sort of 3）reclusive figure in Scrabble. He approaches the game in a very， very different way than most players. He just plays and then he’s done. Most players will sit around after a game and try to resolve where the mistakes were， what the best play might have been， why they lost or why they won. Nigel sort of sits there 4）placidly， game is over， he’s done lookin’ at it， he’s ready for the next game. But what really makes him different is this inexplicable 5）mental acuity—the ability to， to ingest and memorize hundreds of thousands of words in English， and now in French.
Host： Does he have a photographic memory or something？
Stefan： Well， when I interviewed him a long time ago， before he was a championship player， he actually talked to me about that. For him it was looking at each page of the dictionary and creating a photographic image of what was on the page， and then recalling in his mind， the boldfaced words. All that matters is the order of the letters. And Nigel described to me how he would go on these long， long bike rides and he would bring up in his brain an image of the page that he wanted to review， and then he would go to the next page and the next page. He’s the sort of person that can say， “Oh yes， I learned that word， and it was on page 832 of that dictionary.”
Host： But he must somehow memorize how the word is pronounced， right？ Because if a word is said in French， you know， how do you connect how it’s pronounced to what you see on a page？
Stefan： I don’t think it matters. And， in the case of the French dictionary， I don’t know how Nigel learned the words. My 6）hunch is that he looked at the words， 7）sans definitions， and just memorized the letter strings， because when you get down to it， Scrabble is not a game about language. You don’t need to know definitions， you don’t need to know， um， anything. It’s certainly helpful to know how something’s pluralized， but ultimately all that matters is that you know the order in which the letters go. There have been great Thai Scrabble players who barely speak English， and have won a world championship or two， and done extremely well in English-language tournaments. So it is not a function of your native speaking ability. It’s a function of being able to process the order in which the letters appear in particular words. Is this string of letters acceptable or is it not？ Host： Is there big money in the professional game？
Stefan： You know， I wouldn’t call it big money， but it’s money enough. You’re not gonna get rich playing Scrabble， but that’s not why Scrabble players play. They play because they love the thrill of， sort of， decoding the language and mastering this wonderful strategic game.
主持人：要想赢得法语拼字世界锦标赛，你肯定觉得你要会说法语，对吧？今年的比赛在比利时举行，而这一届的冠军不会说法语。他就是奈杰尔·理查兹，一位马来西亚籍的新西兰人。尽管他完全不会说法语，但他显然是拼字界的传奇人物。斯特凡，你曾撰文介绍奈杰尔·理查兹这位拼字大师，他的高深莫测体现在什么地方呢？
斯特凡·法特西兹（记者）：他的神秘源自他的性格，还因为他长着一把几乎垂到胸前的大胡子。他被视为拼字界的隐士，其参赛方式与大多数选手非常不一样。他只是参与比赛，然后就完事了。大部分选手在比赛后都是无所事事的模样，试图找出错在哪里，最佳拼法应该是怎样的，为什么自己会输掉或是赢得比赛。而奈杰尔只会平静地坐在那里，比赛结束了，他已经看够了，该准备下一场比赛了。但真正让他与众不同的一点在于，奈杰尔拥有一种令人费解的精神敏度——这种能力让他可以吸收并记住成千上万的英语单词，现在连法语也不在话下了。
主持人：他采用的是图像记忆法之类的技巧吗？
斯特凡：呃，我很久以前采访过他，那时他还不是锦标赛选手，他确实跟我聊过这个问题。对他来说，这种记忆法就是浏览字典的每一页，在脑子里生成一幅关于页面内容的图像，然后在回忆时重新回想那些粗体单词。字母顺序才是关键所在。奈杰尔对我说，他会骑车溜达很长一段路，在脑海中调出要回顾的那一页图像，接着回想下一页，再下一页。“噢，是的，我学过那个单词，就在那本字典的第832页。”他就是那种可以说出这种话的家伙。
主持人：但不管怎样，他还是得记住单词的发音吧，对不对？因为如果一个单词是用法语说的，你知道，你怎样才能将其发音与你在书页上看到的那个词联系起来呢？
斯特凡：我觉得这并不重要。而且，以法语字典来说，我也不知道奈杰尔是怎样记住那些单词的。我猜他就是看过那些单词，不看意思，只记住字母串，因为要是你仔细想想，拼字其实和语言无关。你不需要知道含义，你不需要知道……任何东西。知道某个单词如何变复数当然很有帮助，但从根本上说，唯一重要的是你得知道那些字母的排列顺序。曾经也有些很厉害的泰国拼字选手，他们基本上不会说英语，还赢得了一两次世界冠军，并且在英语锦标赛上发挥得异常出色。所以这与你的母语能力无关，而是要你理清特定单词的字母排列顺序。这个字母串是正确呢，还是不正确呢？
主持人：专业比赛能赚到大钱吗？
斯特凡：你知道，我不会称之为大钱，不过奖金还是不错的。你不可能靠玩拼字来发财，不过这并不是拼字选手参赛的原因。他们参赛是因为他们喜欢这种对语言进行解码，在这场精彩的策略游戏中脱颖而出的刺激感。
小资料
拼字游戏（Scrabble）是西方流行的文字图版游戏，在一块15×15方格的图版上，由2至4名参加者拼出词汇而得分。词汇以填字游戏的方式横竖列出，不同字母有不同分数，根据其在标准书写英语中出现的频率而定。拼字游戏爱好者众多，后来逐渐发展出各种不同规模的比赛。游戏或比赛开始之前通常会指定一本参考词典，所有在该词典中的词汇及其变形均属于比赛范围，但不包括含有连字号的词、开头为大写的词以及外来词。
Host： To win the French World Scrabble Championship you’d think you’d need to speak French， right？ Well， the winner of this year’s tournament， held in Belgium， does not. He’s Nigel Richards， a New Zealander based in Malaysia， who speaks no French， though he’s apparently a Scrabble legend. Stefan， you’ve written about this Scrabble 1）virtuoso， Nigel Richards. What makes him so 2）enigmatic？
Stefan Fatsis （Reporter）： What makes him enigmatic is his personality， and he’s got this big long beard that goes down to about the middle of his chest. He’s perceived as a sort of 3）reclusive figure in Scrabble. He approaches the game in a very， very different way than most players. He just plays and then he’s done. Most players will sit around after a game and try to resolve where the mistakes were， what the best play might have been， why they lost or why they won. Nigel sort of sits there 4）placidly， game is over， he’s done lookin’ at it， he’s ready for the next game. But what really makes him different is this inexplicable 5）mental acuity—the ability to， to ingest and memorize hundreds of thousands of words in English， and now in French.
Host： Does he have a photographic memory or something？
Stefan： Well， when I interviewed him a long time ago， before he was a championship player， he actually talked to me about that. For him it was looking at each page of the dictionary and creating a photographic image of what was on the page， and then recalling in his mind， the boldfaced words. All that matters is the order of the letters. And Nigel described to me how he would go on these long， long bike rides and he would bring up in his brain an image of the page that he wanted to review， and then he would go to the next page and the next page. He’s the sort of person that can say， “Oh yes， I learned that word， and it was on page 832 of that dictionary.”
Host： But he must somehow memorize how the word is pronounced， right？ Because if a word is said in French， you know， how do you connect how it’s pronounced to what you see on a page？
Stefan： I don’t think it matters. And， in the case of the French dictionary， I don’t know how Nigel learned the words. My 6）hunch is that he looked at the words， 7）sans definitions， and just memorized the letter strings， because when you get down to it， Scrabble is not a game about language. You don’t need to know definitions， you don’t need to know， um， anything. It’s certainly helpful to know how something’s pluralized， but ultimately all that matters is that you know the order in which the letters go. There have been great Thai Scrabble players who barely speak English， and have won a world championship or two， and done extremely well in English-language tournaments. So it is not a function of your native speaking ability. It’s a function of being able to process the order in which the letters appear in particular words. Is this string of letters acceptable or is it not？ Host： Is there big money in the professional game？
Stefan： You know， I wouldn’t call it big money， but it’s money enough. You’re not gonna get rich playing Scrabble， but that’s not why Scrabble players play. They play because they love the thrill of， sort of， decoding the language and mastering this wonderful strategic game.
主持人：要想赢得法语拼字世界锦标赛，你肯定觉得你要会说法语，对吧？今年的比赛在比利时举行，而这一届的冠军不会说法语。他就是奈杰尔·理查兹，一位马来西亚籍的新西兰人。尽管他完全不会说法语，但他显然是拼字界的传奇人物。斯特凡，你曾撰文介绍奈杰尔·理查兹这位拼字大师，他的高深莫测体现在什么地方呢？
斯特凡·法特西兹（记者）：他的神秘源自他的性格，还因为他长着一把几乎垂到胸前的大胡子。他被视为拼字界的隐士，其参赛方式与大多数选手非常不一样。他只是参与比赛，然后就完事了。大部分选手在比赛后都是无所事事的模样，试图找出错在哪里，最佳拼法应该是怎样的，为什么自己会输掉或是赢得比赛。而奈杰尔只会平静地坐在那里，比赛结束了，他已经看够了，该准备下一场比赛了。但真正让他与众不同的一点在于，奈杰尔拥有一种令人费解的精神敏度——这种能力让他可以吸收并记住成千上万的英语单词，现在连法语也不在话下了。
主持人：他采用的是图像记忆法之类的技巧吗？
斯特凡：呃，我很久以前采访过他，那时他还不是锦标赛选手，他确实跟我聊过这个问题。对他来说，这种记忆法就是浏览字典的每一页，在脑子里生成一幅关于页面内容的图像，然后在回忆时重新回想那些粗体单词。字母顺序才是关键所在。奈杰尔对我说，他会骑车溜达很长一段路，在脑海中调出要回顾的那一页图像，接着回想下一页，再下一页。“噢，是的，我学过那个单词，就在那本字典的第832页。”他就是那种可以说出这种话的家伙。
主持人：但不管怎样，他还是得记住单词的发音吧，对不对？因为如果一个单词是用法语说的，你知道，你怎样才能将其发音与你在书页上看到的那个词联系起来呢？
斯特凡：我觉得这并不重要。而且，以法语字典来说，我也不知道奈杰尔是怎样记住那些单词的。我猜他就是看过那些单词，不看意思，只记住字母串，因为要是你仔细想想，拼字其实和语言无关。你不需要知道含义，你不需要知道……任何东西。知道某个单词如何变复数当然很有帮助，但从根本上说，唯一重要的是你得知道那些字母的排列顺序。曾经也有些很厉害的泰国拼字选手，他们基本上不会说英语，还赢得了一两次世界冠军，并且在英语锦标赛上发挥得异常出色。所以这与你的母语能力无关，而是要你理清特定单词的字母排列顺序。这个字母串是正确呢，还是不正确呢？
主持人：专业比赛能赚到大钱吗？
斯特凡：你知道，我不会称之为大钱，不过奖金还是不错的。你不可能靠玩拼字来发财，不过这并不是拼字选手参赛的原因。他们参赛是因为他们喜欢这种对语言进行解码，在这场精彩的策略游戏中脱颖而出的刺激感。
小资料
拼字游戏（Scrabble）是西方流行的文字图版游戏，在一块15×15方格的图版上，由2至4名参加者拼出词汇而得分。词汇以填字游戏的方式横竖列出，不同字母有不同分数，根据其在标准书写英语中出现的频率而定。拼字游戏爱好者众多，后来逐渐发展出各种不同规模的比赛。游戏或比赛开始之前通常会指定一本参考词典，所有在该词典中的词汇及其变形均属于比赛范围，但不包括含有连字号的词、开头为大写的词以及外来词。