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.
被问到自己的解说将在全国电视台上播出时感觉会怎么样,周一清(Yiqing Zhou,音)和史雪银(Xueyin Shi,音)仿佛约好了似的,做出了同样的回答。
“A little bit nervous,” they both said through laughter.
“有点紧张,”两人都笑着说。
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.
如你所见,周一清和史雪银有很多事情是一起做的。他们都是25岁的二年级研究生,在戴顿大学(University of Dayton)学习电气工程,这座大学的男子篮球队赢得了大西洋十联盟(Atlantic 10)的常规赛冠军。他们是一对夫妇。他们一起解说飞人队(Flyers)的比赛。
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.
但他们不是一般的播音员:他们在戴顿的体育网站上用中文普通话解说校队的比赛。周五晚上,当7号种子队飞人队在NCAA(美国大学体育总会)赛事第一轮中迎战第10号种子队威奇托州立大学队(Wichita State)时,CBS电视台计划把赛事的一小部分时间分配给周一清和史雪银。
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.
周一清和史雪银是五名轮候播音员中的两位,他们用普通话解说戴顿队的比赛。他们的活力以及其他一些因素,令戴顿负责多媒体的体育副主管迈克尔·拉普拉卡(Michael LaPlaca)将本赛季最重要的两场解说任务交给了他们。上周在匹兹堡举行的大西洋十联盟赛事是戴顿第一次有国际评论员在客场进行现场解说。本周末NCAA的比赛将是第二次。
“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.”
“他们之间有化学反应,在播出中效果很好,”拉普拉卡说。“我甚至不懂普通话,但是当你听到他们播音时,感觉是非常好的。”
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.
这是戴顿有了普通话解说的第二年,此事由拉普拉卡一手策划,也是该大学发起倡议,令国际学生更多参与校园生活的结果。注意到伊利诺伊大学(University of Illinois)于2015赛季开始在线播放橄榄球比赛的普通话解说后,戴顿觉得自己也有机会尝试类似的举动。
“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.”
“篮球是一种势均力敌的运动,”拉普拉卡说。“它是一个跨越所有语言、所有国界的运动。所以,我们开展这个项目,让国际学生能够解说篮球比赛,并且接触到中国听众,这是有意义的。”
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.
当这项计划在上赛季开始之前,戴顿大学估计,学校大约1.1万名注册学生中有600多名中国学生。此外,戴顿在上海附近的中国-新加坡苏州工业园区内设有一个研究所。
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.
拉普拉卡说,最初有64名学生表现出对解说事业的兴趣。为了缩小范围,他给申请人看了一段2015年NCAA的1/4决赛的比赛集锦,戴顿队后卫乔丹·西伯特(Jordan Sibert)投出致胜一球。这段视频里只有人群发出的噪音;拉普拉卡让有兴趣的学生即兴发挥解说比赛。他与一名会说普通话的戴顿教授合作,选出了最好的学生。
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.
周一清和史雪银是在上海师范大学认识的,之后他们来到了与上海师范大学有合作关系的戴顿大学读大四,之后又进入研究生院。他们很快成了飞人队篮球赛的狂热追随者,尽管没有媒体经验,他们认为,搭档解说会是分享爱好,并与中国的朋友和家人联系的好办法。
“We love U.D.,” Zhou said. “Why don’t we share what we know about U.D. basketball?”
“我们热爱戴顿大学,”周一清说。“所以为什么不来分享一下我们对戴顿大学篮球队的了解呢?”
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.
两人已经熟悉了戴顿大学队的所有对手,他们定期浏览比赛记录,了解球员伤情,研究客队教练的背景。他们观看近期比赛集锦,填补自己知识中的任何空白。
“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.”
“做解说的时候,我们有时需要控制自己的情绪,因为我们都是疯狂的戴顿球迷,”史雪银说。在解说时,她补充说,“我们只需要尽可能清晰地说话。我们不能带入自己的情绪,因为我们需要谈很多关于戴顿大学队的事,但我们也需要说其他球队的情况。所以我觉得对我来说,最难的就是控制自己的情绪。”
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.
周一清说,周五晚上他们会感到紧张,但这并不是什么新鲜事;他们都在每次解说前都会紧张,但之后他们很快就能放松下来,沉浸在比赛之中。虽然对于这几场比赛来说,周五的观众将会多得多,但是除了要向中国观众多解释一点“疯狂三月”(March Madness)的概念之外,流程大致保持不变。
“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.”
“中国球迷不知道种子队是怎么出来的,诸如此类的事情,”史雪银说。“所以我们会做一个简单的介绍,让他们知道NCAA比赛是怎么运作的。”