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JohnMcWhorter_2016-_学习新语言的四个原因_
The language I'm speaking right now is on its way to becoming the world's universal language, for better or for worse. 我正在讲的这种语言, 快要变成全世界的通用语言, 无论好坏,
universal:adj.普遍的;全体的;全世界的;共同的;
Let's face it, it's the language of the internet, it's the language of finance , it's the language of air traffic control , of popular music, 我们都要面对它, 它是网际网路的语言, 是金融界的语言, 是空中交通管制的语言, 是流行音乐的语言,
finance:n.财政,财政学;金融;v.负担经费,供给…经费; air traffic control:n.空管;空中交通管制;空中交通管制人员(或管制站);
English is everywhere. 英语无处不在。
Now, Mandarin Chinese is spoken by more people, but more Chinese people are learning English than English speakers are learning Chinese. 讲中文的人更多, 但是中国人学英语的也很多, 比讲英语的人学中文还多。
Mandarin:n.(中国)普通话;国语;官话;满清官吏;柑橘;adj.紧身马褂的;
Last I heard, there are two dozen universities in China right now teaching all in English. 上次我听说 如今在中国有 24 所大学 采用全英文教学。
English is taking over. 英语已经全面起飞。
And in addition to that, it's been predicted that at the end of the century almost all of the languages that exist now — there are about 6,000 — will no longer be spoken. 除此之外, 预计在本世纪末, 几乎所有现存的语言, 大约有 6,000 种 将不会再被使用。
in addition to:除…之外; predicted:v.预言;预告;预报;(predict的过去分词和过去式)
There will only be some hundreds left. 到时将会只剩下几百种。
And on top of that, it's at the point where instant translation of live speech is not only possible, but it gets better every year. 他在浴缸里大口吃蛋糕, 现场演讲的即时翻译 不仅有可能发生,而且每一年都会越来越好。
instant:n.瞬间; adj.立即的; conj.同"assoonas";
The reason I'm reciting those things to you is because I can tell that we're getting to the point where a question is going to start being asked, which is: Why should we learn foreign languages — other than if English happens to be foreign to one? 我之所以举这些例子, 是因为我感觉 我们到了一个阶段,开始要问这个问题, 那就是:如果我们的母语是英语, 这不会改变你的思想,
reciting:v.背诵,吟诵,朗诵;列举;逐一讲述;(recite的现在分词)
Why bother to learn another one when it's getting to the point where almost everybody in the world will be able to communicate in one? 为什么当全世界快要用同一种语言沟通时, 我们还要不厌其烦地学另外一种语言？
bother:v.烦扰,打扰;使…不安;操心,麻烦;n.麻烦;烦恼;
I think there are a lot of reasons, but I first want to address the one that you're probably most likely to have heard of, because actually it's more dangerous than you might think. 我想有很多原因, 但我想首先说出大家最有可能听到的一种, 因为实际上它比你认为的要危险,
And that is the idea that a language channels your thoughts, that the vocabulary and the grammar of different languages gives everybody a different kind of acid trip, so to speak . 那就是语言能引导你思想的形成。 不同语言的词彙和语法, 可以说能提供每个人不同的迷幻之旅。
so to speak:可以说;打个譬喻说;
That is a marvelously enticing idea, but it's kind of fraught . 这是一种非常诱人的想法, 却有点误导。
marvelously:adv.奇迹般地;不可思议地;令人惊讶地; enticing:adj.诱人的;有吸引力的;v.诱使;引诱;(entice的现在分词) fraught:adj.担心的,忧虑的;充满…的;
So it's not that it's untrue completely. 它不是完全不对。
untrue:adj.不真实的;不合标准的;不忠实的;不正当的;
So for example, in French and Spanish the word for table is, for some reason, marked as feminine . 比如说,在法语和西班牙语中, 由于某些原因,桌子对应的单词是阴性的。
feminine:adj.女性的;妇女(似)的;阴性的;娇柔的;
So, "la table," "la mesa ," you just have to deal with it. 因此你不得不用“la table”和 “la mesa”。
mesa:n.台地;[地理]平顶山;
It has been shown that if you are a speaker of one of those languages and you happen to be asked how you would imagine a table talking, then much more often than could possibly be an accident, a French or a Spanish speaker says that the table would talk with a high and feminine voice. 据表明 如果你的母语是上述语言, 并且你碰巧被问到 你想像桌子怎么说话, 得到的结果绝不是巧合, 法国人或者西班牙人 会说桌子会用高声调、女性的声音来说话。
So if you're French or Spanish, to you, a table is kind of a girl, as opposed to if you are an English speaker. 因此,如果你是法国人或西班牙人,你会认为桌子有点像女孩。 如果你是说英语的人,则与这个相反。
opposed:adj.强烈反对; v.反对(计划、政策等); (oppose的过去分词和过去式)
It's hard not to love data like that, and many people will tell you that that means that there's a worldview that you have if you speak one of those languages. 很难让人不爱上像这样的数据, 并且许多人会告诉你那意味着 如果你说这些语言,就会有这种世界观。
worldview:n.世界观;
But you have to watch out, because imagine if somebody put us under the microscope , the us being those of us who speak English natively . 但是你要保持警觉, 因为想像一下,如果有人把我们放在显微镜下面。 「我们」是指英语为母语的人。
microscope:n.显微镜; natively:adv.生来地;天然地;
What is the worldview from English? 来自于英语的世界观是什麽呢？
So for example, let's take an English speaker. 我们拿一位说英语的人来举例子。
Up on the screen, that is Bono . 萤幕上的人是波诺。
Bono:n.宝鸟服饰;报喜鸟(品牌名);
He speaks English. 他说英语。
I presume he has a worldview. 我假设他有某种世界观。
presume:v.假定;推测;擅自;意味着;
Now, that is Donald Trump . 现在,这是唐纳·川普。
Trump:n.王牌;主牌花色;v.出王牌赢(牌);;赢;胜过;打败;
In his way,he speaks English as well. 他也以他的方式说英语。
(Laughter)
And here is Ms. Kardashian, and she is an English speaker, too. 然后,这是金·卡达夏女士。 她也说英语。
So here are three speakers of the English language. 这是三位以英文为母语的人。
What worldview do those three people have in common? 这三位的世界观有什么相同的地方呢？
What worldview is shaped through the English language that unites them? 英文作为把他们联系在一起的语言,让他们塑造了什麽世界观？
unites:联合;合并;
It's a highly fraught concept. 这是一个非常误导的概念。
highly:adv.高度地;非常;非常赞许地;
And so gradual consensus is becoming that language can shape thought, but it tends to be in rather darling, obscure psychological flutters . 语言能够塑造思想这种共识正在逐渐形成, 但它比较是一种迷人、晦涩的心理悸动,
gradual:adj.逐渐的;平缓的;n.弥撒升阶圣歌集; consensus:n.一致;舆论;合意; obscure:n.朦胧; adj.无名的; v.使模糊; psychological:adj.心理的;心理学的;精神上的; flutters:vi.飘动;鼓翼;烦扰;vt.拍;使焦急;使飘动;n.摆动;鼓翼;烦扰;
It's not a matter of giving you a different pair of glasses on the world. 而不是让你真的从不同的眼光看世界。
Now, if that's the case, then why learn languages? 现在,如果是这种情况, 如果它不会改变你思考的方式,
If it isn't going to change the way you think, what would the other reasons be? 那么为什麽学习语言？ 其它的原因是什么呢？
There are some. 有一些理由:
One of them is that if you want to imbibe a culture, if you want to drink it in, if you want to become part of it, then whether or not the language channels the culture — and that seems doubtful — if you want to imbibe the culture, you have to control to some degree the language that the culture happens to be conducted in. 其中一个原因是如果你想吸收某种文化, 如果你很想汲取它,很想成为这种文化的一部分, 那么不管语言会不会塑造文化── 这种想法挺可疑── 如果你想要吸收这种文化, 你不得不在一定程度上 掌控这种文化根植于的语言。
imbibe:vt.吸收,接受;喝;吸入; whether or not:是否…; doubtful:adj.可疑的;令人生疑的;疑心的;不能确定的; conducted:v.组织;安排;实施;执行;指挥;带领;引导;(conduct的过去分词和过去式)
There's no other way. 除此之外,没有其它的方式。
There's an interesting illustration of this. 关于这个有一个有趣的例证,
illustration:n.插图;图解;示例;图示;
I have to go slightly obscure, but really you should seek it out. 我不得不走一点模糊路线,但是大家真的应该认真去看它。
slightly:adv.些微地,轻微地;纤细地; seek:v.寻求;寻找;谋求;
There's a movie by the Canadian film director Denys Arcand — read out in English on the page, "Dennis Ar-cand," 有部由加拿大导演丹尼·阿控(Denys Arcand) 制作的电影── 他的名字用英语读起来是丹尼斯·阿坎德,
if you want to look him up. 如果你想搜寻他。
He did a film called " Jesus of Montreal ." 他制作了一部名叫《蒙特娄的耶稣》的电影。
Jesus:int.上帝啊:天哪:n.耶稣:耶稣基督: Montreal:n.蒙特利尔(加拿大东南部港市);
And many of the characters are vibrant , funny, passionate , interesting French-Canadian, 其中很多角色 是充满生气、好玩、热情、很有意思的法语区加拿大人,
vibrant:adj.振动的;充满生气的;响亮的;战栗的; passionate:adj.热情的;热烈的,激昂的;易怒的;
French-speaking women. 说法语的女人。
There's one scene closest to the end, where they have to take a friend to an Anglophone hospital. 在结束时有个场景, 他们带一位朋友去说英语的医院。
In the hospital, they have to speak English. 在医院里,他们不得不说英语。
Now, they speak English but it's not their native language, they'd rather not speak English. 现在,他们的确在说英语,但这不是他们的母语, 他们宁可不要说英语。
And they speak it more slowly, they have accents , they're not idiomatic . 并且他们说的很慢, 而且有口音,说的怪里怪气。
accents:n.口音;土音;强调;重音;v.着重;强调;突出;(accent的第三人称单数和复数) idiomatic:adj.惯用的;符合语言习惯的;通顺的;
Suddenly these characters that you've fallen in love with become husks of themselves, they're shadows of themselves. 突然,这些你深爱的角色 变成了没有灵魂的躯壳,成了自己的阴影。
husks:n.茧衣;外皮(husk的复数形式);v.除去…的外皮(husk的单数第三人称形式);
To go into a culture and to only ever process people through that kind of skrim curtain is to never truly get the culture. 要打进一种文化, 只透过那种薄纱来看人, 从来不能真正了解该文化。
process:v.处理;加工;列队行进;n.过程,进行;方法,adj.经过特殊加工(或处理)的;
And so to the extent that hundreds of languages will be left, one reason to learn them is because they are tickets to being able to participate in the culture of the people who speak them, just by virtue of the fact that it is their code. 所以从某种程度上说数百种语言会消失, 而学习这些语言的一个原因, 是因为语言是参与 说这些语言的人的文化的方法, 因为这就是他们的密码。
extent:n.程度;范围;长度; participate:v.参加;参与; by virtue of:由于,凭借;
So that's one reason. 所以这是其中一个原因。
Second reason: it's been shown that if you speak two languages, dementia is less likely to set in, and that you are probably a better multitasker . 第二个原因: 有证据显示 如果你说两种语言,更不容易患失智症。 并且你可能更容易处理同时做多件事情。
dementia:n.[内科]痴呆; multitasker:一心多用的能手;多任务操作者;多工人员;
And these are factors that set in early, and so that ought to give you some sense of when to give junior or juniorette lessons in another language. 这些因子很早发生, 因此这也应该让你意识到 什么时候该给小朋友或小小朋友用另外一种语言上课。
factors:n.因素(factor的复数); v.做代理商; junior:n.青少年;职位较低者;adj.青少年的;地位低下的;
Bilingualism is healthy. 双语是健康的。
Bilingualism:n.能用两种语言;
languages are just an awful lot of fun. 语言就是非常有趣。
Much more fun than we're often told. 比我们经常被告知的有趣的多。
So for example, Arabic: "kataba," he wrote, "yaktubu," he writes, she writes. 比如说,阿拉伯语:“kataba” 是指他之前写, “yaktubu”是他或她写,
'"Uktub," write, in the imperative . “Uktub”用命令语气说写。
imperative:adj.重要紧急的; n.重要紧急的事;
What do those things have in common? 这几个字有什么共同点呢？
All those things have in common the consonants sitting in the middle like pillars . 这些字的共同点就是 子音像柱子一样在单词的中间。
consonants:n.[语]辅音,子音(consonant的复数形式); pillars:n.柱子;柱状物;台柱(pillar的复数);v.用柱支持(pillar的第三人称单数);
They stay still, and the vowels dance around the consonants. 他们不动, 母音围绕着子音跳舞。
vowels:n.[语]元音,母音(vowel的复数形式);
Who wouldn't want to roll that around in their mouths? 谁不希望在嘴里滚动这些音呢？
You can get that from Hebrew , you can get that from Ethiopia's main language, Amharic. 你可以从希伯来语看到这个样子, 你也可以从衣索比亚的主要语言阿姆哈拉语中看到。
Hebrew:n.希伯来人,犹太人;希伯来语;adj.希伯来语的;希伯来人的;
That's fun. 非常有趣。
Or languages have different word orders. 有的语言有着不同的单词顺序。
Learning how to speak with different word order is like driving on the different side of a street if you go to certain country, or the feeling that you get when you put Witch Hazel around your eyes and you feel the tingle . 学习如何用不同的单词顺序说话, 就好像你去某些国家驾驶在道路的不同侧一样, 或者像把收敛剂金缕梅放在眼睛附近的感觉一样, 你可以感觉到刺痛。
Witch Hazel:n.金缕梅酊剂(用于治疗皮肤创伤); tingle:vi.感到刺痛;(耳朵等)鸣响;vt.刺痛;使激动;n.刺痛感;激动;鸣响;
A language can do that to you. 语言可以对你做出这些。
So for example, "The Cat in the Hat Comes Back," 因此比如说, 《戴帽子的猫回来了》这本书
a book that I'm sure we all often return to, like " Moby Dick ." 我相信我们都反覆看过, 就像《白鲸记》一样。
Moby:adj.大的,巨大的; Dick:n.阴茎,鸡巴;侦探;誓言;
One phrase in it is, "Do you know where I found him? 其中有句话,（直翻）「你知道哪裏我发现他吗？
Do you know where he was? He was eating cake in the tub , 你知道哪里他在？他吃蛋糕在浴缸里,
tub:n.桶; v.使入浴;
Yes he was!" 是的,他是！」
Fine. Now, if you learn that in Mandarin Chinese, then you have to master, "You can know, I did where him find? 好,现在如果你用国语来学习, 那么你就得说成 「你知道我在哪里找到他？
He was tub inside gorging cake, 他在浴缸里大口吃蛋糕,
gorging:v.贪婪地吃;狼吞虎咽;(gorge的现在分词)
No mistake gorging chewing!" 没错！大口嚼！」
That just feels good. 感觉很不错喔！
Imagine being able to do that for years and years at a time. 想像一下年复一年每次都这样说。
Or, have you ever learned any Cambodian ? 或者,你曾经学过柬埔寨语吗？
Cambodian:n.柬埔寨人(高棉人);柬埔寨语;adj.柬埔寨的;柬埔寨语的;
Me either, but if I did, 我也没学过,如果我学过,
I would get to roll around in my mouth not some baker's dozen of vowels like English has, but a good 30 different vowels scooching and oozing around in the Cambodian mouth like bees in a hive . 我在嘴里滚的就不是 13 个母音, 像英语一样, 而是 30 个不同的母音, 在柬埔寨人的嘴里面转来转去, 就像蜂巢里的蜜蜂。
oozing:v.(浓液体)渗出,慢慢流出;洋溢着,充满(ooze的现在分词) hive:vi.群居; n.蜂房,蜂巢; vt.入蜂箱;
That is what a language can get you. 这就是一门语言能给你的东西。
And more to the point , we live in an era when it's never been easier to teach yourself another language. 另外, 我们生活在一个从未像现在一样自学语言这么简单的时代。
more to the point:说得更确切些;更重要的一点;
It used to be that you had to go to a classroom, and there would be some diligent teacher — some genius teacher in there — but that person was only in there at certain times and you had to go then, and then was not most times. 过去你不得不去教室, 并且教室还要有费尽心血的老师── 一些天才教师── 但是那个人只在特定的时间才在, 并且你还得去, 而且那只是一小段时间。
diligent:adj.勤勉的;用功的,费尽心血的; genius:n.天才;天资;才能,本领;
You had to go to class. 你得去教室。
If you didn't have that, you had something called a record. 如果你没有去课堂上课,那还有一种叫录音的东西。
I cut my teeth on those. 我有很多这方面的经验。
There was only so much data on a record, or a cassette , or even that antique object known as a CD. 在录音上面只有这么点数据, 或者在录音带上, 或者是那个叫 CD 的老骨董上。
cassette:n.暗盒;磁带盒;盒式磁带;卡式磁带;v.用盒式磁带[胶卷或录像磁带]录制; antique:adj.古老的; n.古董; vi.觅购古玩;
Other than that you had books that didn't work, that's just the way it was. 除了那些,你还有没用的书, 过去就是这样。
Today you can lay down — lie on your living room floor, sipping bourbon , and teach yourself any language that you want to with wonderful sets such as Rosetta Stone . 现在你可以躺着── 躺在客厅的地板上, 喝着波本威士忌, 自学任何你想学习的语言, 只要一套精彩的学习教程,比如说 Rosetta Stone 。
living room:n.客厅;起居室; sipping:v.小口喝;(sip的现在分词) bourbon:n.(法国的)波旁皇族;政治上之极端保守分子; Rosetta Stone:n.有助于解释神秘事物(或未知领域)的事物;有启示作用的发现;
I highly recommend the lesser known Glossika as well. 我也强烈推荐不那么有名的 Glossika 。
recommend:v.推荐;介绍;劝告;建议;使受欢迎; lesser:adj.较少的;次要的;更小的;adv.较少地;更小地;不及;
You can do it any time, therefore you can do it more and better. 任何时候都可以做, 因此你有更多的时间以更好的方式学习。
You can give yourself your morning pleasures in various languages. 你可以在早晨享用不同的语言。
I take some " Dilbert " in various languages every single morning; it can increase your skills. 我每天早晨会看翻成不同语言的呆伯特: 它能提高你的技巧。
Dilbert:n.呆伯特(卡通人物,身居斗室的生意圈里的平庸之辈);
Couldn't have done it 20 years ago when the idea of having any language you wanted in your pocket,coming from your phone, would have sounded like science fiction to very sophisticated people. 这在 20 年前都是不能完成的, 在那时,想要从口袋里的手机学任何你想学的语言, 听起来就像想像力复杂的人写的科幻小说。
science fiction:科幻小说; sophisticated:adj.复杂的;老练的;见多识广的;水平高的;
So I highly recommend that you teach yourself languages other than the one that I'm speaking, because there's never been a better time to do it. 因此我强烈推荐 大家去学习不同于我正在讲的其它语言, 因为没有比现在更好的时机了。
It's an awful lot of fun. 它非常有趣。
It won't change your mind, but it will most certainly blow your mind. 这不会改变你的思想, 但这会使你心醉神迷。
Thank you very much. 谢谢大家。
(Applause) （掌声）