TED | 不要固执于学英语

演讲简介

 

看到这个标题，你会不会有点疑惑？但这不是让我们不要学英语，而是不要只学英语。其实语言不仅仅只是交流的工具，还是打开一国文化大门的钥匙。近年来一直有不少语言销声匿迹，而演讲者不仅仅是想保护某一种语言，而是想保护文化的多样性。她是怎么说的呢？让我们来一起看看吧。

 

 

 

 

演讲精彩片段（节选）欣赏

 

Okay. Let me tell you a story about two scientists, two English scientists. They were doing an experiment to do with genetics and the forelimbs and the hind limbs of animals. But they couldn't get the results they wanted. They really didn't know what to do, until along came a German scientist who realized that they were using two words for forelimb and hind limb, whereas genetics does not differentiate and neither does German. 

好，我跟你们说一个关于两位科学家的故事：有两位英国科学家在做一项实验，是关于遗传学的，以及动物的前、后肢。但他们无法得到他们想要的结果。他们真的不知道该怎么办，直到来了一位德国的科学家。他发现在英文里前肢和后肢是不同的二个字，但在遗传学上没有区别。在德语也是同一个字。

 

So bingo, problem solved. If you can't think a thought, you are stuck. But if another language can think that thought, then, by cooperating, we can achieve and learn so much more.

所以，叮！问题解决了。如果你不能想到一个念头，你会卡在那里。但如果另一个语言能想到那念头，然后通过合作我们可以达成目的，也学到更多。

 

My daughter, came to England from Kuwait. She had studied science and mathematics in Arabic. It's an Arabic medium school. She had to translate it into English at her grammar school. And she was the best in the class at those subjects. Which tells us that, when students come to us from abroad, we may not be giving them enough credit for what they know, and they know it in their own language. When a language dies, we don't know what we lose with that language.

我的女儿从科威特来到英格兰，她在阿拉伯的学校学习科学和数学。那是所阿拉伯中学。在学校里，她得把这些知识翻译成英文，而她在班上却能在这些学科上拿到最好的成绩。这告诉我们，当外籍学生来找我们，我们可能无法针对他们所知道的给予赞赏，因为那是来自于他们母语的知识。当一个语言消失时，我们不知道还有什么也会一并失去。

 

This is - I don't know if you saw it on CNN recently - they gave the Heroes Award to a young Kenyan shepherd boy who couldn't study at night in his village like all the village children, because the kerosenelamp, it had smoke and it damaged his eyes. And anyway, there was never enough kerosene, because what does a dollar a day buy for you? So he invented a cost-free solar lamp. 

这是 —— 我不知道各位有没有看最近的CNN —— 他们将一座英雄奖授予一位年轻的肯亚牧童。在他住的村庄里，他和村里其它的孩童一样无法在夜晚读书，因为煤油灯产生的烟雾会弄伤他的眼睛。再说，他也没有足够的煤油 —— 毕竟，每天只有一块美金的收入，你还能买什么？所以他发明了不需成本的太阳能灯。

 

And now the children in his village get the same grades at school as the children who have electricity at home. (Applause) When he received his award, he said these lovely words: "The children can lead Africa from what it is today, a dark continent, to a light continent." A simple idea, but it could have such far-reaching consequences.

现在他们村里的孩子们的成绩都和那些家里有电的孩子相同（掌声）。当他接受奖励时，说了下面这句话："这些孩子可以带领非洲这块黑暗大陆迎向光明"一个简单的想法，却有着深远的影响。

 

People who have no light, whether it's physical or metaphorical, cannot pass our exams, and we can never know what they know. Let us not keep them and ourselves in the dark. Let us celebrate diversity. Mind your language. Use it to spread great ideas.

没有“光”的人——无论具体来说，还是抽象来说，都无法通过我们的测验。我们也无法了解他们拥有的知识。别让他们和我们自己都身处在黑暗里，让我们一同为多元性欢呼！关注你自己的语言，用它来宣扬伟大的想法。

 

Thank you very much.

非常谢谢各位。