为什么要学英语演讲稿

学习一门新语言的四个理由

The language I'm speaking right now is on its way to becoming the world's universal language, for better or for worse. 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, diplomacy --English is everywhere.

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，我们都要面对它，它是因特网的语言，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，是外交的语言，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. Last I heard, there are two dozen universities in China right now teaching all in English. English is taking over.

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。上次我听说如今在中国有24所大学采用全英文教学。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. There will only be some hundreds left. 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.

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。到时将会只剩下几百种。最重要的是，现场演讲的实时翻译不仅有可能发生，而且每一年都会越来越好。

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? 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?

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，为什么我们还要学习外语？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？

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. 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. That is a marvelously enticing idea, but it's kind of fraught. So it's not that it's untrue completely.

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，那就是语言能引导你思想的形成。不同语言的词汇和语法，可以说能提供每个人不同的迷幻之旅。这是一种非常诱人的想法，却有点误导。它不是完全不对。

So for example, in French and Spanish the word for table is, for some reason, marked as feminine. So, "la table," "la mesa," you just have to deal with it. 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. 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.

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。因此你不得不用"latable"和"lamesa"。据表明如果你的母语是上述语言，并且你碰巧被问到你想象桌子怎么说话，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。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。

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.

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. What is the worldview from English?

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。但是你要保持警觉，因为想象一下，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。来自于英语的世界观是什么呢？

So for example, let's take an English speaker. Up on the screen, that is Bono. He speaks English. I presume he has a worldview. Now, that is Donald Trump. In his way, he speaks English as well.

我们拿一位说英语的人来举例子。屏幕上的人是波诺。他说英语。我假设他有某种世界观。现在，这是唐纳·川普。他也以他的方式说英语。

And here is Ms. Kardashian, and she is an English speaker, too. So here are three speakers of the English language. What worldview do those three people have in common? What worldview is shaped through the English language

that unites them? It's a highly fraught concept. And so gradual consensus is becoming that language can shape thought, but it tends to be in rather darling, obscure psychological flutters. It's not a matter of giving you a different pair of glasses on the world.

然后，这是金·卡塔尔夏女士。她也说英语。这是三位以英文为母语的人。这三

位的世界观有什么相同的地方呢？英文作为把他们联系在一起的语言，让他们塑造了什么世界观？这是一个非常误导的概念。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，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? If it isn't going to change the way you think, what would the other reasons be? There are some. 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. There's no other way.

现在，如果是这种情况，如果它不会改变你思考的方式，那么为什么学习语言？其它的原因是什么呢？有一些理由：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──