英语美文

Will the US Become a Bilingual Country?

美国会成为一个双语国家吗？

In the U.S., speaking more than one language fluently is not very common –except in Los Angeles, California.

在美国，除了洛杉矶和加利福尼亚，能够流利地说一门以上语言的人并不常见。

The city has one of the largest populations in the U.S. of young people between the ages of 18 and 34.

洛杉矶是美国年轻人（18岁到34岁）数量最多的城市之一。

This generation is often called millennials.

人们通常称这一代人为千禧一代。

More than half of millennials in Los Angeles are bilingual, which means they speak more than one language.

在洛杉矶，这些千禧一代中大多数人都通两种语言，也就是说，他们会讲不只一门语言。Maria Elena Burgos is cooking a Mexican breakfast. She says making Mexican food is just one of the many traditions in her home. Another is speaking Spanish to her children.

玛利亚?艾琳娜?布尔格斯在做墨西哥式早餐。她说，制作墨式早餐只是她们家的传统之一。另一个传统是用西班牙语与孩子们交流。

We want them to be bilingual. We want to keep the Spanish somewhere in their learning too, not only at home.

“我们想要他们通两种语言。想要他们不只在家学习西班牙语，在其他地方也能学到。”When Ms. Burgos first came to the United States from Mexico, she learned English.

She knew her children would learn English quickly.

她知道她的孩子学英语会学得很快。

当布尔格斯太太第一次从墨西哥来到美国时，她学习了英语。

So she wanted them to speak Spanish at home and study the language at school.

所以她想要孩子们在家说西班牙语，在学校也能学习西班牙语。

She says being bilingual will give them more opportunities in the future.

她说双语可以为他们在未来创造更多的机会。

Knowing Spanish also means the children can talk with their relatives in Mexico and El Salvador. 学会西班牙语也意味着孩子们可以和墨西哥及萨尔瓦多的亲戚交流。

When we had our children, one of the decisions we as parents decided was to name them with a name that was easily pronounced in English and Spanish.

“我们有孩子时，我们决定给他们起一个用英语和西班牙语都比较好读的名字。”

Her children include daughters Elizabeth and Monica. They like speaking both English and Spanish.

布尔格斯有两个女儿——伊丽莎白和莫妮卡。他们喜欢用英语和西班牙语两种语言交流。Elizabeth wants to know her family's culture.

伊丽莎白想知道她们家族的文化。

The culture -- to go back to our roots because that's part of who we are,

“文化——就是要回根溯源，因为那是我们生命的一部分。

Monica wants to pass on the culture to her children.

莫妮卡想要将文化传递给她的孩子。

t's nice to know our culture and then to be able to pass it onto our children and grandchildren and everyone to let them know where we come from.

“了解我们自己的文化，将它一代代传给儿孙，让后代每一个人都知道我们来自哪里，这种感觉很棒。”

And, Monica says she does not speak only English and Spanish. She has even learned some Korean in school.

莫妮卡表示她不仅仅会说英语和西班牙语。她在学校还学习过韩语。

The U.S. Census Bureau says more than half the adults in the Los Angeles area between 18 and 34 years old speak a language other than English at home.

美国人口调查局称洛杉矶18岁到34岁的年轻人中，超过一半的人在家说的是除英语外的语言。

For the whole country, the number of bilingual adults is only 25 percent.

但对于整个国家来说，通两种语言的年轻人只占25%。

The number of bilingual speakers has gone up since the 1990s. At the same time, the number of foreign-born millennials has gone down.

加利福尼亚大学洛杉矶分校的教授劳尔?伊诺霍萨说，自二十世纪九十年代以来，通两种语言的人数不断增加。同时，在国外出生的千禧一代的人数下降。

In other words, more people in the U.S. are learning a second language at home or in school.

换句话说，美国越来越多的人在家或学校学习第二语言。

Many immigrant parents are passing their native languages to their American-born children, says University of California Los Angeles professor Raul Hinojosa.

许多移民而来的父母将他们的本土语言教给他们在美国出生的孩子。

But now the opposite is true. In the last ten years, more immigrant parents say they want their children to keep speaking their native language.

但是现在正好相反。在过去十年中，越来越多的移民父母表示他们希望孩子们学会用母语交流。

Mr. Hinojosa calls their choice the "path of pride."

伊诺霍萨教授称这些父母的选择为“荣耀之路”。

Mandarin is going to be encouraged. Japanese is going to be encouraged. Vietnamese is going to be encouraged.

“我们鼓励大家说汉语、说日语、说越南语。”

Raul Hinojosa says the decision to keep a native language is clear in Los Angeles now.

伊诺霍萨教授称，在洛杉矶，大多移民者都明确地保留了本土语言。

And, as the number of minorities in the U.S. continues to grow, he thinks bilingualism will spread to the rest of the country.

而且随着美国少数民族数量的不断增加，双语制未来会在美国的其他地区普及。