當(dāng)今英語(yǔ)已經(jīng)成為世界上使用最廣泛的語(yǔ)言了。在不是以英語(yǔ)為母語(yǔ)或官方語(yǔ)言的國(guó)家里，很多人即使不能熟練地使用英語(yǔ)，也都多少懂點(diǎn)兒英語(yǔ)。無(wú)疑，如果你不懂英語(yǔ)，學(xué)好英語(yǔ)將會(huì)為你的學(xué)習(xí)、工作等帶來(lái)很大的幫助。當(dāng)然，很多人在學(xué)習(xí)了英語(yǔ)之后，還想掌握一門(mén)第二外語(yǔ)。就以漢語(yǔ)為母語(yǔ)的人來(lái)說(shuō)，法語(yǔ)、德語(yǔ)、日語(yǔ)、俄語(yǔ)、西班牙語(yǔ)、阿拉伯語(yǔ)等，學(xué)哪種語(yǔ)言最好呢？

如果是為了去留學(xué)、工作等特定的原因，那這個(gè)問(wèn)題一點(diǎn)兒也不糾結(jié)。你必須要融入那個(gè)去學(xué)習(xí)和工作的言語(yǔ)社團(tuán)，因此你必須學(xué)會(huì)那個(gè)言語(yǔ)社團(tuán)所使用的語(yǔ)言。這一點(diǎn)很重要。除去這種原因外，我認(rèn)為學(xué)習(xí)哪種二外，最重要的是取決于你對(duì)該語(yǔ)言背后的文化是否感興趣？印地語(yǔ)、馬來(lái)語(yǔ)、印尼語(yǔ)、孟加拉語(yǔ)等語(yǔ)言都是使用人數(shù)超過(guò)1億的大語(yǔ)言，但卻很少有人會(huì)將它們當(dāng)作第二外語(yǔ)來(lái)學(xué)習(xí)，除非你對(duì)他們的文化感興趣。

《經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)人》雜志最近刊登了一篇Best Language toLearn的文章，茲轉(zhuǎn)載如下?；蛟S我們不同意里面的觀點(diǎn)，但至少這篇文章會(huì)給我們提供一個(gè)探討“學(xué)什么語(yǔ)言最好”這個(gè)問(wèn)題的視角。

Once a mark of the cultured, language-learning is inretreat among English speakers. It’s never too late, but where tostart? Robert Lane Greene launches our latest Big Question...

曾經(jīng)被作為是有文化人士的標(biāo)志，學(xué)習(xí)外語(yǔ)在英語(yǔ)母語(yǔ)群體中正逐漸式微。什么時(shí)候開(kāi)始學(xué)習(xí)都不算晚，但是從哪里開(kāi)始呢？羅伯特·雷恩·格林為我們最新的“大問(wèn)題”系列打頭陣……

For language lovers, the facts are grim: Anglophones simplyaren’t learning them any more. In Britain, despite four decades inthe European Union, the number of A-levels taken in French andGerman has fallen by half in the past 20 years, while what was agrowing trend of Spanish-learning has stalled. In America, thenumbers are equally sorry. One factor behind the 9/11 attacks wasthe fact that the CIA lacked the Arabic-speakers who might havetranslated available intelligence. But ten years on, “English only”campaigns appeal more successfully to American patriotism thancampaigns that try to promote language-learning, as if the mostsuccessful language in history were threatened.

對(duì)語(yǔ)言愛(ài)好者來(lái)說(shuō)，現(xiàn)實(shí)是殘酷的：英語(yǔ)母語(yǔ)人士基本上都已不再學(xué)習(xí)外語(yǔ)了。盡管英國(guó)加入歐盟已經(jīng)有40年，劍橋高級(jí)水準(zhǔn)考試（注：英國(guó)高考）中選擇法語(yǔ)和德語(yǔ)課程的人數(shù)在過(guò)去20年里跌了一半。而之前學(xué)習(xí)西班牙語(yǔ)的熱潮也已停滯。在美國(guó)，這方面的數(shù)字同樣令人堪憂(yōu)。911事件背后的一個(gè)因素在于中情局缺少足夠懂阿拉伯語(yǔ)的人來(lái)翻譯一些獲取的情報(bào)。但是10年之后，“只說(shuō)英語(yǔ)”的活動(dòng)比其它試圖推廣學(xué)習(xí)外語(yǔ)的活動(dòng)更受美國(guó)人的愛(ài)國(guó)主義青睞，就好像歷史上最成功的語(yǔ)言現(xiàn)在正處于瀕危一樣。

Why learn a foreign language? After all, the one you already speakif you read this magazine is the world’s most useful and importantlanguage. English is not only the first language of the obviouscountries, it is now the rest of the world’s second language: aJapanese tourist in Sweden or a Turk landing a plane in Spain willalmost always speak English.

為什么要學(xué)習(xí)一門(mén)外語(yǔ)呢？說(shuō)到底，如果你在讀這份雜志，那么你已經(jīng)掌握了世界上最有用，也是最重要的語(yǔ)言。英語(yǔ)不僅僅在幾個(gè)顯而易見(jiàn)的國(guó)家內(nèi)是第一語(yǔ)言，它現(xiàn)在也是世界上所有其它地方的第二語(yǔ)言：一位在瑞典的日本游客或是一位在西班牙登機(jī)的土耳其人幾乎逢人講的就是英語(yǔ)。

Nonetheless, compelling reasons remain for learning otherlanguages. They range from the intellectual to the economical tothe practical. First of all, learning any foreign language helpsyou understand all language better—many
Anglophones first encounter the words “past participle” not in anEnglish class, but in French. Second, there is the culturalbroadening. Literature is always best read in the original.

但是，還是有一些重要的原因督促著我們學(xué)習(xí)其它語(yǔ)言。這些因素包括求知欲，經(jīng)濟(jì)收益還有實(shí)用因素。首先，只要學(xué)習(xí)一門(mén)外語(yǔ)，你對(duì)所有語(yǔ)言的理解也會(huì)增強(qiáng)。很多英語(yǔ)母語(yǔ)者是在法語(yǔ)課，而不是英語(yǔ)課上最先遇到“過(guò)去分詞”一詞。其次，這也會(huì)拓寬你的文化視野。文學(xué)作品永遠(yuǎn)是讀原版最好。

Poetry and lyrics suffer particularly badly in translation. Andlearning another tongue helps the student grasp another way ofthinking. Though the notion that speakers of different languagesthink differently has been vastly exaggerated and misunderstood,there is a great deal to be learned from discovering what thedifferent cultures call this, that or das oder.

詩(shī)歌在翻譯時(shí)受到的破壞尤為嚴(yán)重。學(xué)習(xí)多一門(mén)語(yǔ)言可以幫助學(xué)生掌握另一種思維方式。雖然不同語(yǔ)言使用者的思維方式不同這一點(diǎn)被廣泛地夸大和誤解了，但是發(fā)現(xiàn)學(xué)習(xí)不同的文化把不同的事物叫作什么還是可以讓你學(xué)到很多東西。

The practical reasons are just as compelling. In business, if theteam on the other side of the table knows your language but youdon’t know theirs, they almost certainly know more about you andyour company than you do about them and theirs—a bad position tonegotiate from. Many investors in China have made fatally stupiddecisions about companies they could not understand. Diplomacy,war-waging and intelligence work are all weakened by a lack ofcapable linguists. Virtually any career, public or private, isgiven a boost with knowledge of a foreign language.

從實(shí)用方面講，學(xué)習(xí)外語(yǔ)的好處也很大。在商場(chǎng)上，如果談判桌對(duì)面的隊(duì)伍理解你的語(yǔ)言，而你不理解他們的語(yǔ)言。那他們對(duì)你和你的公司了解幾乎肯定會(huì)比你對(duì)他們的了解更多，在談判時(shí)這可不是什么有利條件。很多中國(guó)的投資者在自己不能理解的公司上做出了一些致命的愚蠢決定。外交，戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)和情報(bào)工作在缺少能干的語(yǔ)言工作者時(shí)都會(huì)處于劣勢(shì)。幾乎所有的職業(yè)，不管是在公共崗位還是私營(yíng)崗位上，懂得一門(mén)外語(yǔ)總是會(huì)給你加分。

So which one should you, or your children, learn? If you take aglance at advertisements in New York or A-level options in Britain,an answer seems to leap out: Mandarin. China’s economy continues togrow at a pace that will make it bigger than America’s within twodecades at most. China’s political clout is growing accordingly.Its businessmen are buying up everything from American brands toAfrican minerals to Russian oil rights. If China is the country ofthe future, is Chinese the language of the future?


那么你，或者你的孩子應(yīng)該學(xué)什么語(yǔ)言呢？如果你看看紐約的廣告或是英國(guó)的劍橋高級(jí)水準(zhǔn)科目選擇，答案似乎顯而易見(jiàn)：中文。中國(guó)的經(jīng)濟(jì)正在持續(xù)以高速增長(zhǎng)，最多再花20年就會(huì)趕上美國(guó)。中國(guó)的政治影響力也隨之增大。中國(guó)商人在世界各地采購(gòu)，從美國(guó)商標(biāo)，到非洲礦物，到俄羅斯石油開(kāi)采權(quán)無(wú)所不包。如果中國(guó)是未來(lái)的大國(guó)，那中文是不是也就成了未來(lái)的首選語(yǔ)言呢？

Probably not. Remember Japan’s rise? Just as spectacular asChina’s, if on a smaller scale, Japan’s economic growth led many tothink it would take over the world. It was the world’ssecond-largest economy for decades (before falling to third,recently, behind China). So is Japanese the world’s third-mostuseful language? Not even close. If you were to learn ten languagesranked by general usefulness, Japanese would probably not make thelist. And the key reason for Japanese’s limited spread will alsoput the brakes on Chinese.

應(yīng)該不是的。還記得日本的崛起嗎？和中國(guó)現(xiàn)在的崛起一樣矚目，可能規(guī)模較小一點(diǎn)。日本的經(jīng)濟(jì)增長(zhǎng)當(dāng)時(shí)讓很多人覺(jué)得它將要征服世界了。它占據(jù)世界第二大經(jīng)濟(jì)體寶座長(zhǎng)達(dá)幾十年以（最近，落在中國(guó)之后位居第三了）。那么日語(yǔ)是不是世界第三大常用語(yǔ)言呢？差得遠(yuǎn)呢。如果你為了日常使用要學(xué)十種語(yǔ)言，日語(yǔ)可能都排不進(jìn)名單。日語(yǔ)普及有限有一個(gè)關(guān)鍵性原因，它也同樣會(huì)阻礙中文的普及。

This factor is the Chinese writing system (which Japan borrowed andadapted centuries ago). The learner needs to know at least3,000-4,000 characters to make sense of written Chinese, andthousands more to have a real feel for it. Chinese, with all itstones, is hard enough to speak. But the mammoth feat of memoryrequired to be literate in Mandarin is harder still. It deters mostforeigners from ever mastering the system—and increasingly trips upChinese natives.

那就是中文文字系統(tǒng)（日本的文字就是在幾世紀(jì)前借鑒并修改了中文文字而形成的）。需要學(xué)習(xí)3000到4000個(gè)漢字才能算是懂得中文文字了，要真正學(xué)好還得再學(xué)幾千個(gè)。中文音調(diào)讓人很難掌握其口語(yǔ)，但是真正難處還是在于學(xué)習(xí)中文要達(dá)到可以閱讀的水平需要大量的記憶力。這一文字系統(tǒng)阻礙了大多數(shù)外國(guó)人真正掌握中文，而且現(xiàn)在越來(lái)越多的中文母語(yǔ)者也會(huì)被它難倒。

A recent survey reported in the People’s Daily found 84% ofrespondents agreeing that skill in Chinese is declining. If suchgripes are common to most languages, there is something more to itin Chinese. Fewer and fewer native speakers learn to producecharacters in traditional calligraphy. Instead, they write theirlanguage the same way we do—with a computer. And not only that, butthey use the Roman alphabet to produce Chinese characters: type inwo and Chinese language-support software will offer a menu ofcharacters pronounced wo; the user selects the one desired. (Or ifthe user types in wo shi zhongguo ren, “I am Chinese”, the softwaredetects the meaning and picks the right characters.) With less andless need to recall the characters cold, the Chinese are forgettingthem. David Moser, a Sinologist, recalls asking three nativeChinese graduate students at Peking University how to write“sneeze”:

最近《人民日?qǐng)?bào)》發(fā)表的一篇調(diào)查發(fā)現(xiàn)有84%的受訪(fǎng)者表示其中文水平在退步。如果說(shuō)大多數(shù)語(yǔ)言都面臨這樣的問(wèn)題，中文的問(wèn)題是特別嚴(yán)重的。越來(lái)越少的中文母語(yǔ)者學(xué)習(xí)以傳統(tǒng)的方式書(shū)寫(xiě)漢字。他們寫(xiě)文章的方式和我們一樣，用電腦。不僅這樣，他們也使用羅馬字母來(lái)打出漢字：鍵入wo，支持中文的軟件會(huì)列出一系列發(fā)音為wo的漢字，用戶(hù)可以選擇想要的那個(gè)。（或者說(shuō)當(dāng)用戶(hù)鍵入woshi zhongguoren，軟件會(huì)自動(dòng)探測(cè)到意思，選出合適的漢字，顯示“我是中國(guó)人”）隨著越來(lái)越不需要記憶，很多中國(guó)人開(kāi)始遺忘漢字的寫(xiě)法了。漢學(xué)家莫大偉曾回憶他問(wèn)過(guò)三個(gè)北大的中國(guó)研究生怎么寫(xiě)“噴嚏”：

To my surprise, all three of them simply shrugged in sheepishembarrassment. Not one of them could correctly produce thecharacter. Now, Peking University is usually considered the“Harvard of China”. Can you imagine three phd students in Englishat Harvard forgetting how to write the English word “sneeze”? Yetthis state of affairs is by no means uncommon in China.

很讓我驚訝，他們都面有難堪，寫(xiě)不出來(lái)。北大一般被認(rèn)為是“中國(guó)的哈佛”。你能想象哈佛的三個(gè)英語(yǔ)博士生拼不出“sneeze”嗎？而且這種情況在中國(guó)絕不罕見(jiàn)。

As long as China keeps the character-based system—which willprobably be a long time, thanks to cultural attachment andpractical concerns alike—Chinese is very unlikely to become a trueworld language, an auxiliary language like English, the language aBrazilian chemist will publish papers in, hoping that they will beread in Finland and Canada. By all means, if China is your maininterest, for business or pleasure, learn Chinese. It isfascinating, and learnable—though Moser’s online essay, “WhyChinese is so damn hard,” might discourage the faint of heart andthe short of time.

只要中國(guó)還保留漢字系統(tǒng)（因?yàn)槲幕榻Y(jié)以及現(xiàn)實(shí)考量，未來(lái)很長(zhǎng)一段時(shí)間內(nèi)中國(guó)都應(yīng)該會(huì)繼續(xù)使用漢字系統(tǒng)），中文就不太可能成為真正的世界語(yǔ)言，成為像英語(yǔ)那樣的工具語(yǔ)言，一種巴西化學(xué)家發(fā)表論文時(shí)使用，希望芬蘭和加拿大的人會(huì)閱讀的語(yǔ)言。當(dāng)然，如果你對(duì)中文感興趣，不管這種興趣是出于業(yè)務(wù)還是消遣，那就學(xué)中文吧。中文是一種很迷人的語(yǔ)言，而且是學(xué)得會(huì)的，雖然莫大偉在網(wǎng)上發(fā)表的一篇文章《漢語(yǔ)怎么這么難！》可能會(huì)讓那些勇氣或是時(shí)間不夠的人望而卻步。

But if I was asked what foreign language is the most useful, andgiven no more parameters (where? for what purpose?), my answerwould be French. Whatever you think of France, the language is muchless limited than many people realise.

但是如果我被問(wèn)到哪門(mén)外語(yǔ)最有用，在沒(méi)有附加條件的情況下（身處何地？學(xué)來(lái)干嗎？），我的答案會(huì)是法語(yǔ)。不管你覺(jué)得法語(yǔ)怎么樣，這門(mén)語(yǔ)言沒(méi)有很多人想得那么局限。

As their empire spun off and they became a medium-sized power afterthe second world war, the French, hoping to maintain some distancefrom America and to make the most of their former possessions,established La Francophonie. This club, bringing together all thecountries with a French-speaking heritage, has 56 members, almost athird of the world’s countries. Hardly any of them are places whereFrench is everyone’s native language. Instead, they includecountries with Francophone minorities (Switzerland, Belgium); thosewhere French is official and widespread among elites (much ofwestern Africa); those where it is not official but still spoken bynearly all educated people (Morocco, Lebanon); and those whereFrench ties remain despite the fading of the language (Vietnam,Cambodia). It even has members with few ties to French or France,like Egypt, that simply want to associate themselves with theprestige of the French-speaking world. Another 19 countries areobserver members.

隨著法國(guó)帝國(guó)的衰滅以及法國(guó)在二戰(zhàn)后變成了一個(gè)中等勢(shì)力國(guó)，法國(guó)人希望能和美國(guó)保持一定距離，最大程度利用自己之前的殖民地，于是建立了法語(yǔ)圈。這個(gè)俱樂(lè)部把所有有著說(shuō)法語(yǔ)傳統(tǒng)的國(guó)家集合起來(lái)，共有56個(gè)國(guó)家，占當(dāng)時(shí)世界國(guó)家的將近三分之一。但是其中幾乎沒(méi)有法語(yǔ)是母語(yǔ)的國(guó)家。相反，這些國(guó)家包括有著說(shuō)法語(yǔ)的少數(shù)群體的國(guó)家（瑞士，比利時(shí)）；法語(yǔ)是官方語(yǔ)言，在精英階級(jí)中很是流行的國(guó)家（摩洛哥，黎巴嫩）；還有那些雖然法語(yǔ)影響力已經(jīng)減弱，但是還是和法國(guó)有關(guān)聯(lián)的國(guó)家（越南，柬埔寨）。法語(yǔ)圈甚至包括一些幾乎和法國(guó)以及法語(yǔ)沒(méi)什么聯(lián)系的國(guó)家，像是埃及。這些國(guó)家只是想要和法語(yǔ)國(guó)家的優(yōu)越地位聯(lián)系起來(lái)。還有19個(gè)國(guó)家以觀察國(guó)的身份加入該組織。

French ranks only 16th on the list of languages ranked by nativespeakers. But ranked above it are languages like Telegu andJavanese that no one would call world languages. Hindi does noteven unite India. Also in the top 15 are Arabic, Spanish andPortuguese, major languages to be sure, but regionallyconcentrated. If your interest is the Middle East or Islam, by allmeans learn Arabic. If your interest is Latin America, Spanish orPortuguese is the way to go. Or both; learning one makes the secondquite easy.

以母語(yǔ)人數(shù)來(lái)說(shuō)，法語(yǔ)在所有語(yǔ)言?xún)?nèi)只能排到第16位。但是有一些語(yǔ)言，像是泰盧固語(yǔ)和爪洼語(yǔ)，雖然排名在它之上，卻沒(méi)有人會(huì)把它們稱(chēng)為世界語(yǔ)言。印度語(yǔ)連印度都團(tuán)結(jié)不了。此外前15名內(nèi)還有像是阿拉伯語(yǔ)，西班牙語(yǔ)和葡萄牙語(yǔ)，當(dāng)然這些都是主要語(yǔ)言，但是在使用上很集中于特定區(qū)域。如果你對(duì)中東或伊斯蘭教感興趣，學(xué)阿拉伯語(yǔ)吧。如果你對(duì)拉丁美洲感興趣，就該學(xué)西班牙語(yǔ)或葡萄牙語(yǔ)，或者兩者都學(xué)——學(xué)會(huì)其中一種會(huì)讓學(xué)另一種變得很容易。

If your interests span the globe, and you’ve read this far, youalready know the most useful global language. But if you wantanother truly global language, there are surprisingly fewcandidates, and for me French is unquestionably top of the list. Itcan enhance your enjoyment of art, history, literature and food,while giving you an important tool in business and a useful one indiplomacy. It has native speakers in every region on earth. Andlest we forget its heartland itself, France attracts more touriststhan any other country—76.8m in 2010, according to the WorldTourism Organisation, leaving America a distant second with 59.7m.Any visit there is greatly enhanced by some grasp of the language.The French are nothing but welcoming when you show them and theircountry respect, and the occasional frost that can greet visitorsmelts when they come out with their first fully formed sentence. Soalthough there are other great languages out there, don’t forget aneasy, common one, with far fewer words to learn than English, thatis almost certainly taught in your town. With French, vous neregretterez rien.

如果你的興趣遍及全球，而且你已經(jīng)讀到這兒了，你已經(jīng)會(huì)最有用的全球語(yǔ)言了。但是如果你想再學(xué)一門(mén)全球語(yǔ)言，讓人很驚訝的是，可供選擇的語(yǔ)言其實(shí)不多。對(duì)我來(lái)說(shuō)在這些語(yǔ)言中法語(yǔ)毫無(wú)疑問(wèn)是列在榜首的。法語(yǔ)可以增進(jìn)你對(duì)藝術(shù)，歷史，文學(xué)和烹飪的欣賞，同時(shí)也讓你掌握一項(xiàng)在商界很重要，在外交界很有用的工具。法語(yǔ)母語(yǔ)者遍布地球上每個(gè)主要地區(qū)。而且我們不要忘了法語(yǔ)的中心地，法國(guó)每年吸引的游客超過(guò)任何其它國(guó)家。根據(jù)世界旅游組織2010年游客達(dá)7680萬(wàn)。排名第二的美國(guó)只有區(qū)區(qū)5970萬(wàn)。對(duì)于法語(yǔ)有一定掌握會(huì)給你的法國(guó)之行增色不少。如果你表達(dá)了你對(duì)法國(guó)和法國(guó)人的尊重，法國(guó)人會(huì)對(duì)你無(wú)任歡迎。偶爾法國(guó)人會(huì)對(duì)游客非常冷漠，但是當(dāng)你說(shuō)出一句完整的法語(yǔ)句子時(shí)，所有的這種冷漠都會(huì)消融。所以說(shuō)雖然有很多其他語(yǔ)言都很不錯(cuò)，不要忘記還有一門(mén)簡(jiǎn)單常用，單詞比英語(yǔ)少得多的語(yǔ)言。不管你身在何方，在你住的城鎮(zhèn)幾乎肯定有地方學(xué)習(xí)法語(yǔ)。學(xué)習(xí)法語(yǔ)吧，你不會(huì)后悔的。

Robert Lane Greene is a business correspondent for The Economist inNew York and the author of "You Are What you Speak"

作者羅伯特·雷恩·格林是《經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)人》商業(yè)版的駐紐約撰稿人，著有《人如其言》。

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