怎麼樣把外語說得像母語一樣好？
在學外語的過程中，我們總會遇到瓶頸期，突破後才能達到精通的水平。想要自然地用外語去思考和溝通，不僅要練成不同語言表達之間切換的能力，更要熟悉不同語言背後的文化。
語言學者Marc Green熟練掌握6種語言，他在這個TED演講中提到了三個技巧，幫助你從普通走向精通。
How to Talk Like a Native Speaker
Marc Green用他在俄羅斯旅行時的遭遇開場，為大家說明他為什麼會去學習多種語言的起因。並把語言學習過程分了幾個階段。
01.Basicfluency
And the first one would be when about 25% of the cards are turned up, you reach like a basic level.
第一個階段是當25%的牌展現在你面前的時候，你就達到了基礎水平。
At this level, you have a base vocabulary, some grammar, and you're able to have maybe very simple conversations and communicate a little bit.
在這個水平，你會知道一些基礎單詞，一些語法，你可以進行一些非常簡單的會話，進行一點點的交流。
02.Fluency
And your study goes on until you reach this magical point of fluency, what we call being fluent in the language.
你繼續學習，直到你達到"流利"這個神奇的標準，這是當我們被稱為掌握這門語言的時候。
Now what does it mean, being fluent in a language?
流利地掌握一門語言到底意味著什麼呢？
It means that you've turned up more than 50% of the cards in the deck, and that is the point where you have — where the language becomes part of your subconscious so that even if you don't use it anymore for 10 years or longer, you will not forget it.
這代表著，桌上一半以上的卡都被你翻過來了。到了這一階段—這門語言已經成為你潛意識的一部分，所以，即使你10年或者更長的時候都不再用這門語言，你也不會忘記它。
You can get back into it within a very, very short time.
你可以在很短的時間內將這門語言撿回來。
So this is a level where you're comfortable thinking in a language, and comfortable communicating in a language.
03.Mastery
Now, some people go on and, you know, reach like a mastery level.
當然，也有一些人繼續學習，達到了精通的等級。
By that time, you know classic literature in the other language and have maybe in-depth knowledge of specialized fields.
到那個時候，你可以用其他的語言來讀古典文學，並在一個特定的領域裡擁有大量的知識。
That's often the point taken in academia.
這常常被認為是學術界。
Marc Green還闡明了學習、掌握多種語言的好處以及帶來的優勢。
但同時也明確指出，想要學好並掌握一門語言並沒有捷徑可走，需要投入相當的努力。
The first thing to note is that on your way to reaching fluency, there is not really any shortcut.
第一件需要注意的事是，在你們達到流利的路上是沒有捷徑的。
The second thing to note is that going from fluency to mastery is a much slower process, and it requires proportionally more effort.
01.Work on your pronunciation
練習你的發音
If you communicate without an accent or almost without an accent, this changes how natives behave towards you unconsciously, and it also gives you an ability to adapt to a new self-image.
如果你能夠完全沒有口音或者幾乎沒有口音地交流，這會無意識地改變那些說母語的人對你的態度，這也給了你一個機會去適應這個新的身份。
Because pronunciation helps any stage of the learning process, even in the very beginning.
It'll speed up everything.
And it also is the key to reaching a native-speaker level, or almost-native-speaker status.
它也是達到母語水平或者近似母語水平的關鍵的一點。
如何練習發音，具體操作如下：
The best way that I've found — the best exercise I've found to improve your pronunciation is what I call the perfect-sentence technique.
我覺得最好的-改善發音的最好的辦法是，我稱作為「完美句子」的方式。（也就是我們經常說的模讀）
What you do is you find a native speaker to help you, and you take a book in the foreign language, you open it at a random page, and you read the first sentence.
你需要找到一個說母語的人來幫助你，然後你找一本外語的書，隨便翻開一頁，將第一句話讀出來。
Then, you ask a native speaker to rate you on obvious accent, slight accent, no accent.
然後，你讓那個說母語的人來給你評分，從有明顯的口音，一點口音以及沒有口音中評判。
Then the native speaker will read this sentence back to you.
然後這個人會給你讀一遍這個句子。
You have to listen carefully and then you repeat. And you repeat this process over and over until the native speaker tells you that he can no longer hear an accent when you read the sentence.
你仔細地聽，並重複。你一直重複這個過程，直到那個人告訴你，在你讀句子的時候，他已經完全聽不出口音。
Now, I realize it can take a very long time even just to get one sentence right. But I promise you if you are persistent, and if you patiently work on this, you'll be amazed by what happens to your accent.
我知道，這會花費很長的時間，即使只為了念對一個句子。但我向你保證，只要你能夠堅持，耐心地做這個練習，你會對你的口音的變化感到吃驚。
02.Using verbs and expressions that locals use.
多用本地人才會用的動詞和表達方式。
After you reach a critical mass that you're comfortable with, it'll actually be easier when you encounter something new.
You'll just pick it up in one go, like native speakers would, who hear words or expressions that they didn't know before.
你一次只學一個東西，就像那些說母語的人，聽到他們不會的單詞或者表達時，也會這麼做。
03.Adopting cultural traits.
So these kind of traits you have to internalize, and sometimes, they're hard to spot, and it takes a lot of active listening.
像這種文化特色，你需要潛移默化地吸收，有些時候，這些特點並不好發現，這需要你多積極地傾聽。
So all of these three things that I told you which is pronunciation, and colloquial speech and adopting cultural traits, they all require that you interact with natives as much as possible.
我告訴你的這三個點，發音、俚語和文化吸收，這些都需要你儘可能地多跟說母語的人接觸。
Ideally, you should fully immerse yourself in the culture.
I also want to encourage you to learn the lyrics of songs.
Songs are really great because they tell stories.
歌曲是很好的選擇，因為它們講故事。
And they not only help your pronunciation when you sing them, but if they're emotional, they can anchor these expressions into your active vocabulary.
And it's like speaking all day and really using the expressions unconsciously.
這就像是一整天都在無意識地說，並且使用這些表達。
The other thing you need to move towards native-speaker status is the right mindset, and a belief that if you sound like a native, express yourself like a native, talk like a native and act like a native, you'll actually achieve a native-like level.
為了達到母語水平，你還需要注意的一件事是：一個正確的心態，以及相信自己能夠說母語的人一樣，像他們一樣表達自己，像他們一樣說話，表現得像他們的信念，你就真的會達到母語水平。