📜 中英文對照
I know what you're thinking. You think I've lost my way, and somebody's going to come on the stage in a minute and guide me gently back to my seat. I get that all the time in Dubai. "Here on holiday are you, dear?" "Come to visit the children? How long are you staying?"
我知道你們在想什麼。你們想我迷路了，有人馬上會上臺把我領回到我的座位。在杜拜老是有人這樣問我。「親愛的，來度假啊？」「來看孩子們嗎？呆多久啊？」
Well actually, I hope for a while longer yet. I have been living and teaching in the Gulf for over 30 years.And in that time, I have seen a lot of changes. Now that statistic is quite shocking. And I want to talk to you today about language loss and the globalization of English.
事實上，我希望我還能多在這兒呆幾年呢。我在海灣地區已經生活和教書有30多年了。(掌聲)在這期間，我目睹了很多變化。那些統計數據是令人非常吃驚的。而我今天要跟你們講的是關於語種的消失和英語的全球化。
I want to tell you about my friend who was teaching English to adults in Abu Dhabi. And one fine day, she decided to take them into the garden to teach them some nature vocabulary.
我想告訴你們，我的一個朋友她在阿布達比教成年人英語。一天，她決定帶他們去花園去教他們一些大自然用語。
But it was she who ended up learning all the Arabic words for the local plants, as well as their uses -- medicinal uses,cosmetics,cooking, herbal. How did those students get all that knowledge? Of course, from their grandparents and even their great-grandparents. It's not necessary to tell you how important it is to be able to communicate across generations.
但是結果她反而學了所有當地植被的阿拉伯名稱和它們的用途--藥用的，化妝用的，食用的，草藥。那些學生是怎樣得到這些知識的呢？當然是從他們的祖父母那裡甚至是他們的曾祖父母那裡。本來我沒有必要告訴你們能夠跨代交流是多麼重要。
But sadly, today, languages are dying at an unprecedented rate. A language dies every 14 days. Now, at the same time,English is the undisputed global language. Could there be a connection? Well I don't know. But I do know that I've seen a lot of changes. When I first came out to the Gulf, I came to Kuwait in the days when it was still a hard ship post. Actually, not that long ago. That is a little bit too early.
但是，令人惋惜的是，今天很多語種正在以空前的速度消失著。每14天就有一種語言消失。而同時，現在英語又無可爭辯地成為全球性語言。這兩者間有聯繫嗎？我不知道。但是我知道我已目睹了很多變化。當我初到海灣時，我到了科威特，那個時候那兒還算是一個艱苦地區。其實也就是沒多久以前。這幅圖還更早一點。
But nevertheless, I was recruited by the British Council, along with about 25 other teachers. And we were the first non-Muslims to teach in the state schools therein Kuwait. We were brought to teach English because the government wanted to modernize the country and to empower the citizens through education.And of course, the U.K. benefited from some of that lovely oil wealth.
不去管它，我被英國文化協會招聘到這裡同時招來的還有其他25個老師。我們是最早在科威特公立學校教書的非穆斯林。我們被請來教英語因為政府想要發展國家現代化讓公民通過學習提高自己。當然，英國也因此收益於那些讓人喜愛的石油財富。
Okay. Now this is the major change that I've seen -- how teaching English has morphed from being a mutually beneficial practice to becoming a massive international business that it is today. No longer just a foreign language on the school curriculum, and no longer the sole domain of mother England, it has become a bandwagon for every English-speaking nation on earth.
好。這是我看見過的主要變化--英語教學是怎樣演變的使它從一個互惠的交流方式變成如今的一個規模巨大的國際交流。它不再只是學校課程的一門外語課。也不再是英國特有。對地球上每個說英語的國家而言說英語已成為潮流。
And why not? After all, the best education -- according to the latest World University Rankings -- is to be found in the universities of the U.K. and the U.S. So everybody wants to have an English education, naturally. But if you're not a native speaker, you have to pass a test.
為什麼不呢？畢竟，最好的教育--根據最新的世界大學排名--最好的大學總是在英國或者美國。自然每個人都想得到英語教育。如果你的母語不是英語的話，你要通過一個考試。
Now can it be right to reject a student on linguistic ability alone? Perhaps you have a computer scientist who's a genius. Would he need the same language as a lawyer, for example? Well, I don't think so. We English teachers reject them all the time. We put a stop sign, and we stop them in their tracks. They can't pursue their dream any longer, 'til they get English.
那麼僅僅根據學生的語言能力就拒絕一個學生的做法合適嗎？也許你們中一個計算機科學家是一個天才。那例如，他需要有和律師一樣的語言能力嗎？我並不這麼認為。我們做英語老師的總是否定他們。我們放置一個禁止通行的標誌，我們在他們的發展軌道上擋住了他們。他們不能繼續追尋他們的夢想，除非他們掌握了英語。
Now let me put it this way: if I met a monolingual Dutch speaker who had the cure for cancer, would I stop him from entering my British University? I don't think so. But indeed, that is exactly what we do. We English teachers are the gatekeepers. And you have to satisfy us first that your English is good enough. Now it can be dangerous to give too much power to a narrow segment of society. Maybe the barrier would be too universal.
現在我這麼說吧，如果我遇到一個只會說荷蘭語的人他能治癒癌症，我會阻止他進入英國大學嗎？我想不可能。但是事實上，我們正是這樣做的。我們英語老師是把關的。你得先令我們滿意你的英語要足夠好。這就可能很危險把很多權力交給了社會的一個窄小的團體。可能這個造成的障礙影響面就太廣了。
Okay. "But," I hear you say," what about the research? It's all in English." So the books are in English, the journals are done in English, but that is a self-fulfilling prophecy. It feeds the English requirement. And so it goes on. I ask you, what happened to translation?
好吧。「但是」我聽見你們說，「那科研呢？它們都是用的英語。」書是英語的，研究刊物是英語的，但是這是一個自我實現的假定。它正好符合需要英語的條件。於是它就繼續這樣發展下去。那我問你，翻譯還需要嗎？
If you think about the Islamic Golden Age, there was lots of translation then. They translated from Latin and Greek into Arabic, into Persian, and then it was translated on into the Germanic languages of Europe and the Romance languages. And so light shone upon the Dark Ages of Europe. Now don't get me wrong; I am not against teaching English, all you English teachers out there.
如果你想想伊斯蘭的黃金時代，當時有很多翻譯。他們把拉丁文和希臘語翻譯成阿拉伯語和波斯語，然後又翻譯成歐洲的日耳曼語和羅曼語。於是歐洲黑暗的時代被點亮了。不要誤會；我不是反對教英語，或是你們在座的所有英語老師。
I love it that we have a global language. We need one today more than ever. But I am against using it as a barrier. Do we really want to end up with 600 languages and the main one being English, or Chinese? We need more than that. Where do we draw the line? This system equates intelligence with a knowledge of English, which is quite arbitrary.
我熱愛我們有一種全球性語言。我們今天比過去任何時候都需要它。但是我反對用它設立障礙。我們真的只想留下600種語言而主要語言只是英語和中文嗎？我們需要更多，我們在哪裡劃這條界線呢？這個體制把智能和英語能力劃等號這是非常武斷的。
And I want to remind you that the giants upon whose shoulders today's intelligentsia stand did not have to have English,they didn't have to pass an English test. Case in point, Einstein. He,by the way, was considered remedial at school because he was, in fact, dyslexic.But fortunately for the world, he did not have to pass an English test.
我想提醒你而當代知識分子所站立在那些「巨人肩膀」上的偉人，他們也並不都具有英語能力，他們不需要通過英語考試。愛因斯坦就是個典型。其實，他在學校的時候是個需要補課的學生因為他誦讀有困難。但是也是這世界的幸運，他不必通過英語考試。
Because they didn't start until 1964 with TOEFL, the American test of English. Now it's exploded. There are lots and lots of tests of English. And millions and millions of students take these tests every year. Now you might think, you and me, "Those fees aren't bad, they're okay," but they are prohibitive to so many millions of poor people. So immediately, we're rejecting them.
因為1964年託福考試還沒設立，這是一種美式英語測試。現在已經泛濫了各種各樣的英語測試。每年成千上萬的學生參加這樣的考試。你會覺得，你和我都這麼認為這些考試價格還是合理的，但是數百萬窮人卻望而卻步。所以一開始我們就把他們擋在了外面。
It brings to mind a headline I saw recently:"Education: The Great Divide." Now I get it, I understand why people would want to focus on English. They want to give their children the best chance in life. And to do that, they need a Western education. Because, of course, the best jobs go to people out of the Western Universities, that I put on earlier. It's a circular thing.
這讓我想到我最近看見的一條新聞：「教育：大鴻溝。」現在我明白了，為什麼人們都關注英語。他們希望給予他們的孩子最好的人生機遇。而要達到這個目的，他們需要西方教育。因為，顯然，最好的工作都讓西方大學的畢業生拿走了，就跟我之前說的一樣。這是個循環。
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.
是吧。讓我們告訴你們兩個科學家的故事有關兩個英國科學家。他們在做一個實驗跟遺傳學有關以及研究動物的前後肢，但是他們無法得到他們想得到的結果。
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. 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.
他們有點束手無策，直到一個德國科學家參與後他發現他們在研究前肢和後肢時用的是兩個詞，而遺傳學上並不區分兩者德語也不區分。所以瞧兒，問題解決了。如果你想不通就卡住了。但是用另外一種語言就可以想通，那麼，通過合作我們可以教學相長，受益頗多。
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.
我的女兒從科威特回到英國。她已經用阿拉伯語學了科學和數學。那是在一所阿拉伯中校。在文法學院學習時，她要把所學的內容翻譯成英語。在她們班上，她的這些科目是最好的。這告訴我們當學生從海外來就讀也許我們沒有給他們足夠的認可對於那些他們已經懂得的知識而言因為他們已經通過他們的語言掌握了這些知識。當語言消失，我們不知道我們還失去了什麼。
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 kerosene lamp, 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.
我不知道你們是否看最近的CNN--他們頒發了一枚英雄獎給一個年輕的肯亞牧童，在他所住的村莊裡，他和其他在村裡的孩子一樣無法在夜晚讀書，因為煤油燈煙會弄傷他的眼睛。而且，他也沒有足夠的煤油他們每天只有一美元的收入，能買什麼呢？所以他發明了不需要花錢的太陽能燈。
And now the children in his village get the same grades at school as the children who have electricity at home. 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.
現在他們村裡的孩子們都能在學習上取得一樣的好成績跟那些家裡有電的孩子一樣。(掌聲)當他得到這個獎勵時，他說了這些可愛的話：「兒童可以帶領今天的非洲從一個黑暗的大陸走向一個光明的大陸。」一個簡單的想法但是其影響是深遠的。
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.
無論是實際生活中還是社會意義上不能享受光明的人都無法通過我們的測試，我們也無法了解他們擁有的知識。我們不能讓他們和我們自己都身處於黑暗裡。讓我們一起為多元化歡呼。重視你的語言。用它來傳播優秀的思想。
Thank you very much.
非常謝謝。
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