新概念閱讀：學(xué)語(yǔ)言別怕出洋相

Miguel Bloombito has some travel advice for his 75,000-plus Twitter followers: “Los subwayo fare hikeros esta too mucho expensivo. Take tu helicoptero to worko insteado!”

惡搞紐約市長(zhǎng)邁克爾·布隆伯格(Michael Bloomberg)的Twitter賬戶@ElBloombito，以“Miguel Bloombito”的名義給75000多名粉絲提供了一些出行建議：“Los subwayo fare hikeros esta too mucho expensivo. Take tu helicoptero to worko insteado!”(意：地鐵票價(jià)漲得太厲害了，還是乘坐直升飛機(jī)上班吧!)

New Yorkers are having fun with their mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Spanish. The parody @ElBloombito account is one example. But Mr Bloomberg, whose Spanish announcements during last year’s Hurricane Sandy brought his heavily accented attempts to a worldwide YouTube audience, is not giving up.

紐約人喜歡揶揄他們市長(zhǎng)的西班牙語(yǔ)水平，這個(gè)惡搞的山寨賬戶便是一例。去年颶風(fēng)桑迪(Hurricane Sandy)來(lái)襲時(shí)，布隆伯格那帶著濃重口音的西班牙語(yǔ)公告通過(guò)YouTube傳遍了全世界。但他沒(méi)有放棄學(xué)習(xí)。

He got a D in French at school and dropped plans to major in university physics because so much of the literature was then in German, he told the New York Times recently.

近期，布隆伯格對(duì)《紐約時(shí)報(bào)》(New York Times)表示，他上學(xué)時(shí)的法語(yǔ)成績(jī)?yōu)镈，而在大學(xué)主修物理的計(jì)劃也因當(dāng)時(shí)多數(shù)文獻(xiàn)系用德語(yǔ)寫成而泡湯。

But he insisted he was getting better at his latest language. “I will not die until I can speak Spanish like a quasi-native,” he said.

但他堅(jiān)持認(rèn)為自己的西班牙語(yǔ)正在進(jìn)步：“如果不把西班牙語(yǔ)練成準(zhǔn)母語(yǔ)者的水平，我是不會(huì)死去的。”

Learning languages defeats less determined English-speakers, who reckon most business and travel conversations take place in English anyway. Even those who know that their customers would be impressed by an attempt to speak their language find it too daunting.

學(xué)習(xí)外語(yǔ)會(huì)讓意志不夠堅(jiān)定的英語(yǔ)母語(yǔ)者打退堂鼓，因?yàn)樗麄冇X(jué)得，反正大多數(shù)商務(wù)對(duì)話和旅行交談都是用英語(yǔ)進(jìn)行的。即使有些人明白嘗試說(shuō)客戶的語(yǔ)言能夠討好客戶，但他們?nèi)院ε聦W(xué)外語(yǔ)。

A few years ago, during a holiday in Spain, I put on a sample of a compact disc by Michel Thomas and immediately felt I had found something different.

幾年前在西班牙度假時(shí)，我聽(tīng)了米歇爾·托馬斯(Michel Thomas)的光盤樣品，立刻感到耳目一新。

I wasn’t alone. Woody Allen, Bob Dylan, Emma Thompson and executives of top companies paid Thomas thousands of dollars for Spanish, French or German lessons.

我不是唯一的一個(gè)。伍迪·艾倫(Woody Allen)、鮑勃·迪倫(Bob Dylan)、艾瑪·湯普森(Emma Thompson)和頂級(jí)公司的高管都曾花費(fèi)數(shù)千美元，購(gòu)買托馬斯的西班牙語(yǔ)、法語(yǔ)或德語(yǔ)課程。

Thomas died in 2005, aged 90, but his audio lessons are available, along with CDs by other instructors teaching languages such as Mandarin and Russian using his methods.

托馬斯2005年去世，享年90歲，但他的音頻課程仍可以買到，此外還有其他教師使用他的方法教授漢語(yǔ)、俄語(yǔ)等語(yǔ)言的光盤。

Thomas led an extraordinary life. Born Moniek Kroskof to a Jewish textile manufacturing family in Lodz, Poland, he studied in Germany and, when the Nazis tightened their grip, escaped to France. He fought with the resistance, escaped near death several times and took several noms de guerre, ending with Michel Thomas.

托馬斯的一生非同尋常。他原名莫涅克·克羅斯科夫(Moniek Kroskof)，出生于波蘭羅茲一個(gè)從事紡織制造業(yè)的猶太家庭，后來(lái)在德國(guó)學(xué)習(xí)。當(dāng)納粹加強(qiáng)控制時(shí)，他逃往法國(guó)。他與法國(guó)抵抗運(yùn)動(dòng)并肩作戰(zhàn)，幾度與死神擦肩而過(guò)，多次改名換姓，最后化名米歇爾·托馬斯。

As the allies advanced across France, he linked up with American forces, using his perfect German to act as an interrogator, and then washed up, stateless, in the US, where he set up his language-teaching business.

隨著盟軍在法國(guó)所向披靡，他與美軍取得聯(lián)系，利用自己嫻熟的德語(yǔ)審訊戰(zhàn)俘。之后，他以無(wú)國(guó)籍人士的身份來(lái)到美國(guó)，發(fā)展起自己的語(yǔ)言教學(xué)業(yè)務(wù)。

The publication in 1999 of Michel Thomas: The Test of Courage, an admiring biography by Christopher Robbins, led one writer to question Thomas’s wartime account. It is impossible for an outsider to judge the doubts, which Robbins rejected in detail in an afterword to his paperback edition, and which the US army answered by decorating Thomas for bravery.

1999年克里斯托弗·羅賓斯(Christopher Robbins)所著的那部充滿仰慕之情的傳記《米歇爾·托馬斯：勇氣的考驗(yàn)》(Michel Thomas: The Test of Courage)出版后，托馬斯對(duì)戰(zhàn)時(shí)經(jīng)歷的敘述引起了一位作家的質(zhì)疑。外人無(wú)從驗(yàn)證質(zhì)疑的真?zhèn)�，但羅賓斯在平裝本的后記中詳細(xì)反駁了這些質(zhì)疑，美國(guó)軍方的回應(yīng)則是向托馬斯發(fā)放獎(jiǎng)?wù)�，以表彰他的英勇�?/p>

But we can, as students, evaluate his language teaching.

但作為學(xué)生，我們可以評(píng)價(jià)他的語(yǔ)言教學(xué)之優(yōu)劣。

He promises a lot. Don’t try to memorise, he says. Don’t take notes or do any homework. Leave all the hard work to him. Whether teaching celebrities or inner-city students, Thomas insisted that failure to learn was the teacher’s fault.

他做出許多承諾。他說(shuō)，不用背誦，不用做筆記，不用做作業(yè)。將所有的難題留給他就行。托馬斯堅(jiān)持認(rèn)為，不論教的是名人大腕還是城里的窮學(xué)生，學(xué)不會(huì)是教師的錯(cuò)。

Actually, Thomas is a demanding instructor. He works by building sentences with two students in his studio and you on your headphones. He says a sentence in English and then waits while you and one of the students translates into the language you are learning. He then provides the answer. One of the students is quick, the other a little dim, leaving you pleased to be better than the slow one, but struggling to keep up with the smart linguist. There is no conjugating of verbs but the attention to grammar is detailed. It is part of the process, seldom explicit. Thomas is an engaging audio presence. The hours in his company are hypnotic, and hugely enjoyable. The sense of progress is gratifying. Within hours he has you compiling long, complex sentences in your new language. After 10 hours of his Spanish foundation course, I felt I was actually speaking.

事實(shí)上，托馬斯是一位要求嚴(yán)格的教師。在授課中，他與兩位學(xué)生在他的工作室中造句，你戴著耳機(jī)跟著他們練習(xí)。托馬斯說(shuō)出一句英文，然后等待你和其中一位學(xué)生將它翻譯成所學(xué)的語(yǔ)言。最后他會(huì)說(shuō)出答案。兩位學(xué)生中一位聰敏，一位則有些“愚笨”，這樣，你便會(huì)因?yàn)楸憩F(xiàn)優(yōu)于遲鈍的學(xué)生而得意洋洋，但又很難跟上那位聰明的學(xué)生。課程對(duì)動(dòng)詞變位沒(méi)有要求，但對(duì)語(yǔ)法的重視細(xì)致入微——這種重視雖然很少言明，但融入到整個(gè)學(xué)習(xí)過(guò)程之中。托馬斯的音頻教學(xué)富有感染力，他的課程引人入勝、充滿樂(lè)趣。你也可以獲得進(jìn)步的滿足感。短短幾個(gè)小時(shí)內(nèi)，你便能用所學(xué)習(xí)的語(yǔ)言造出復(fù)雜的長(zhǎng)句。學(xué)習(xí)了他10個(gè)小時(shí)的西班牙語(yǔ)基礎(chǔ)課程之后，我感覺(jué)自己已經(jīng)能開(kāi)口對(duì)話了。

I made a trip to Colombia – and found myself way behind Mr Bloomberg. It is not that Thomas is a bad teacher. In a lifetime of learning and trying to learn languages, I have never encountered a better one.

我去了一趟哥倫比亞，發(fā)現(xiàn)自己的水平與布隆伯格相去甚遠(yuǎn)。這并不是說(shuō)托馬斯是位糟糕的老師。我畢生一直在學(xué)習(xí)和嘗試學(xué)習(xí)語(yǔ)言，尚未遇見(jiàn)比他更好的老師。

It is just that the notion that you can leave it all to the teacher is nonsense. Learning a language requires effort, memorising vocabulary, looking over the grammar, watching television, reading newspapers and talking to real people rather than just two hired participants. The learner has to take responsibility.

我只是想表達(dá)，將所有難題交給老師的理念是荒唐的。學(xué)習(xí)一門語(yǔ)言需要刻苦努力、背誦單詞、查閱語(yǔ)法、看電視、讀報(bào)紙、與現(xiàn)實(shí)生活中的人(而不是兩位雇來(lái)的人)交談。學(xué)習(xí)者必須肩負(fù)起責(zé)任。

Successful language acquirers do something else: they don’t worry about getting things wrong or making fools of themselves. In that sense, New York’s mayor is the perfect student.

成功的語(yǔ)言習(xí)得者與眾不同：他們不擔(dān)心犯錯(cuò)誤或出洋相。從這一點(diǎn)來(lái)看，紐約市長(zhǎng)堪稱模范學(xué)生。

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