VOA慢速英語: 漢語會代替英語成為全球通用語言嗎？

漢語會代替英語成為全球通用語言嗎？

In this photo taken on Tuesday, April 20, 2010, Cedar Lane Middle School students take a Chinese Language and Culture class in the Hacienda Heights area of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg recently surprised Chinese students when he spoke to them in Chinese. In a talk at Tsinghua University in Beijing, Zuckerberg spoke Chinese for about 30 minutes. Although his Mandarin was far from perfect, students and faculty cheered his effort.

近來，F(xiàn)acebook（臉書）的創(chuàng)始人馬克·扎克伯格用漢語與中國學(xué)生進(jìn)行交談時，是中國學(xué)生感到非常驚訝。在北京清華大學(xué)的一次講座中，他用漢語講了大概30分鐘。盡管他的普通話講的不是很好，但是學(xué)生和老師還是為他的努力鼓掌喝彩。

Clayton Dube is the head of the U.S.-China Institute at the University of Southern California. He praises Zuckerberg’s effort and thinks more American CEOs should learn foreign languages.

克萊頓·杜布是南加利福尼亞大學(xué)中美學(xué)院的院長，他贊賞扎克伯格做出的努力，而且認(rèn)為美國更多的CEO應(yīng)該學(xué)習(xí)外語。

“To speak Chinese means you begin to think as Chinese people do. You begin to understand how Chinese speakers have the world organized, how they perceive things. And that is a vital step if you’re going to be culturally competent.”

“講漢語意味著你開始像中國人一樣思考，你開始了解中國人看待世界，理解問題的方式。如果你想要有文化競爭力，了解中國人的想法是非常重要的一步。”

Zuckerberg’s talk raises a larger question: is Chinese the language of the future? Could it replace English as the world’s international language? Mandarin Chinese already has the most native speakers of any language. And, China may soon pass the United States as the world’s largest economy.

扎克伯格的講話提出一個更大的問題：漢語會是未來的語言嗎？漢語會取代英語成為全球通用語言嗎？講普通話的人數(shù)比其它任何一種語言的人數(shù)都要多。而且，中國也許會超過美國成為世界最大的經(jīng)濟(jì)體。

The study of the Chinese language is increasing in the United States and around the world. In 2009, about 60,000 American college students were studying Chinese. That is three times as many as in 1990.

在美國以及全世界范圍內(nèi)，對漢語的研究不斷增長。2009年，大約有6萬美國大學(xué)生學(xué)習(xí)中文，這一人數(shù)是1990年的三倍。

A small but growing number of American parents are even sending their children to bilingual Chinese immersion schools. Leianne Clements has no cultural connection to China, but her children are learning Chinese at the YuYing Public Charter School in Washington D.C. Every other day, classes at this school are 100 percent in Chinese. Ms. Clements thinks knowing Chinese could give her children a competitive advantage.

少數(shù)美國家長把他們的孩子送到雙語學(xué)校就讀，而這些家長人數(shù)在不斷增長。萊恩·克萊蒙特跟中國沒有什么文化聯(lián)系，但是她的孩子在華盛頓特區(qū)的育英公立特許學(xué)校學(xué)習(xí)中文。每隔一天，學(xué)校就全講漢語。克萊蒙特認(rèn)為懂得一門漢語可以給她孩子增加競爭優(yōu)勢。

“So far, English has kind of been the universal language, but more and more, with Chinese businesses and just the amount of industry that they have there it seems that that would be, you know, logical thing that could be happening or it seems like it would make you a valuable employee if you also spoke Chinese.”

“目前，英語是全球通用語言，但是在世界各地越來越多的中國企業(yè)和產(chǎn)業(yè)，如果你也能講漢語的話，那么很有可能你會成為一個有價值的員工。”

Clayton Dube thinks Chinese will grow in importance, especially for people who want to work and do business in China. But he does not think Chinese will overtake English any time soon.

克萊頓·杜布認(rèn)為漢語的地位會越來越重要，特別是對于想要在中國工作和做生意的人來說更是如此。但是他不認(rèn)為漢語會很快取代英語。

“As China rises you can anticipate that more people will adopt the language. But is China going to replace English? I don’t think so--certainly not in my lifetime, probably not in the next two, three, four generations.”

“隨著中國經(jīng)濟(jì)實(shí)力的增長，可以想到會有更多的人學(xué)習(xí)漢語、使用漢語。但是漢語會取代英語嗎？我不這么認(rèn)為——至少在我這一代不可能，也許在未來的兩代、三代、四代都不太可能發(fā)生。”

English rose to prominence through the British Empire in the nineteenth century. American dominance in the twentieth century spread the language even further. Dube says American pop culture is one reason for English’s popularity as a foreign language.

通過19世紀(jì)的大英帝國，英語的使用范圍才凸顯出來。20世紀(jì)，美國使英語進(jìn)一步擴(kuò)大其使用范圍。杜布說美國的流行文化是英語作為一門外語受歡迎的原因。

“American movies, music, television, video games have wide audiences…So far China’s success in this realm has been very limited. Chinese films, Chinese television shows, Chinese music doesn’t have a huge following outside of China.”

“美國的電影、音樂、電視節(jié)目、視頻游戲擁有很多觀眾，而中國在這些領(lǐng)域取得的成就非常有限。中國的電影、電視節(jié)目和音樂在國外的收視觀眾較少。”

Andres Martinez is the editorial director at Zocalo Public Square and a professor of journalism at Arizona State University. He says that he respects Chinese culture and expects the language to grow. But he says English, with its association with freedom, will remain the global language.

安德烈斯·馬丁內(nèi)斯是Zocalo Public Square的編輯部主任兼亞利桑納州立大學(xué)新聞系教授。他說他尊重中國文化，希望漢語能夠不斷擴(kuò)大影響范圍。但是英語更加自由，仍會是全球的通用語言。

“You don’t have anybody on the Internet stifling speech in English, censoring speech in English. And most of the dominant English-language countries internally also have a tradition of freedom of speech.”

“在互聯(lián)網(wǎng)上用英語發(fā)表言論，不會感到壓抑，也不會審查言論。大多數(shù)英語是第一語言的國家，言論都比較自由。”

Martinezsays that English is seen as a more neutral language than Chinese. Unlike Chinese, it is not associated with one country. He says even the ideas of equality are built into English grammar.

馬丁內(nèi)斯說，相比漢語，英語是個更中立的語言，不像漢語與整個國家相連。甚至平等的概念都引入到英語語法中了。

“If you study German, if you study Spanish, if you study Russian, there are many languages where the “you” form and how you conjugate verbs is very different depending on whether you’re talking to a grandparent or a boss versus one of your children or an employee or a close friend…If I’m talking to President Obama or if I’m talking to my closest friend or my son, its ‘you.’”

“如果你學(xué)習(xí)德語、西班牙語、或者俄語，很多語言里的you有很多形式，you跟什么動詞搭配取決于you的談話對象，跟爺爺奶奶、老板、你的孩子、員工或者一個親密的朋友…搭配，you的搭配使用的動詞、you 的形式也不盡相同。如果我跟奧巴馬總統(tǒng)談話或者跟親密朋友或兒子談話，那只要用you就可以。”

Chinese is also a more difficult language to learn. The U.S. Foreign Service Institute estimates it would take a native English speaker 2,200 hours to reach professional fluency in Chinese. That is four times longer than it would take to reach the same level in Dutch, French, or Spanish. While Chinese grammar is much simpler, Chinese has a tone and writing system that is more difficult for adult learners to master.

漢語是門難學(xué)的語言，美國外交事務(wù)研究所估計一個母語是英語的人要想把漢語達(dá)到專業(yè)流利的水平，需要練習(xí)2200個小時。如果達(dá)到同等水平，學(xué)習(xí)漢語所花的時間是學(xué)習(xí)荷蘭語、法語或者西班牙語時間的4倍多。漢語的語法更簡單，漢語的語調(diào)和寫作體系對于成年學(xué)習(xí)者來說，更難掌握。

A recent survey by Gallup showed that only one in four Americans is multilingual, or able to speak more than one language. And most multilingual Americans are immigrants or the children of immigrants. For most Americans, Brits, and Australians, learning a foreign language is a choice, not a necessity. China Daily estimates that 400 million Chinese are studying English. That means China has more English learners than the U.S. has English speakers.

最近，蓋洛普民意測驗的一項調(diào)查顯示：四分之一的美國人會多種語言或者能夠說至少兩種語言。大多數(shù)會說多種語言的美國人都是移民或者是移民的孩子。對大多數(shù)美國人、英國人和澳大利亞人來說，學(xué)習(xí)一門外語不是必須要學(xué)，而是一種意愿選擇?！吨袊請蟆方y(tǒng)計大概有4億中國人學(xué)習(xí)英語，也就是說中國的英語學(xué)習(xí)人數(shù)比美國講英語的人數(shù)還要多。

Last month, China hosted the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in the capital city of Beijing. But the meeting was not in Chinese – or any Asian language. The official language of APEC is English.

上個月，中國在北京召開亞太經(jīng)濟(jì)合作會議，會議中使用的語言不是漢語，也不是其它亞洲的語言，亞太經(jīng)合組織的官方語言是英語。

I’m Adam Brock.

我是亞當(dāng)·布拉克。

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Words in This Story

anticipate - v. to think of (something that will or might happen in the future)

realm - n. an area of activity, interest, or knowledge

stifle - v. to stop (someone) from doing or expressing something

conjugate - v. joined together

multlingual - adj. of, having, or expressed in several languages