VOA慢速英語(yǔ): 漢語(yǔ)會(huì)代替英語(yǔ)成為全球通用語(yǔ)言嗎？

漢語(yǔ)會(huì)代替英語(yǔ)成為全球通用語(yǔ)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(lái)，F(xiàn)acebook（臉書(shū)）的創(chuàng)始人馬克·扎克伯格用漢語(yǔ)與中國(guó)學(xué)生進(jìn)行交談時(shí)，是中國(guó)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(yǔ)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(zhǎng)，他贊賞扎克伯格做出的努力，而且認(rèn)為美國(guó)更多的CEO應(yīng)該學(xué)習(xí)外語(yǔ)。

“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(yǔ)意味著你開(kāi)始像中國(guó)人一樣思考，你開(kāi)始了解中國(guó)人看待世界，理解問(wèn)題的方式。如果你想要有文化競(jìng)爭(zhēng)力，了解中國(guó)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(gè)更大的問(wèn)題：漢語(yǔ)會(huì)是未來(lái)的語(yǔ)言嗎？漢語(yǔ)會(huì)取代英語(yǔ)成為全球通用語(yǔ)言嗎？講普通話的人數(shù)比其它任何一種語(yǔ)言的人數(shù)都要多。而且，中國(guó)也許會(huì)超過(guò)美國(guó)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(guó)以及全世界范圍內(nèi)，對(duì)漢語(yǔ)的研究不斷增長(zhǎng)。2009年，大約有6萬(wàn)美國(guó)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(guó)家長(zhǎng)把他們的孩子送到雙語(yǔ)學(xué)校就讀，而這些家長(zhǎng)人數(shù)在不斷增長(zhǎng)。萊恩·克萊蒙特跟中國(guó)沒(méi)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(yǔ)?？巳R蒙特認(rèn)為懂得一門(mén)漢語(yǔ)可以給她孩子增加競(jìng)爭(zhēng)優(yōu)勢(shì)。

“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(yǔ)是全球通用語(yǔ)言，但是在世界各地越來(lái)越多的中國(guó)企業(yè)和產(chǎn)業(yè)，如果你也能講漢語(yǔ)的話，那么很有可能你會(huì)成為一個(gè)有價(jià)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(yǔ)的地位會(huì)越來(lái)越重要，特別是對(duì)于想要在中國(guó)工作和做生意的人來(lái)說(shuō)更是如此。但是他不認(rèn)為漢語(yǔ)會(huì)很快取代英語(yǔ)。

“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(guó)經(jīng)濟(jì)實(shí)力的增長(zhǎng)，可以想到會(huì)有更多的人學(xué)習(xí)漢語(yǔ)、使用漢語(yǔ)。但是漢語(yǔ)會(huì)取代英語(yǔ)嗎？我不這么認(rèn)為——至少在我這一代不可能，也許在未來(lái)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(guò)19世紀(jì)的大英帝國(guó)，英語(yǔ)的使用范圍才凸顯出來(lái)。20世紀(jì)，美國(guó)使英語(yǔ)進(jìn)一步擴(kuò)大其使用范圍。杜布說(shuō)美國(guó)的流行文化是英語(yǔ)作為一門(mén)外語(yǔ)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(guó)的電影、音樂(lè)、電視節(jié)目、視頻游戲擁有很多觀眾，而中國(guó)在這些領(lǐng)域取得的成就非常有限。中國(guó)的電影、電視節(jié)目和音樂(lè)在國(guó)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(shuō)他尊重中國(guó)文化，希望漢語(yǔ)能夠不斷擴(kuò)大影響范圍。但是英語(yǔ)更加自由，仍會(huì)是全球的通用語(yǔ)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(yǔ)發(fā)表言論，不會(huì)感到壓抑，也不會(huì)審查言論。大多數(shù)英語(yǔ)是第一語(yǔ)言的國(guó)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(shuō)，相比漢語(yǔ)，英語(yǔ)是個(gè)更中立的語(yǔ)言，不像漢語(yǔ)與整個(gè)國(guó)家相連。甚至平等的概念都引入到英語(yǔ)語(yǔ)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(yǔ)、西班牙語(yǔ)、或者俄語(yǔ)，很多語(yǔ)言里的you有很多形式，you跟什么動(dòng)詞搭配取決于you的談話對(duì)象，跟爺爺奶奶、老板、你的孩子、員工或者一個(gè)親密的朋友…搭配，you的搭配使用的動(dòng)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(yǔ)是門(mén)難學(xué)的語(yǔ)言，美國(guó)外交事務(wù)研究所估計(jì)一個(gè)母語(yǔ)是英語(yǔ)的人要想把漢語(yǔ)達(dá)到專(zhuān)業(yè)流利的水平，需要練習(xí)2200個(gè)小時(shí)。如果達(dá)到同等水平，學(xué)習(xí)漢語(yǔ)所花的時(shí)間是學(xué)習(xí)荷蘭語(yǔ)、法語(yǔ)或者西班牙語(yǔ)時(shí)間的4倍多。漢語(yǔ)的語(yǔ)法更簡(jiǎn)單，漢語(yǔ)的語(yǔ)調(diào)和寫(xiě)作體系對(duì)于成年學(xué)習(xí)者來(lái)說(shuō)，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(cè)驗(yàn)的一項(xiàng)調(diào)查顯示：四分之一的美國(guó)人會(huì)多種語(yǔ)言或者能夠說(shuō)至少兩種語(yǔ)言。大多數(shù)會(huì)說(shuō)多種語(yǔ)言的美國(guó)人都是移民或者是移民的孩子。對(duì)大多數(shù)美國(guó)人、英國(guó)人和澳大利亞人來(lái)說(shuō)，學(xué)習(xí)一門(mén)外語(yǔ)不是必須要學(xué)，而是一種意愿選擇?！吨袊?guó)日?qǐng)?bào)》統(tǒng)計(jì)大概有4億中國(guó)人學(xué)習(xí)英語(yǔ)，也就是說(shuō)中國(guó)的英語(yǔ)學(xué)習(xí)人數(shù)比美國(guó)講英語(yǔ)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(gè)月，中國(guó)在北京召開(kāi)亞太經(jīng)濟(jì)合作會(huì)議，會(huì)議中使用的語(yǔ)言不是漢語(yǔ)，也不是其它亞洲的語(yǔ)言，亞太經(jīng)合組織的官方語(yǔ)言是英語(yǔ)。

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