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1、经济学人选文2012.080292012.08.3112012.02.28WHICH IS THE BEST LANGUAGE TO LEARN? 之一 法语Once a mark of the cultured, language-learning is in retreat among English speakers. Its never too late, but where to start? Robert Lane Greene launches our latest Big Question .学习外语曾被视为有识之士的标志，如今在英语母语群体中正逐渐式微。什么时候开始学习都不算
2、晚，但是从哪里开始呢？罗伯特雷恩格林为我们最新的“大问题” 系列打头阵From INTELLIGENT LIFE magazine, March/April 2012For language lovers, the facts are grim: Anglophones simply arent learning them any more. In Britain, despite four decades in the European Union, the number of A-levels taken in French and German has fallen by half in
3、 the past 20 years, while what was a growing trend of Spanish-learning has stalled. In America, the numbers are equally sorry. One factor behind the 9/11 attacks was the fact that the CIA lacked the Arabic-speakers who might have translated available intelligence. But ten years on, “English only” ca
4、mpaigns appeal more successfully to American patriotism than campaigns that try to promote language-learning, as if the most successful language in history were threatened.对语言爱好者来说，现实是残酷的：英语母语人士基本上都已不再学习外语了。尽管英国加入欧盟已经有 40 年，剑桥高级水准考试（注：英国高考）中选择法语和德语课程的人数在过去 20 年里跌了一半。而之前学习西班牙语的热潮也已停滞。在美国，这方面的数字同样堪忧。9
5、11 事件背后的一个因素在于中情局缺少足够懂阿拉伯语的人来翻译一些获取的情报。但是 10 年之后， “只说英语” 的活动比其它试图推广学习外语的活动更受美国人的爱国主义青睐，就好像历史上最成功的语言现在正处于濒危一样。Why learn a foreign language? After all, the one you already speak if you read this magazine is the worlds most useful and important language. English is not only the first language of the ob
6、vious countries, it is now the rest of the worlds second language: a Japanese tourist in Sweden or a Turk landing a plane in Spain will almost always speak English.为什么要学习一门外语呢？说到底，如果你在读这份杂志，那么你已经掌握了世界上最有用，也是最重要的语言。英语不仅仅在几个显而易见的国家内是第一语言，它现在也是世界上所有其它地方的第二语言：一位在瑞典的日本游客或是一位驾驶飞机在西班牙降落的土耳其人几乎逢人就讲英语。Noneth
7、eless, compelling reasons remain for learning other languages. They range from the intellectual to the economical to the practical. First of all, learning any foreign language helps you understand all language bettermanyAnglophones first encounter the words “past participle” not in an English class,
8、 but in French. Second, there is the cultural broadening. Literature is always best read in the original.但是，还是有一些重要的原因督促着我们学习其它语言。这些因素包括求知欲，经济收益还有实用因素。首先，只要学习一门外语，你对所有语言的理解也会增强。很多英语母语者是在法语课，而不是英语课上最先遇到“过去分词”一词。其次，这也会拓宽你的文化视野。文学作品永远是读原版最好。经济学人选文2012.080292012.08.312Poetry and lyrics suffer particular
9、ly badly in translation. And learning another tongue helps the student grasp another way of thinking. Though the notion that speakers of different languages think differently has been vastly exaggerated and misunderstood, there is a great deal to be learned from discovering what the different cultur
10、es call this, that or das oder.诗歌在翻译时受到的破坏尤为严重。学习多一门语言可以帮助学生掌握另一种思维方式。虽然不同语言使用者的思维方式不同这一点被广泛地夸大和误解了，但是发现学习不同的文化把不同的事物叫作什么还是可以让你学到很多东西。The practical reasons are just as compelling. In business, if the team on the other side of the table knows your language but you dont know theirs, they almost certai
11、nly know more about you and your company than you do about them and theirsa bad position to negotiate from. Many investors in China have made fatally stupid decisions about companies they could not understand. Diplomacy, war-waging and intelligence work are all weakened by a lack of capable linguist
12、s. Virtually any career, public or private, is given a boost with knowledge of a foreign language.从实用方面讲，学习外语的好处也很大。在商场上，如果谈判桌对面的队伍理解你的语言，而你不理解他们的语言。那他们对你和你的公司了解几乎肯定会比你对他们的了解更多，在谈判时这可不是什么有利条件。很多中国的投资者在自己不能理解的公司上做出了一些致命的愚蠢决定。外交，战争和情报工作在缺少能干的语言工作者时都会处于劣势。几乎所有的职业，不管是在公共岗位还是私营岗位上，懂得一门外语总是会给你加分。So which
13、one should you, or your children, learn? If you take a glance at advertisements in New York or A-level options in Britain, an answer seems to leap out: Mandarin. Chinas economy continues to grow at a pace that will make it bigger than Americas within two decades at most. Chinas political clout is gr
14、owing accordingly. Its businessmen are buying up everything from American brands to African minerals to Russian oil rights. If China is the country of the future, is Chinese the language of the future?那么你，或者你的孩子应该学什么语言呢？如果你看看纽约的广告或是英国的剑桥高级水准科目选择，答案似乎显而易见：汉语。中国的经济正在持续以高速增长，最多再花 20 年就会赶上美国。中国的政治影响力也随之
15、增大。中国商人在世界各地采购，从美国商标，到非洲矿物，到俄罗斯石油开采权无所不包。如果中国是未来的大国，那汉语是不是也就成了未来的首选语言呢？Probably not. Remember Japans rise? Just as spectacular as Chinas, if on a smaller scale, Japans economic growth led many to think it would take over the world. It was the worlds second-largest economy for decades (before falling
16、 to third, recently, behind China). So is Japanese the worlds third-most useful language? Not even close. If you were to learn ten languages ranked by general usefulness, Japanese would probably not make the list. And the key reason for Japaneses limited spread will also put the brakes on Chinese.应该不是的。还记得日本的崛起吗？和中国现在的崛起一样瞩目，可能规模较小一点。日本的经济增长当时让很多人觉得它将要征服世界了。它占据世界第二大经济体宝座长达几十年以（最近，落在中国之后位居第三了） 。那么日语是不是世界第三大常用语言呢？差得远呢。如果你为了日常使用要学十种语言，日语可能都排不进名单。日语普及有限有一个关键性原
