Will Chinese Re lish as the Global e Replace English bal Languageguage

□劉素庚

Will Chinese Re lish as the Global e Replace English bal Languageguage

□劉素庚

FacebookfounderMarkZuckerbergrecentlysurprisedChinesestudents 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.

“臉書”創(chuàng)始人馬克·扎克伯格最近用中文同中國(guó)學(xué)生交流，把他們都驚呆了。在清華大學(xué)的一次演講中，扎克伯格說(shuō)了大約30分鐘的中文。雖然他的普通話遠(yuǎn)不夠標(biāo)準(zhǔn)，但清華師生們都為他的努力喝彩。

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.

扎克伯格的演講引出了一個(gè)更大的問(wèn)題：中文是未來(lái)的語(yǔ)言嗎？它是否會(huì)取代英語(yǔ)成為國(guó)際通用語(yǔ)言？以普通話為母語(yǔ)的人數(shù)已經(jīng)超過(guò)了任何語(yǔ)言。而且，中國(guó)可能很快超過(guò)美國(guó)成為全球最大的經(jīng)濟(jì)體。

But 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 timeslonger 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.

但是，中文還是一種比較難學(xué)的語(yǔ)言。美國(guó)外交事務(wù)所估計(jì)，讓英語(yǔ)母語(yǔ)者達(dá)到中文專業(yè)流利水平需要練習(xí)2200小時(shí)。如果要達(dá)到同等水平，學(xué)習(xí)中文所花的時(shí)間要比學(xué)習(xí)荷蘭語(yǔ)、法語(yǔ)、西班牙語(yǔ)的時(shí)間多4倍。然而中文語(yǔ)法要簡(jiǎn)單得多，中文的聲調(diào)和書寫體系對(duì)成人學(xué)習(xí)者來(lái)說(shuō)更難掌握。

And 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.

并且美國(guó)電影、音樂(lè)、電視和視頻游戲有著廣泛的受眾。到目前為止，中國(guó)在這一領(lǐng)域取得成功非常有限。中國(guó)電影、電視節(jié)目和音樂(lè)在海外沒(méi)有龐大的追隨者。

A recent survey 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.

最近的一項(xiàng)調(diào)查顯示，只有1∕4的美國(guó)人會(huì)說(shuō)多個(gè)語(yǔ)種或者至少2個(gè)語(yǔ)種。而且大多數(shù)懂多種語(yǔ)言的美國(guó)人是移民或移民子弟。對(duì)于大多數(shù)美國(guó)人、英國(guó)人和澳大利亞人來(lái)說(shuō)，學(xué)習(xí)外語(yǔ)是一種選擇而不是必要。《中國(guó)日?qǐng)?bào)》估計(jì)有4億中國(guó)人在學(xué)英語(yǔ)。這意味著中國(guó)學(xué)英語(yǔ)的人比美國(guó)講英語(yǔ)的人還多。

ThestudyoftheChineselanguageisincreasingintheUnited 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. Some schools in the United States and other countries offer Chinese language classes with government support from China.

學(xué)中文在美國(guó)和世界各地不斷升溫。2009年大約有6萬(wàn)名美國(guó)大學(xué)生在學(xué)中文，是1990年的3倍。在中國(guó)政府的支持下，美國(guó)和其他一些國(guó)家的一些學(xué)校開設(shè)漢語(yǔ)課。

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.Knowing Chinese could give you a competitive advantage.

截至目前，英語(yǔ)一直是全球通用語(yǔ)言。但中國(guó)的企業(yè)越來(lái)越多，你光看看中國(guó)擁有的行業(yè)數(shù)量，看上去順理成章的事情可能會(huì)發(fā)生，如果會(huì)說(shuō)中文，你就會(huì)成為更有價(jià)值的員工。懂中文會(huì)給你提供一種競(jìng)爭(zhēng)優(yōu)勢(shì)。

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.English is the international language of business.But an increasing number of American companies that do business in China or with Chinese companies are having their workers learn Mandarin.Chinese is the trend of business in Southeast Asia,as most of the business people are speaking Chinese,including those from Singapore,Malaysia,and the Philippines.

中文將變得越來(lái)越重要，對(duì)那些想在中國(guó)工作或做生意的人來(lái)說(shuō)尤其如此。但他并不認(rèn)為中文能很快超過(guò)英文。英語(yǔ)是商業(yè)上的國(guó)際語(yǔ)言。但越來(lái)越多在中國(guó)做生意或與中國(guó)公司做生意的美國(guó)公司讓員工學(xué)習(xí)普通話。在東南亞的生意圈，說(shuō)漢語(yǔ)是一個(gè)趨勢(shì)，因?yàn)閬?lái)自新加坡、馬來(lái)西亞和菲律賓的大多數(shù)商人都講中文。

As China rises you can anticipate that more people will adopt the language.But is Chinese 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)的崛起，你可以預(yù)見(jiàn)更多人會(huì)使用中文。但是中文是否將會(huì)取代英文呢？我不這么認(rèn)為。這一幕肯定不會(huì)在我的有生之年發(fā)生，也可能不會(huì)在未來(lái)三四十年內(nèi)發(fā)生。