My daughter came to England from Kuwait.
我的女兒從科威特回到英國。
She had studied science and mathematics in Arabic.
她已經用阿拉伯語學了科學和數學。
It's an Arabic medium school.
那是在一所阿拉伯中校。
She had to translate it into English at her grammar school.
在文法學院學習時,她要把所學的內容翻譯成英語。
And she was the best in the class at those subjects.
在她們班上,她的這些科目是最好的。
Which tells us that when students come to us from abroad,
這告訴我們,當學生從海外來就讀
we may not be giving them enough credit for what they know, and they know it in their own language.
也許我們沒有給他們足夠的認可,對于那些他們已經懂得的知識而言,因為他們已經通過他們的語言掌握了這些知識。
When a language dies, we don't know what we lose with that language.
當語言消失,我們不知道我們還失去了什么。
This is -- I don't know if you saw it on CNN recently --
我不知道你們是否看最近的CNN--
they gave the Heroes Award to a young Kenyan shepherd boy
他們頒發了一枚英雄獎給一個年輕的肯尼亞牧童,
who couldn't study at night in his village, like all the village children,
在他所住的村莊里,他和其他在村里的孩子一樣,無法在夜晚讀書,
because the kerosene lamp, it had smoke and it damaged his eyes.
因為煤油燈煙會弄傷他的眼睛。
And anyway, there was never enough kerosene, because what does a dollar a day buy for you?
而且,他也沒有足夠的煤油,他們每天只有一美元的收入,能買什么呢?
So he invented a cost-free solar lamp.
所以他發明了不需要花錢的太陽能燈。
And now the children in his village get the same grades at school as the children who have electricity at home.
現在他們村里的孩子們都能在學習上取得一樣的好成績,跟那些家里有電的孩子一樣。
When he received his award, he said these lovely words:
當他得到這個獎勵時,他說了這些可愛的話:
"The children can lead Africa from what it is today, a dark continent, to a light continent."
“兒童可以帶領今天的非洲,從一個黑暗的大陸,走向一個光明的大陸。”
A simple idea, but it could have such far-reaching consequences.
一個簡單的想法,但是其影響是深遠的。
People who have no light, whether it's physical or metaphorical,
無論是實際生活中還是社會意義上,不能享受光明的人
cannot pass our exams, and we can never know what they know.
都無法通過我們的測試,我們也無法了解他們擁有的知識。
Let us not keep them and ourselves in the dark.
我們不能讓他們和我們自己都身處于黑暗里。
Let us celebrate diversity. Mind your language.
讓我們一起為多元化歡呼。重視你的語言。
Use it to spread great ideas. Thank you very much.
用它來傳播優秀的思想。非常謝謝。