評論
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Holding down the right flank of the OECD, all the way on the other side, is Greece.
在圖右側的這些國家，最右邊的是希臘，
And what you can see is that over the last 25 years,
我們看到在過去25年
Greece has barely managed to save more than 10 percent of their GDP.
希臘的國民儲蓄率剛超過10%。
It should be noted, of course, that the United States and the U.K. are the next in line.
需要注意美國和英國緊隨其后。
Now that we see these huge differences in savings rates,
現在我們看到存儲比率的巨大差別，
how is it possible that language might have something to do with these differences?
但是語言跟這種差異有什么關系呢？
Let me tell you a little bit about how languages fundamentally differ.
讓我告訴你語言之間的本質差異所在。
Linguists and cognitive scientists have been exploring this question for many years now.
語言學家和認知科學家已經研究這個問題很多年了，
And then I'll draw the connection between these two behaviors.
而我今天將會將這兩種行為聯系起來。
Many of you have probably already noticed that I'm Chinese.
你們可能注意到了我是華裔。
I grew up in the Midwest of the United States.
我在美國中西部長大。
And something I realized quite early on
我很小的時候就意識到了
was that the Chinese language forced me to speak about and -- in fact, more fundamentally than that
中文在家庭關系的叫法--實際上更本質的
ever so slightly forced me to think about family in very different ways.
甚至在思維方式上都（跟英文）有很大的不同。
Now, how might that be? Let me give you an example.
怎么解釋呢，我舉個例子。
Suppose I were talking with you and I was introducing you to my uncle.
假設你我在聊天，提到了我的叔叔（uncle）。
You understood exactly what I just said in English.
你完全理解這個英文的意思。
If we were speaking Mandarin Chinese with each other, though, I wouldn't have that luxury.
但是如果我們用普通話聊天，我就頭疼了。
I wouldn't have been able to convey so little information.
這里面傳遞的信息如此之多。
What my language would have forced me to do, instead of just telling you, "This is my uncle,"
我無法用中文告訴你這是我的“叔叔”，
is to tell you a tremendous amount of additional information.
而是會附加上更多的（家庭關系）信息。
My language would force me to tell you whether or not this was an uncle on my mother's side or my father's side,
如果用中文，我就要一并告訴你這個人是我爸爸這邊的還是媽媽這邊的
whether this was an uncle by marriage or by birth, and if this man was my father's brother,
是婚姻關系還是血緣關系；如果是我爸爸的兄弟，
whether he was older than or younger than my father.
年紀比我爸爸大還是比我爸爸小。
All of this information is obligatory. Chinese doesn't let me ignore it.
這些都是必須的，中文無法省略這些信息。
