So for example, "The Cat in the Hat Comes Back," a book that I'm sure we all often return to, like "Moby Dick."
例如,《戴帽子的貓回來了》,這本書我相信很多人還經(jīng)常讀,又如《白鯨記》。
One phrase in it is, "Do you know where I found him?
里面有句臺詞是,“你知道在哪兒找到他的么?
Do you know where he was? He was eating cake in the tub, Yes he was!"
你知道他在哪里么?他在浴缸里吃蛋糕,對,沒錯!”
Fine. Now, if you learn that in Mandarin Chinese, then you have to master,
現(xiàn)在,在中文中,那么你需要這么說,
"You can know, I did where him find? He was tub inside gorging cake, No mistake gorging chewing!"
“你知道是否你,我哪里他找到?他在浴缸里吃蛋糕,沒錯誤虎咽狼吞!”
That just feels good. Imagine being able to do that for years and years at a time.
感覺棒極了。想象在未來能夠做到這樣。
Or, have you ever learned any Cambodian?
或者你們學(xué)過柬埔寨語嗎?
Me either, but if I did, I would get to roll around in my mouth not some baker's dozen of vowels like English has
我也沒有,不過要是我學(xué)過,那么我嘴里發(fā)出的元音要遠多于英語中的13個元音,
but a good 30 different vowels scooching and oozing around in the Cambodian mouth like bees in a hive.
而是整整30個不同的元音,在柬埔寨人的嘴里熱烈的翻騰著,就像蜂巢里的蜜蜂一樣。
That is what a language can get you.
這是語言能夠帶給你的。
And more to the point, we live in an era when it's never been easier to teach yourself another language.
更進一步,我們現(xiàn)在的時代,要自學(xué)一門語言比過去容易很多。
It used to be that you had to go to a classroom,
過去你要學(xué)習(xí)外語,就需要去上課,
and there would be some diligent teacher -- some genius teacher in there
或許會遇到勤勉的老師以及一些睿智的老師,
but that person was only in there at certain times and you had to go then, and then was not most times.
但是那個人只在特定的時間出現(xiàn),你需要去按時上課,除此之外就沒有機會了。
You had to go to class. If you didn't have that, you had something called a record. I cut my teeth on those.
你只能去課堂。如果你沒法聽課,你能拿到錄音帶。我小時候就是這么學(xué)的。
There was only so much data on a record, or a cassette, or even that antique object known as a CD.
錄音上就那么多信息,磁帶也是這樣,或者是已過時的光盤。
Other than that you had books that didn't work, that's just the way it was.
除此之外你有用處不大的書,學(xué)外語就是這樣。