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One of the odd stories to come out of the French-speaking province of Quebec last year was the announcement that intensive English courses would be offered to students in state schools. Odd, because in the past half-century, much of the Québécois identity has been built on resisting English. Authorities throw the book at people for doing things that would be normal elsewhere in Canada. Last autumn, the Montreal newspaper La Presse revealed that two real estate executives had made presentations in English to a Montreal-based pension fund, violating the province's language laws, which give workers the right to a French-speaking environment.
去年，以法語為官方語言的加拿大魁北克省傳來了一則不同尋常的消息：該省宣布將在公立學校中面向學生開設英語精讀課程。之所以說它不同尋常，是因為在過去半個世紀中，魁北克人的民族認同在很大程度上建立在抵制英語這一基礎上。在加拿大其他地方被視為正常的事情，在魁北克卻會受到當局最嚴厲的懲罰。去年秋天，蒙特利爾報紙《La Presse》曝光了一件事：兩名房地產行業(yè)的高管使用英語向一支總部位于蒙特利爾的養(yǎng)老基金做報告。這種行為違反了魁北克省的語言法。在該省，員工有權享有一個講法語的工作環(huán)境。
Now, school authorities in Quebec City are questioning whether the time is ripe for introducing those English classes after all. Their hesitation has left French-speaking parents angry. On one hand, those parents want their children to cherish their own community and its language. On the other hand, English is the international language of business, and their children will have a hard time climbing the social ladder without it.
如今，對于引入此類英語課程的時機到底是不是已經成熟，魁北克市學校當局提出了質疑。他們的猶豫不決令那些講法語的家長們感到憤怒。一方面，父母希望子女珍視他們自己的社交圈和語言。另一方面，在英語已成為國際商務語言的情況下，如果不會講英語，他們子女在提高自身社會地位的過程中將遭遇重重障礙。
Self-contradiction besets all governments as they try to work out a role for English in their national culture. Long-time Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad was, as a young man, a promoter of Malay. He made it the language of school instruction two decades ago. But in 2003, he came up with a plan to teach mathematics and science in English, reasoning that most technical literature on those subjects was in English. It was a flop. English-language ability, among both teachers and students, had dropped more precipitously since independence than Dr Mahathir cared to admit. But when the government suggested discontinuing the programme in 2009, parents flew into a rage.
那些試圖在自身文化中為英語尋找到合適定位的政府，都無法擺脫這種矛盾。長期擔任馬來西亞總理的馬哈蒂爾•穆罕默德(Mahathir Mohamad)年輕時曾是馬來語的推動者。20年前，他使馬來語成為了學校的教學語言。但2003年時，他又提出一項新計劃，也就是用英語來教授數學和科學，原因是這些學科的大部分技術文獻都是用英語撰寫的。此舉徹底受挫。馬來西亞教師和學生的英語能力自該國獨立以來已急劇下滑，盡管馬哈蒂爾博士本人不愿承認下滑得有那么厲害。然而，當2009年馬來西亞政府建議中止該計劃時，家長們卻強烈不滿。
Not all cultures have the same historical anguish over English that Malaysians and Québécois do. But almost all are being dragged ineluctably towards giving English a bigger role in their societies. More than a dozen EU countries require that English be taught in schools. In Thailand and China, the government has fostered English-language learning circles. Francophone Rwanda switched over in 2009 to English school instruction. English spreads wherever there is democracy or markets or even the slightest inclination towards them.
在英語這個問題上，并不是所有文化都遭遇了馬來西亞人和魁北克人遭遇的那種歷史痛苦。但如今，幾乎所有的文化都不得不在各自的社會中賦予英語更加重要的角色，這已成為一種不可避免的趨勢。已有十余個歐盟(EU)國家要求本國學校教授英語。在泰國和中國，政府對英語學習圈子進行了扶持。法語國家盧旺達2009年時將學校教學語言改為英語。一個地方只要擁有民主或市場、甚至只要具備向民主或市場靠攏的最輕微傾向，英語就會該地蔓延開來。
