正文翻譯
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It’s probably time to learn Chinese

也許是時(shí)候?qū)W中文了

Eric Meltzer?

埃里克 · 梅爾澤

For over a century, learning English has been one of the highest ROI things a non-English speaker could do. English went from being a language spoken by a few million people on an island to the the language of a world-spanning empire to a de-facto global language in a few centuries. I think, despite accusations of provincialism from polyglot Europeans, English is still by far the most useful language in the world and that being a monolingual English speaker isn’t the worst thing in the world. I say that as someone who loves learning languages; realistically, there are many interesting things to learn in the world and our time is pretty limited.

一個(gè)多世紀(jì)以來，學(xué)習(xí)英語一直是非英語使用者所能達(dá)到的最高投資回報(bào)率之一。?
在幾個(gè)世紀(jì)的時(shí)間里，英語從一個(gè)小島上幾百萬人使用的語言，變成了一個(gè)橫跨世界的帝國的語言，成為事實(shí)上的全球性語言。?
我認(rèn)為，盡管通曉多種語言的歐洲人指責(zé)英語是地方主義，但英語仍然是世界上最有用的語言，而且只會說一種語言并不是世界上最糟糕的事情。?
我想說，作為一個(gè)熱愛學(xué)習(xí)語言的人，實(shí)際上，世界上有許多有趣的事情值得我們?nèi)W(xué)習(xí)，而我們的時(shí)間是相當(dāng)有限的。

However, the benefits of learning Mandarin have grown a lot over the past two decades. We’re in a critical period where the demand for bilingual English/Mandarin speakers is extremely high from maturing Chinese institutions looking to go abroad, but the supply of those speakers remains relatively low. The world also seems to be moving from a unipolar America-led situation towards a bi-or-multipolar one where China assumes a lot more importance, so speaking Chinese is a good hedge in that sense.

在過去的二十年里，學(xué)習(xí)中文的好處大大增加了。?
我們正處于一個(gè)關(guān)鍵時(shí)期，成熟的中國組織、機(jī)構(gòu)、企業(yè)希望走出國門，對會說英語和中文的人的需求非常高，但這類人才的供應(yīng)仍然相對較低。?
世界似乎也正在從美國領(lǐng)導(dǎo)的單極世界向中國扮演更重要角色的雙極或多極世界轉(zhuǎn)變，因此說中文在這個(gè)意義上是一個(gè)很好的對沖。

Learning Mandarin has been one of the most rewarding I’ve ever done, up there with learning how to program.

學(xué)習(xí)中文是我做過的最有意義的事情之一，就像學(xué)習(xí)如何編程一樣。

Before I explain how to quickly learn Mandarin, here are a few explicit reasons why you may want to:

在我解釋如何快速學(xué)習(xí)中文之前，這里有一些你可能想學(xué)習(xí)中文的明確原因：

Important reasons

一些重要的原因

China is emerging from its copycat phase and is beginning to produce interesting technology and cultural products again.?

· 中國正從山寨階段走出來，并開始再次生產(chǎn)有趣的技術(shù)和文化產(chǎn)品;?

Almost as many people speak Mandarin as English; about 1.5 billion for each language. Very few Mandarin speakers also speak English. The oft-cited figure of 300 million english-speakers in China is laughable propaganda, and the true number is probably closer to 10 million, or less than 1% of the population.?

· 說中文的人幾乎和說英語的人一樣多，大約各有約15億人;?
· 說普通話的人很少會說英語，一個(gè)經(jīng)常被引用的說法是，中國說英語的人口是3億，這是一個(gè)可笑的宣傳，真實(shí)的數(shù)字可能僅僅接近1000萬，或者說還不到總?cè)丝诘?% ;?

Fun reasons

有趣的理由

The linguistic legacy of ancient Chinese imperial expansion is visible in Korean and Japanese, and to a lesser extent in Vietnamese . With no background in Japanese, you can read some menus, get the gist of newspaper articles, read most signage, and generally get around in Japan if you speak Chinese. Amusingly, you will be more able to understand sophisticated academic texts or ancient novels than modern stuff, since the influence of Chinese on the Japanese language peaked during the Tang dynasty.?

· 中國古代帝國擴(kuò)張的語言遺產(chǎn)在韓語和日語中非常突出，在越南語中也有所體現(xiàn)，只是程度較小。即使你沒有日語背景，如果你會說中文，你仍然可以看懂某些菜單，了解報(bào)紙文章的要點(diǎn)，看明白大部分標(biāo)牌，一般情況下在日本四處走動不成問題。
有趣的是，你會比現(xiàn)代人更能理解復(fù)雜的學(xué)術(shù)典籍或古代小說，因?yàn)闈h語對日語的影響在唐朝達(dá)到頂峰。

The Chinese literary corpus (modern and ancient both) is huge, deep, and sparsely translated into English. It contains a lot of works that have no English equivalent, and a lot of philosophy that resembles the more practical of the Hellenistic philosophers who were interested in how to live a good life. You’ll gain access to a whole bunch of interesting material you otherwise would have no way to read.?

· 中國文學(xué)語料庫 ( 現(xiàn)代的和古代的) ，規(guī)模龐大，內(nèi)容深刻，英文譯本稀少，它包含了許多沒有英文版本的著作，以及許多類似于希臘哲學(xué)家的哲學(xué)，他們對如何過上美好的生活有著濃厚的興趣，但是更實(shí)際，你必然會接觸到一大堆有趣的資料，否則你將無法閱讀。

How to become fluent in Mandarin

如何熟練掌握普通話

If you can go to China, do so.

如果你能去中國，我推薦你直接去中國。

You can learn Chinese without moving to China. It will take longer, especially in the beginning — you can go from nothing to conversational a lot faster if you are immersed. Your pronunciation will also suffer if you don’t learn in China, and your vocabulary and diction may be a little bit less natural. It’s still doable and worthwhile though. If you can’t move to China, you can skip over this next section and I’ll discuss some ways to simulate immersion without actually being in China.

當(dāng)然，如果你不用去中國也是可以學(xué)中文的，但這樣花費(fèi)的時(shí)間更長，尤其是在開始的時(shí)候——如果你沉浸其中的話，你可以從什么都不會變得更為健談。?
如果你不在中國學(xué)習(xí)，你的發(fā)音也會受到影響，自然你的詞匯量也會少一點(diǎn)，盡管如此，這仍然是可行的和有價(jià)值的。?
如果你不能去到中國，你可以跳過下面這一節(jié)，后面我會討論一些不去中國，但可以模擬沉浸感的方法。

Specifically, go to Beijing, Shanghai, or Chengdu

具體來說，去北京、上?；蛘叱啥?br/>
Beijing is the central capital of the most centralized country on earth. The government is in Beijing, the best educational institutes are in Beijing, the movie industry is in Beijing, the art world is still largely centered in Beijing, Beijing is the startup hub of China, and Beijing is roughly tied with Shanghai as a financial hub. Modern Mandarin is based on the Beijing dialect, so if you learn Chinese in Beijing your accent will be considered easy to understand and “standard.” The inner city of Beijing (everything inside the 2nd ring road, and to a lesser extent everything inside the 3rd) is charming, liveable, and still has many of the courtyard houses and snaking alleyways that have made up the city since the Ming dynasty. Beijing (and modern Asian cities in general) is one of the most convenient places to live on the planet. Many business models that are marginal in American low-density cities are solid in ultra high-density Beijing: there are multiple profitable food-delivery startups, wash and fold laundry services are plentiful, there will be a grocery store, many restaurants, bars, and convenience stores within feet of wherever you live. The air pollution is bad, but a couple of good HEPA filters in your house eliminates more than 50% of your exposure, and going elsewhere during the winter eliminates another large chunk of it.?

北京是這個(gè)星球上最集中的首都與中心，最好的教育機(jī)構(gòu)在北京，電影業(yè)在北京，藝術(shù)世界仍然主要集中在北京，北京還是中國的創(chuàng)業(yè)中心，作為金融中心與上海大致相當(dāng)。?
現(xiàn)代漢語普通話是基于北京方言的，所以如果你在北京學(xué)習(xí)中文，你的口音會被認(rèn)為是容易理解和“標(biāo)準(zhǔn)”的。
北京的內(nèi)城 ( 二環(huán)以內(nèi)以及三環(huán)以內(nèi) ) 是迷人的，宜居的，并且仍然有許多四合院和蜿蜒的小巷，這些都是明代以來的北京建筑。?
北京 ( 以及現(xiàn)代化的亞洲城市) 是地球上最適宜居住的地方之一。
許多在美國低密度城市邊緣的商業(yè)模式在高密度的北京得到了鞏固：
有許多賺錢的食品配送創(chuàng)業(yè)公司，洗衣服務(wù)豐富，雜貨店，餐館、酒吧和便利店集聚你居住的地方幾英尺范圍內(nèi)。?
空氣污染很嚴(yán)重，但高效微粒空氣過濾器可以消除超過50% 的污染，而在冬天去別的地方可以消除大部分的污染。

The most accessible and easy way to go to China is to take a job teaching English. It’s also the absolute worst way to go there. It’s poorly paid, does nothing to advance your Chinese language skills, and ensures the people you will be in contact with through your job are people who specifically are paying to not speak Chinese with you. Here are some better options:

去中國最容易的方法就是找一份教英語的工作，但這絕對是最糟糕的方式，這份工作薪水很低，對提高你的中文技能毫無幫助，而且你得明白你通過工作接觸到的人，是那些專門花錢來學(xué)英語而不是和你說中文的人，我覺得有一些更好的選擇：

Go through your school

留學(xué)，通過學(xué)校去中國

Most top colleges in the US have China study-abroad options. I’ve heard particularly good things about Middlebury, U.C. Berkeley, Stanford, Harvard, and Yale. Stanford has a very swanky center at Peking University which is cool. Harvard and Yale have the oldest Sinology programs in the country but that may be of limited importance to you if your goal is simply conversational fluency. U.C. Berkeley has the UCEAP program which, if your Chinese is good enough, lets you take normal classes at the “Harvard of China,” Peking University. The biggest disadvantage of going through your college is the temptation to hang out with other Americans. There’s something about immersion that seems to accelerate language learning in a nonlinear way, and it can be derailed by even a small amount of daily exposure to one’s mother language. If you think being disciplined about not speaking English will be an issue for you, a study-abroad program may not be ideal.

美國大多數(shù)頂尖大學(xué)都可以選擇去中國留學(xué)，明德學(xué)院、加州大學(xué)伯克利分校、斯坦福大學(xué)、哈佛大學(xué)和耶魯大學(xué)都有這樣的項(xiàng)目。?
斯坦福大學(xué)在北京大學(xué)有一個(gè)非?；钴S的交流中心，很贊，哈佛大學(xué)和耶魯大學(xué)擁有全國最古老的漢學(xué)課程，但如果你的目標(biāo)僅僅是流利的對華，那么這對你來說可能并不重要。?
加州大學(xué)伯克利分校有一個(gè)UCEAP項(xiàng)目，如果你的中文足夠好，你可以在“中國的哈佛”——北京大學(xué)上正常的課程。
進(jìn)入大學(xué)的最大缺點(diǎn)就是與其他美國人交往的誘惑，沉浸感似乎以一種非線性的方式加速了語言學(xué)習(xí)，即使是每天少量接觸母語也會打亂語言學(xué)習(xí)的進(jìn)程，如果你認(rèn)為自覺不說英語對你來說是個(gè)問題，那么海外留學(xué)項(xiàng)目可能并不理想。

Get a job that allows you to work remotely

找一份能讓你遠(yuǎn)程工作的工作

If you’re a freelancer, or if you work for a company that allows remote work, this is a great option. Although changes to the exchange rate and cost of living have made this less true than it once was, being paid in USD and spending RMB will enable you to live very comfortably even in first-tier cities. Compared to working at a Chinese company or going through a study-abroad program, your daily Mandarin exposure will be reduced, but you can still speak it during every non-working hour. If you’re a freelancer you can also start mixing in Chinese clients once your Mandarin improves.

如果你是一個(gè)自由職業(yè)者，或者你工作的公司允許遠(yuǎn)程工作，這是一個(gè)很好的選擇。?
雖然匯率和生活成本的變化已經(jīng)使這種情況不像以前那樣真實(shí)了，但是用美元支付和花人民幣將使你即使在一線城市也能生活得非常舒適。?
與在中國公司工作或參加留學(xué)項(xiàng)目相比，你每天接觸中文的機(jī)會會減少，但你仍然可以在非工作時(shí)間講中文，如果你是一個(gè)自由職業(yè)者，一旦你的中文水平有所提高，你也可以開始和中國客戶交流。

Get a job with a Chinese company

去一家中國公司找份工作

If you speak no Mandarin, this will be difficult but definitely not impossible. If you have skills that are in demand, many Chinese companies are hiring and have official policies that state English should be spoken in the office. In reality you’ll find that English is rarely spoken, but while that won’t be good for your initial productivity, it will be awesome for generating immersion and helping you learn quickly.

如果你不會說中文，這會很困難的，但也不是絕對不可能。?
如果你有技能，許多中國公司正在招聘，并且有官方政策規(guī)定在辦公室說英語。?
事實(shí)上，你會發(fā)現(xiàn)很少有人說英語，但是盡管這對你最初的工作效率不會有好處，但是它會讓你沉浸其中，幫助你快速學(xué)習(xí)。

Attend a Chinese university as a fulltime student

以全日制學(xué)生身份進(jìn)入中國大學(xué)學(xué)習(xí)

Set up your environment. Change your computer and smartphone language to Chinese. Download Sogou Pinyin, which is much better than the default Windows or Mac IME. Block Facebook and Twitter. Find a stream of Chinese TV and leave it on in your house whenever possible. Chinese TV is largely garbage but your brain will be absorbing the sounds in the background which is useful.?

· 自建語境氛圍
更改你的電腦和智能手機(jī)語言為中文，下載搜狗拼音（比默認(rèn)的 Windows 或 Mac 輸入法要好得多），屏蔽 Facebook 和 Twitter，找一臺能放中文節(jié)目的電視機(jī)，在家的時(shí)候盡可能把它開著，中國的電視很大程度上都是垃圾，但你的大腦會吸收背景中的聲音，這點(diǎn)很有用。

Set up The Loop. My friend coined this term for the system we used for acquiring and remembering new words in Chinese. You need a dictionary and a spaced-repetition flashcard app. Pleco is both, and much more: a truly venerable app that got its start as a Palm Pilot app almost twenty years ago. In the meantime it’s developed into one of the most powerful apps I’ve ever had the pleasure of using. The app itself and several good dictionary files for it are free — you pay for additional features as you need them. The handwriting recognition, main dictionary pack, and flashcard functionality are must-haves; the rest you can decide for yourself if you need or not. You’ll start the loop either by walking around China and drawing (not writing; at this stage you won’t know the correct order of strokes for characters, so just roughly draw what they look like) characters you don’t understand into Pleco. You can hit the [+] on any character card to add it to your flashcard deck. Pleco has a bunch of different flashcard modes, all of which are useful for different things. Do a mix of them every single night. Don’t be tempted to import any pre-made flashcard decks. Making your own deck from the words you actually encounter is way more effective. This simple practice will improve your vocabulary shockingly fast.?

· 建立循環(huán)?
我的朋友創(chuàng)造了這個(gè)詞，指的是我們用來獲取和記憶中文新詞的系統(tǒng)。
你需要一本字典和一個(gè)帶記憶卡片的APP，Pleco這款A(yù)PP既是字典，又是一款值得尊敬的應(yīng)用程序，大約20年前它從Palm Pilot 發(fā)展起來，到現(xiàn)在，它已經(jīng)發(fā)展成為我有幸使用過的最強(qiáng)大的APP之一。?
這個(gè)APP本身及其一些很棒的字典文件都是免費(fèi)的ーー需要付費(fèi)的是其他功能。?
手寫識別、主詞典包和抽認(rèn)卡功能是必備的，其余的你可以自己決定是否需要。。。巴拉巴拉巴拉。。

（譯注：翻到這里譯者發(fā)現(xiàn)這很有可能是一篇恰飯文章。。。后面介紹APP的一段就不翻了）

Find conversational partners. I learned a lot of Mandarin from hanging out in a mandarin-speaking Linux tech support group on IRC. You can find conversational partners on Wechat, on IRC, on Weibo (“Chinese twitter”), Douban (no US equivalent! Interesting hipster-y site focused on books and music), or on dating apps like Momo or Tantan. Have “thick face skin,” the Chinese term for being shameless, and keep speaking even through your embarrassing mistakes. Add any words you have issues with to your flashcard loop. Try not to use any phrases you haven’t seen a native speaker use. You should start conversation practice way before you feel remotely ready for it, because it will ensure that the phrases you learn are those which native speakers actually use, rather than the fifty-year-old ones being taught in textbooks.

· 尋找對話伙伴?
我從 IRC 上一個(gè)講中文的 Linux 技術(shù)支持小組中學(xué)到了很多中文知識，受益良多。?
你可以在微信、 IRC、微博 (“中國推特”)、豆瓣 ( 美國沒有同類網(wǎng)站！一個(gè)很贊的流行網(wǎng)站專注于書籍和音樂 ) 上找到對話伙伴！ 或者約會APP，如陌陌或探探等。?
“臉皮厚”（thick face skin）很重要，即使你犯了令人尷尬的錯(cuò)誤，也要堅(jiān)持說下去。?
把任何你覺得有問題的單詞添加到你的抽認(rèn)卡，盡量不要使用以中文為母語的人沒有使用過的短語。
你應(yīng)該在你還沒有完全準(zhǔn)備好之前就開始練習(xí)對話，因?yàn)檫@將確保你學(xué)到的短語現(xiàn)在中文母語者實(shí)際使用的，而不是教科書上教50歲的人使用的那些。

Whatever you do, don’t underestimate the importance of tones. Many foreign speakers of Chinese have horrible tones or seem to think of them as an optional part of the language. They aren’t; they’re central to conveying meaning and you will sound permanently foreign if you don’t master them. The typical tonal learning curve is to go from barely even being able to hear the difference, to being able to hear it after about 4 months of practice, to being able to repeat it with some effort after another 4, and finally to having mostly correct tones after 6–8 months of total study. This assumes that you are paying tones the attention they deserve, and working hard to correct your mistakes.?

無論你做什么，都不要低估音調(diào)的重要性，許多講漢語的外國人有可怕的音調(diào)，或者認(rèn)為它們只是學(xué)習(xí)這門語言的一個(gè)可選部分——它們不是，它們是傳達(dá)意義的核心，如果你不能掌握它們，你的發(fā)言永遠(yuǎn)像個(gè)外國人。?
典型的音調(diào)學(xué)習(xí)曲線是從幾乎聽不出差別，到經(jīng)過大約4個(gè)月的練習(xí)后能聽出差別，再經(jīng)過4個(gè)月的努力能夠重復(fù)，最后經(jīng)過6-8個(gè)月的總體學(xué)習(xí)后能聽出大部分正確的音調(diào)，當(dāng)然，前提是你能給予音調(diào)應(yīng)有的關(guān)注，并努力改正你的錯(cuò)誤。

Don’t waste time learning how to write characters, at least until you’re already conversational and can read fast. A lot of people seem to love the app Skritter, but I’d avoid it because it will just teach you how to write characters well, a skill which is not especially useful.?

不要浪費(fèi)時(shí)間學(xué)習(xí)如何書寫，至少在你學(xué)會交談并能快速閱讀之前不要這樣。?
很多人似乎都喜歡 Skritter 這個(gè)APP，但我會避免使用它，因?yàn)樗粫棠闳绾螌懞米?，而這種技能并不是特別有用。

評論翻譯
原創(chuàng)翻譯：龍騰網(wǎng) http://www.ltaaa.com 翻譯：tangerl 轉(zhuǎn)載請注明出處

Alex Zito-Wolf
but the supply of those speakers remains relatively low
Do you have a source for this? English is currently taught as the second language in nearly every school in China, so I’m not sooo sure there is as much of a shortage as you claim.

“對會說英語和中文的人的需求非常高，但這類人才的供應(yīng)仍然相對較低”
—— 你有這方面的消息來源嗎? 目前，中國幾乎所有的學(xué)校都把英語作為第二語言來教授，所以我不太確定是否存在你所說的那種短缺。

Kayla Jo
I teach Chinese kids full immersion English via VIPKID. I converse with Chinese parents on the WeChat app. My 7 year old learns full immersion Chinese via a sister company lingo bus. So fun!

我通過 VIPKID 教授中國孩子完全沉浸式的英語，我在微信APP上與中國父母交談，我7歲的孩子通過 Lingo bus 完全沉浸式的學(xué)習(xí)中文，太有趣了！