TED演讲:学习新语言的四个理由(4)

 There's an interesting illustration of this. 举一个有趣的例子。

I have to go slightly obscure, but really you should seek it out. 可能这个例子没那么直观，但是你应该可以理解。

There's a movie by the Canadian film director Denys Arcand 加拿大导演Denys Arcand执导的一部电影，

read out in English on the page, "Dennis Ar-cand," if you want to look him up. 如果有兴趣，你可以上网查一下，英语是Dennis Ar-cand。

He did a film called "Jesus of Montreal." 他拍了一部电影叫《蒙特利尔的耶稣》。

And many of the characters are vibrant¹, funny, passionate², interesting French-Canadian, French-speaking women. 电影中很多角色都是说法语的法语区加拿大女人，充满活力，为人风趣，充满热情。

There's one scene closest to the end, where they have to take a friend to an Anglophone hospital. 在影片结尾有一个场景，他们要送一个朋友到讲英语的医院。

In the hospital, they have to speak English. 在医院里他们需要讲英语。

Now, they speak English but it's not their native language, they'd rather not speak English. 她们会说英语，但是不是母语，她们不太愿意讲英语。

And they speak it more slowly, they have accents, they're not idiomatic³. 她们的语速慢了下来，讲的话有口音并且显得生硬。

Suddenly these characters that you've fallen in love with become husks of themselves, they're shadows of themselves. 突然间，这些你已经爱上的角色变成了空空的躯壳，变成了她们自己的影子。

To go into a culture and to only ever process people through that kind of skrim curtain is to never truly get the culture. 了解一种文化，如果只是透过表面那一层面纱，我们是无法真正理解的。

And so to the extent that hundreds of languages will be left, 所以既然未来几百种语言会存活下来，

one reason to learn them is because they are tickets to being able to participate in the culture of the people who speak them, 学外语的一个理由就是它是我们理解和融入一种文化的一张门票，

just by virtue⁴ of the fact that it is their code. So that's one reason. 因为语言就是打开文化的钥匙。以上是第一个原因。

 

1 vibrant   

adj.震颤的，响亮的，充满活力的，精力充沛的，(色彩)鲜明的

参考例句：

• He always uses vibrant colours in his paintings. 他在画中总是使用鲜明的色彩。
• She gave a vibrant performance in the leading role in the school play.她在学校表演中生气盎然地扮演了主角。

2 passionate   

adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的

参考例句：

• He is said to be the most passionate man.据说他是最有激情的人。
• He is very passionate about the project.他对那个项目非常热心。

3 idiomatic   

adj.成语的，符合语言习惯的

参考例句：

• In our reading we should always be alert for idiomatic expressions.我们在阅读过程中应经常注意惯用法。
• In his lecture,he bore down on the importance of idiomatic usage in a language.他在演讲中着重强调了语言中习惯用法的重要性。

4 virtue   

n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力

参考例句：

• He was considered to be a paragon of virtue.他被认为是品德尽善尽美的典范。
• You need to decorate your mind with virtue.你应该用德行美化心灵。