2019年经济学人 移民家庭的母语传承(1)

 

Books and Arts

《图书与艺术》版块

Johnson

约翰逊专栏

Keeping it in the family 

家族传承

For expat parents, passing on their native languages can be a struggle 

外籍父母想要下一代传承母语并非易事

“You understand grandmother when she talks to you, don’t you, darling?” The girl nods. Johnson met her—and her Danish mother and English father—at the airport, en route to Denmark. The parents were eager to discuss their experience of bringing up their daughter bilingually in London. It isn’t easy: the husband does not speak Danish, so the child hears the language only from her mother, who has come to accept that she will reply in English.

“奶奶和你说话的时候你能听懂吗，亲爱的？”小女孩点了点头。约翰逊在去丹麦的机场见到了小女孩，以及小女孩丹麦籍的母亲和英国籍的父亲。这对父母很想分享在伦敦用双语抚养女儿的经历。这并非易事：丈夫不会讲丹麦语，小女孩只能从母亲那儿听到丹麦语，母亲已经接受了女儿只会用英文回复她的事实。

This can be painful. Not sharing your first language with loved ones is hard. Not passing it on to your own child can be especially tough. Many expat and immigrant parents feel a sense of failure; they wring¹ their hands and share stories on parenting forums² and social media, hoping to find the secret to nurturing³ bilingual children successfully.

这个过程很痛苦。不能与所爱之人分享母语是艰难的。不能将母语教给孩子尤为艰难。许多外籍和移民的父母都感到挫败感；他们焦头烂额地在育儿论坛和社交媒体上分享故事，希望找到成功培养双语儿童的秘诀。

Children are linguistic⁴ sponges, but this doesn’t mean that cursory⁵ exposure is enough. They must hear a language quite a bit to understand it—and use it often to be able to speak it comfortably. This is mental work, and a child who doesn’t have a motive⁶ to speak a language— either a need or a strong desire— will often avoid it. Children’s brains are already busy enough.

儿童的语言可塑性较强，但这并不意味着粗略地接触就足够。必须听的足够多直到能够理解，用得足够多直到能够顺畅地表达出来。这是一种脑力劳动，而一个没有需求或强烈愿望作为动力的孩子将会经常避免这种脑力劳动。孩子们的大脑已经够忙碌了。

So languages often wither⁷ and die when parents move abroad. Consider America. The foreign-born share of the population is 13.7%, and has never been lower than 4.7% (in 1970). And yet foreign- language speakers don’t accumulate: today just 25% of the population speaks another language. That’s because, typically, the first generation born in America is bilingual, and the second is monolingual—in English, the children often struggling to speak easily with their immigrant grandparents.

因此，父母移居国外时，母语会越说越少。以美国为例。父母至少有一方是外国人的人口比例为13.7%，从未低于4.7%（1970年）。然而讲外语的人并没有增多：如今只有25%的人口能讲外语。这是因为，一般情况下这样的第一代能讲双语，到了第二代就只能讲一种语言，因而孩子们和移民祖父母（或外祖父母）交流总是有障碍。

In the past, governments discouraged immigrant families from keeping their languages. Teddy Roosevelt worried that America would become a“polyglot boarding- house”. These days, officials tend to be less interventionist; some even see a valuable resource in immigrants’ language abilities. Yet many factors conspire⁸ to ensure that children still lose their parents’ languages, or never learn them.

过去，政府不鼓励移民家庭保留其母语。泰迪·罗斯福担心美国将成为一个“通晓多种语言的寄宿家庭”。 如今，政府倾向于减少干预；有些官员甚至在移民的语言能力中发现了宝贵的资源。但在各种因素同时作用下，孩子们仍然不能完全通晓父母的母语，抑或永远都学不会。

1 wring   

n.扭绞；v.拧，绞出，扭

参考例句：

• My socks were so wet that I had to wring them.我的袜子很湿，我不得不拧干它们。
• I'll wring your neck if you don't behave!你要是不规矩，我就拧断你的脖子。

2 forums   

讨论会； 座谈会； 广播专题讲话节目； 集会的公共场所( forum的名词复数 )； 论坛，讨论会，专题讨论节目； 法庭

参考例句：

• A few of the forums were being closely monitored by the administrators. 有些论坛被管理员严密监控。
• It can cast a dark cloud over these forums. 它将是的论坛上空布满乌云。

3 nurturing   

养育( nurture的现在分词 )； 培育； 滋长； 助长

参考例句：

• These delicate plants need careful nurturing. 这些幼嫩的植物需要精心培育。
• The modern conservatory is not an environment for nurturing plants. 这个现代化温室的环境不适合培育植物。

4 linguistic   

adj.语言的，语言学的

参考例句：

• She is pursuing her linguistic researches.她在从事语言学的研究。
• The ability to write is a supreme test of linguistic competence.写作能力是对语言能力的最高形式的测试。

5 cursory   

adj.粗略的；草率的；匆促的

参考例句：

• He signed with only a cursory glance at the report.他只草草看了一眼报告就签了名。
• The only industry mentioned is agriculture and it is discussed in a cursory sentence.实业方面只谈到农业,而且只是匆匆带了一句。

6 motive   

n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的

参考例句：

• The police could not find a motive for the murder.警察不能找到谋杀的动机。
• He had some motive in telling this fable.他讲这寓言故事是有用意的。

7 wither   

vt.使凋谢，使衰退，(用眼神气势等)使畏缩；vi.枯萎，衰退，消亡

参考例句：

• She grows as a flower does-she will wither without sun.她象鲜花一样成长--没有太阳就会凋谢。
• In autumn the leaves wither and fall off the trees.秋天，树叶枯萎并从树上落下来。

8 conspire   

v.密谋，（事件等）巧合，共同导致

参考例句：

• They'd conspired to overthrow the government.他们曾经密谋推翻政府。
• History and geography have conspired to bring Greece to a moment of decision.历史和地理因素共同将希腊推至作出抉择的紧要关头。