Will Chinese Re lish as the Global e Replace English bal Languageguage

□劉素庚

Will Chinese Re lish as the Global e Replace English bal Languageguage

□劉素庚

FacebookfounderMarkZuckerbergrecentlysurprisedChinesestudents when he spoke to them in Chinese.In a talk at Tsinghua University in Beijing,Zuckerberg spoke Chinese for about 30 minutes.Although his Mandarin was far from perfect,students and faculty cheered his effort.

“臉書”創始人馬克·扎克伯格最近用中文同中國學生交流，把他們都驚呆了。在清華大學的一次演講中，扎克伯格說了大約30分鐘的中文。雖然他的普通話遠不夠標準，但清華師生們都為他的努力喝彩。

Zuckerberg’s talk raises a larger question:is Chinese the language of the future?Could it replace English as the world’s international language? Mandarin Chinese already has the most native speakers of any language.And, China may soon pass the United States as the world’s largest economy.

扎克伯格的演講引出了一個更大的問題：中文是未來的語言嗎？它是否會取代英語成為國際通用語言？以普通話為母語的人數已經超過了任何語言。而且，中國可能很快超過美國成為全球最大的經濟體。

But Chinese is also a more difficult language to learn.The U.S.Foreign Service Institute estimates it would take a native English speaker 2, 200 hours to reach professional fluency in Chinese.That is four timeslonger than it would take to reach the same level in Dutch,French,or Spanish.While Chinese grammar is much simpler,Chinese has a tone and writing system that is more difficult for adult learners to master.

但是，中文還是一種比較難學的語言。美國外交事務所估計，讓英語母語者達到中文專業流利水平需要練習2200小時。如果要達到同等水平，學習中文所花的時間要比學習荷蘭語、法語、西班牙語的時間多4倍。然而中文語法要簡單得多，中文的聲調和書寫體系對成人學習者來說更難掌握。

And American movies,music,television,video games have wide audiences...So far China’s success in this realm has been very limited.Chinese films,Chinese television shows,Chinese music doesn’t have a huge following outside of China.

并且美國電影、音樂、電視和視頻游戲有著廣泛的受眾。到目前為止，中國在這一領域取得成功非常有限。中國電影、電視節目和音樂在海外沒有龐大的追隨者。

A recent survey showed that only one in four Americans is multilingual,or able to speak more than one language.And most multilingual Americans are immigrants or the children of immigrants.For most Americans,Brits,and Australians,learning a foreign language is a choice,not a necessity.China Daily estimates that 400 million Chinese are studying English.That means China has more English learners than the U.S.has English speakers.

最近的一項調查顯示，只有1∕4的美國人會說多個語種或者至少2個語種。而且大多數懂多種語言的美國人是移民或移民子弟。對于大多數美國人、英國人和澳大利亞人來說，學習外語是一種選擇而不是必要?！吨袊請蟆饭烙嬘?億中國人在學英語。這意味著中國學英語的人比美國講英語的人還多。

ThestudyoftheChineselanguageisincreasingintheUnited States and around the world.In 2009,about 60,000 American college students were studying Chinese.That is three times as many as in 1990. Some schools in the United States and other countries offer Chinese language classes with government support from China.

學中文在美國和世界各地不斷升溫。2009年大約有6萬名美國大學生在學中文，是1990年的3倍。在中國政府的支持下，美國和其他一些國家的一些學校開設漢語課。

So far,English has kind of been the universal language,but more and more,with Chinese businesses and just the amount of industry that they have there it seems that that would be,you know,logical thing that could be happening or it seems like it would make you a valuable employee if you also spoke Chinese.Knowing Chinese could give you a competitive advantage.

截至目前，英語一直是全球通用語言。但中國的企業越來越多，你光看看中國擁有的行業數量，看上去順理成章的事情可能會發生，如果會說中文，你就會成為更有價值的員工。懂中文會給你提供一種競爭優勢。

Chinese will grow in importance,especially for people who want to work and do business in China.But he does not think Chinese will overtake English any time soon.English is the international language of business.But an increasing number of American companies that do business in China or with Chinese companies are having their workers learn Mandarin.Chinese is the trend of business in Southeast Asia,as most of the business people are speaking Chinese,including those from Singapore,Malaysia,and the Philippines.

中文將變得越來越重要，對那些想在中國工作或做生意的人來說尤其如此。但他并不認為中文能很快超過英文。英語是商業上的國際語言。但越來越多在中國做生意或與中國公司做生意的美國公司讓員工學習普通話。在東南亞的生意圈，說漢語是一個趨勢，因為來自新加坡、馬來西亞和菲律賓的大多數商人都講中文。

As China rises you can anticipate that more people will adopt the language.But is Chinese going to replace English?I don’t think so-certainly not in my lifetime,probably not in the next two,three,four generations.

隨著中國的崛起，你可以預見更多人會使用中文。但是中文是否將會取代英文呢？我不這么認為。這一幕肯定不會在我的有生之年發生，也可能不會在未來三四十年內發生。