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

□刘素庚

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

□刘素庚

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.

“脸书”创始人马克·扎克伯格最近用中文同中国学生交流，把他们都惊呆了。在清华大学的一次演讲中，扎克伯格说了大约30分钟的中文。虽然他的普通话远不够标准，但清华师生们都为他的努力喝彩。

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.

扎克伯格的演讲引出了一个更大的问题：中文是未来的语言吗？它是否会取代英语成为国际通用语言？以普通话为母语的人数已经超过了任何语言。而且，中国可能很快超过美国成为全球最大的经济体。

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，中文还是一种比较难学的语言。美国外交事务所估计，让英语母语者达到中文专业流利水平需要练习2200小时。如果要达到同等水平，学习中文所花的时间要比学习荷兰语、法语、西班牙语的时间多4倍。然而中文语法要简单得多，中文的声调和书写体系对成人学习者来说更难掌握。

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.

并且美国电影、音乐、电视和视频游戏有着广泛的受众。到目前为止，中国在这一领域取得成功非常有限。中国电影、电视节目和音乐在海外没有庞大的追随者。

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.

最近的一项调查显示，只有1∕4的美国人会说多个语种或者至少2个语种。而且大多数懂多种语言的美国人是移民或移民子弟。对于大多数美国人、英国人和澳大利亚人来说，学习外语是一种选择而不是必要。《中国日报》估计有4亿中国人在学英语。这意味着中国学英语的人比美国讲英语的人还多。

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.

学中文在美国和世界各地不断升温。2009年大约有6万名美国大学生在学中文，是1990年的3倍。在中国政府的支持下，美国和其他一些国家的一些学校开设汉语课。

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，英语一直是全球通用语言。但中国的企业越来越多，你光看看中国拥有的行业数量，看上去顺理成章的事情可能会发生，如果会说中文，你就会成为更有价值的员工。懂中文会给你提供一种竞争优势。

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.

中文将变得越来越重要，对那些想在中国工作或做生意的人来说尤其如此。但他并不认为中文能很快超过英文。英语是商业上的国际语言。但越来越多在中国做生意或与中国公司做生意的美国公司让员工学习普通话。在东南亚的生意圈，说汉语是一个趋势，因为来自新加坡、马来西亚和菲律宾的大多数商人都讲中文。

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.

随着中国的崛起，你可以预见更多人会使用中文。但是中文是否将会取代英文呢？我不这么认为。这一幕肯定不会在我的有生之年发生，也可能不会在未来三四十年内发生。