雅思哥经济学人细读
原 文 译 文
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
外籍怙恃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.
“奶奶以及你措辞的时分你能听懂吗，酷爱的？”小少女孩点了点头。约翰逊正在去丹麦的机场见到了小少女孩，和小少女孩丹麦籍的母亲以及英国籍的父亲。这对于怙恃很想瓜分正在伦敦用双语扶养少女儿的履历。这并非易事：夫君没有会讲丹麦语，小少女孩只可从母亲何处听到丹麦语，母亲一经采用了少女儿只会用英文复兴她的真相。
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 wring their hands and share stories on parenting forums and social media, hoping to find the secret to nurturing bilingual children successfully.
这个历程很欢乐。没有能与所爱之人瓜分母语是艰苦的。没有能将母语教给儿童尤为艰苦。许多外籍以及移平易近的怙恃都觉得挫败感；他们焦头烂额地正在育儿论坛以及外交媒体上瓜分小说，指望找到乐成教育双语孩子的诀窍。
Children are linguistic sponges, but this doesn’t mean that cursory 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 motive to speak a language— either a need or a strong desire— will often avoid it. Children’s brains are already busy enough.
孩子的语言可塑性较强，但这并没有意味着大略地战斗就渊博。必需听的渊博多直到恐怕领会，用得渊博多直到恐怕通顺地核达进去。这是一种脑力处事，而一个没有须要或强烈理想算作能源的儿童将会时常避免这种脑力处事。儿童们的大脑一经够繁忙了。
So languages often wither 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.
所以，怙恃移居海外时，母语会越说越少。以美国为例。怙恃至多有一方是本国人的人口比率为13.7%，从未低于4.7%（1970年）。然而讲外语的人并没有增加：如今只要25%的人口能讲外语。这是由于，普通状况下这样的第一代能讲双语，到了第二代就只可讲一种语言，所以儿童们以及移平易近祖怙恃（或外祖怙恃）调换总是有闭塞。
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 conspire to ensure that children still lose their parents’ languages, or never learn them.
往昔，当局没有激动移平易近家庭保全其母语。泰迪·罗斯福耽心美国将成为一个“知道多种语言的投宿家庭”。 如今，当局宗旨于削减干涉；有些官员以至正在移平易近的语言才略中发明了贵重的资源。但正在各类因素同时影响下，儿童们仍然没有能全面知道怙恃的母语，抑或永久都学没有会。
A big one is institutional pressure. A child’s time spent with a second language is time not spent on their first. So teachers often discourage parents from speaking their languages to their children. (This is especially true if the second language lacks prestige.) Parents often reluctantly comply, worried about their offspring’s education. This is a shame; children really can master two languages or even more. Research does indeed suggest their vocabulary in each language may be somewhat smaller for a while. But other studies hint at cognitive advantages among bilinguals. They may be more adept at complex tasks, better at maintaining attention, and (at the other end of life) suffer the onset of dementia later.
一个大因素便是制度性压力。假设一个儿童的时光花正在第二语言上那么讲母语的时光就一定少了。因而教员总是没有激动怙恃以及儿童讲自身的母语。（这种状况尤为表示正在第二语言没那么遍及的时分。）思虑到儿童的教训，怙恃每每会没有情愿地遵循。这确切很怅然；儿童们理论也许掌握两种或更多语言。争论确切说明，一段时光内，每种语言的词汇量会削减。但其他的争论也表示了双语习得者的认知劣势。大概更善于繁复的义务，更擅长维持留神力，（正在末年时）更晚得痴呆症。
Even without those side-effects, though, a bilingual child’s connection to relatives and another culture is a good thing in itself. How to bring it about? When both parents share the heritage language, the strategy is often to speak that at home, and the national language outside. But when they have different languages, perhaps the most common approach is “one parent, one language”. Franois Grosjean, a linguist at the University of Neuchtel in Switzerland, emphasizes necessity. He recommends reserving occasions on which the only language that may be spoken is the one that needs support.
即使没有这些附带劣势，掌握双语的孩子以及亲人和另一种文明的连贯自己便是一件好事。若何完结？怙恃两边都利用传承语言，也许选择正在家讲传承语正在外观讲本国语言的政策。但若怙恃两边讲分歧语言，只怕最常见的方式是“以及怙恃各讲一种语言”。瑞士纳沙泰尔大学语言学家弗朗索瓦·格罗让夸大了家族内传承语言的主要性。他以为讲一种语言的仅有保全场地正须要支柱。
Sabine Little, a German linguist at the University of Sheffield, puts the emphasis elsewhere. Making the heritage language yet another task imposed by parents can lead to rejection, she argues. She recommends letting the child forge their own emotional connection to the language. Her son gave up on German for several years before returning to it. She let him determine when they would speak it together. (He decided on the pair’s trips in her car to after-school activities, during which his father, who doesn’t speak German, would not be excluded.) They joke about his Anglo-German mash-ups and incorporate them into their lexicon. Like many youngsters, his time on YouTube is restricted—but he is allowed more if he watches in German. Ms. Little suggests learning through apps and entertainment made for native speakers; the educational type smack of homework, she thinks.
谢菲尔德大学德国语言学家扎比内·利特尔则把中心放正在其他地点。她以为让传承语言成为怙恃强加给儿童又一项义务大概会让儿童反感。她提议让儿童们自身建立以及语言的情绪关连。她儿子好多少年没有学德语，以后又重学的。他让儿童确定甚么时分一统说德语。（儿童确定坐上她的车投身亲子课外震动，正在此时期儿童没有会说德语的父亲也没有会破除正在外。）他们拿他的英德混搭开打趣，并将其纳入他们的词典。以及许多年老人一律，儿童上YouTube的时光受限——但假设用德语不雅看就也许看更万古间。利特尔提议经过专为母语人士妄图的利用法式以及娱乐练习；她以为这种教训类别有点像家庭功课。
Languages are an intimate part of identity; it is wrenching to try and fail to pass them on to a child. Success may be a question of remembering that they are not just another thing to be drilled into a young mind, but a matter of the heart.
语言是身份的主要组成全体；试图将其传播给后世却退步是欢乐的。要想乐成得记着语言没有仅要灌入到下一代的脑子，还要到达心灵。
精 读 解 析
篇章组织：
P1: 引入，用Johnson正在机场碰到的办事来引入移平易近怙恃想让儿童练习母语履历的容易
P2：移平易近怙恃将母语交给儿童所碰到的窘境
P3-P6: 儿童们没方法学会双语的缘由
P7: 让儿童们学会双语的政策
P8: Sabine Little教儿童双语的政策
P9: 教儿童双语的重点：教育儿童们对于母语的认同感
中心词汇：
● Bilingual /ba'lgw()l/adj. 两种语言的;能说两种语言的
注：这个词语蕴含前缀bi-=two, twice, doubly。如：biweekly 双周刊（bi+week 礼拜+ly→两礼拜）bilateral 双边的
【同根】
Bilinguist n. 知道两种语言的人
【例句】
a bilingual dictionary 双解词典
He is virtually bilingual in Spanish and Portuguese.
他理论上讲西班牙语以及葡萄牙语两种语言。
● en route to = on the way to…正在前往……途中
【例句】
On her second marathon, en route to Portland, she fractured a bone in her foot.
正在她第二次投身马拉松时，正在跑向波特兰的路上，她摔断了腿骨。
● expat /eks'pt/ v. 逐放洋外,脱节国籍,流放;移居海外n. 外籍人士；流落海外者
【例句】
But I have a former colleague there in the expat community.
但那边的外籍整体中有我往日的共事。
● immigrant /'mgr()nt/ n. 移平易近，外来移平易近
【同根】
Immigrate vi. 移入
Immigration n.移平易近
【例句】
Canada has many immigrants from Europe.
加拿大有许多欧洲移平易近。
● sponge /spn(d)/ n. 海绵v. 骗取; 敲詐; 揩油；(用海绵或海绵状物)擦拭, 消除
【短语】
chuck up the sponge 遵循，认输；招认退步
sponge on 依附
sponge out 用海绵等擦拭; 清洗; 消除
【例句】
He put a dry sponge into the bucket.
他把一块干海绵放进水桶。
You should try to sponge out the memory of the accident.
你该尽力抹除那次事故的记忆。
● Cursory /'ks()r/ adj. 大略的；轻率的；仓促的
【例句】
He gave a cursory glance at the headlines in a newspaper
他草草地看一眼报纸的题目。
● wither/'w/vt. vi. (使)凋落, (使)凋谢, (使)凋谢
【短语】
wither away 凋落,幻灭
wither up 使凋落
【例句】
The hot sun has withered (up) the grass.
凉爽的太阳使草凋落了。
The flowers withered in the cold.
花正在冰冷的气象里凋谢了。
● accumulate /'kjumjlet/ vt. vi. 聚集; 积存
【同根】
Accumulation n. 积存；积累；蕴蓄；聚集
Accumulative adj. 蕴蓄的,积聚的
【例句】
Snow accumulated to a depth of 12 feet.
雪已积到十二英尺深。
You should accumulate experience from now on.
你应该从而今结束积聚体味。
● Monolingual /mn()'lgw()l/ adj. 术 单语的,只用一种语言的
注：这个词蕴含前缀mono-示意“单个，一个”如：
monarch 君主，独裁者(mon + arch操持者→一个操持者)
monogamy 一夫一妻制(mono + gamy婚姻)
monologue 独白(mono + logue措辞→一集体措辞→独白)
【例句】
a monolingual dictionary
单语字典
But monolingual adults need to be reminded of the past too.
但咱们也有须要让那些单语的成年人也分解史乘。
● polyglot /'plglt/ n. 知道数种语言的人；用知道数种语言记载的书adj. 通数国语言，数国语言的
注：这个词蕴含前缀poly-示意“多”如：poly-functional多功能的(poly + functional有功能的)
【例句】
a polyglot career woman.
领会多种语言的行状妇少女。
● Interventionist /nt'ven()nst/ n. 过问主义者, 主张干涉的人
【同根】
Intervene v. 干涉
【例句】
I don't believe in an interventionist God.
我没有置信一个过问主义的天主。
● conspire /kn'spa/ vi. 共谋；合力；暗杀筹划
【例句】
The bank tellers conspired to rob the bank.
银行出纳员串谋掳掠银行。
● prestige /pre'sti(d)/ n. 威信，声誉；声望
【同根】
Prestigious adj. 受尊崇的, 有声誉的, 有威望的
【例句】
Our mayor's prestige is known throughout the state.
咱们市长的威信正在整体州都是众所周知的。
● Cognitive /kɡnitiv/ adj. 认知的, 认得才略的
【同根】
Cognition n. 知觉
Cognitional adj. 认得上的
【短语】
cognitive domain 认知范畴
cognitive learning 认知练习
cognitive psychology 认知情绪学
【例句】
We should allow all of the evidence that men and women have equal cognitive capacity, to permeate through society.
咱们应该把一切的证明说明，汉子以及少女人有同等的认知才略、渗出进社会。
● Onset /'nset/ n. 结束；打击,报复
【例句】
He went to see the doctor at the onset of a cold.
他结束感冒时便去看医生了。
● dementia /d'men/ n. 〈医〉痴呆
【例句】
senile dementia n. 末年性痴呆
Experts believe dementia affects close to 50-million people worldwide.
各人以为，痴呆症作用着寰球近5000万人。
● side-effect n. 副影响
【例句】
Chemotherapy has many side-effects on patients.
化疗对于病人有许多副影响。
The side-effect of making quality products is that people want them.
建造精良产物的仅有副影响便是让人们想要他们。
● Wrench vt. (猛力地)扭, 拧, 扳；扭伤, 挫伤；使觉得欢乐n. 一拧; 一扳; 猛扭
【例句】
It wrenched her to watch them go.
看着他们分开，她很舒畅
He threw a monkey wrench into our plans.
他冲破了咱们的讨论
争持就会有播种！