The language I'm speaking right now is on its way to becoming the world's universal language, for better or for worse. Let's face it, it's the language of the internet, it's the language of finance, it's the language of air traffic control, of popular music, diplomacy -- English is everywhere.
Hozir men gapirayotgan til, baxtgami yoki aksincha, vaqt sayin asosiy dunyo tiliga aylanmoqda. Keling buni tan olamiz: butun internet bu tilda, bu tilda moliyachilar gaplashishadi, aviadispetcherlar, unda mashhur qo'shiqlar kuylashadi, diplomatlar muloqot qiladi... Ingliz tili hamma joyda.
Now, Mandarin Chinese is spoken by more people, but more Chinese people are learning English than English speakers are learning Chinese. Last I heard, there are two dozen universities in China right now teaching all in English. English is taking over.
Hozirda ko'plab insonlar shimoliy xitoychada gapirishadi. Lekin shunda ham xitoyliklar ingliz tilini ingliz tilida gapiruvchilar xitoychani o'rgangandan-da ko'proq o'rganishadi. Bilishimcha, hozir Xitoyda ta'lim faqat ingliz tilida olib boriladigan o'nlab universitetlar bor. Ingliz tili dunyoni egallamoqda.
And in addition to that, it's been predicted that at the end of the century almost all of the languages that exist now -- there are about 6,000 -- will no longer be spoken. There will only be some hundreds left. And on top of that, it's at the point where instant translation of live speech is not only possible, but it gets better every year.
Qo'shimcha qilib aytganda, tahmin qilinishicha, asr so'ngigacha hozirda mavjud deyarli barcha tillar — ular hozirda 6 000 ta — foydalanilmay qo'yiladi, shulardan bir necha yuztasi qoladi. So'ngida, biz hozir tezkor nutq tarjimasini nafaqat amalga oshirsa bo'ladigan, balki, yildan-yilga yaxshilanib borayotgan davrda yashayapmiz.
The reason I'm reciting those things to you is because I can tell that we're getting to the point where a question is going to start being asked, which is: Why should we learn foreign languages -- other than if English happens to be foreign to one? Why bother to learn another one when it's getting to the point where almost everybody in the world will be able to communicate in one?
Men sizga sabablarni keltirib o'taman. Biz yashayotgan paytda borgan sari "biz nega boshqa tillarni o'rganishimiz kerak? Agar ular qaysidir xalqniki bo'lsa, ingliz tilidan boshqasi bizga kerakmi?" kabi savollar beriladigan vaqtga yaqinlashmoqdamiz. Borgan sari hamma bir tilda gaplasha boshlayotgan bir vaqtda, nega kuch sarflab boshqa tilni o'rganishimiz kerak?
I think there are a lot of reasons, but I first want to address the one that you're probably most likely to have heard of, because actually it's more dangerous than you might think. And that is the idea that a language channels your thoughts, that the vocabulary and the grammar of different languages gives everybody a different kind of acid trip, so to speak. That is a marvelously enticing idea, but it's kind of fraught.
O'ylashimcha, bunga sabab ko'p. Lekin oldin bir narsaga e'tiborimizni qarataylik, menimcha siz buni bilsangiz ham kerak, lekin bu ma'lumotda ham bir hiyla bor: bu har xil tillarning leksikoni va grammatikasi insonning fikrlash shaklini va yo'nalishini o'zgartira olishga qodirligi, va hattoki, o'ziga xos bir astral holatidan chiqishga yordam bera olishi haqidagi ma'lumot. Bu quvonarli ma'lumot, lekin unda bir muammo bor.
So it's not that it's untrue completely. So for example, in French and Spanish the word for table is, for some reason, marked as feminine. So, "la table," "la mesa," you just have to deal with it. It has been shown that if you are a speaker of one of those languages and you happen to be asked how you would imagine a table talking, then much more often than could possibly be an accident, a French or a Spanish speaker says that the table would talk with a high and feminine voice. So if you're French or Spanish, to you, a table is kind of a girl, as opposed to if you are an English speaker.
Bu ma'lumotni inkor etolmaymiz. Masalan, fransuz va ispan tillarida "stol" so'zi negadir jenskoy rodda: "la table", "la mesa". Buni faqat qabul qilish kerak. Aniqlanishicha, agar bu tillarda gapiruvchilardan ularning fikricha, stol gapira olganida, qanday ovozda gapirishi mumkinligi borasidagi savolga ko'pchilikning javoblariga ko'ra, fransuzlar va ispanlar aytadiki, stol ayol ovozida, baland tonda gapirgan bo'lar edi. Shu sabab, agar siz fransuz yoki ispan bo'lsangiz, qaysidir ma'noda stol siz uchun — stol siz uchun —qiz bola, ingliz bo'lganingizda esa aksincha bo'lar edi.
It's hard not to love data like that, and many people will tell you that that means that there's a worldview that you have if you speak one of those languages. But you have to watch out, because imagine if somebody put us under the microscope, the us being those of us who speak English natively. What is the worldview from English?
Kimga bu kabi ma'lumotlar yoqmaydi? Shunday xulosa hosil bo'ladiki, agar siz bu tillardan birida muloqot qilsangiz, siz dunyoni boshqacha ko'rasiz. Lekin ehtiyot bo'lish kerak, chunki, o'ylab ko'ring, agar kimdir bizni o'rganishni boshlasa, ingliz tilida go'daklikdan gapiruvchilarni: inglizlar dunyoni qanday ko'radi?
So for example, let's take an English speaker. Up on the screen, that is Bono. He speaks English. I presume he has a worldview. Now, that is Donald Trump. In his way, he speaks English as well.
Keling, misol uchun ingliz tili ona tilisi bo'lgan insonni olsak. Hozir siz Bononi ko'ryapsiz. U inglizcha gapiradi. Uning qandaydir o'z dunyoqarashi bor. Ekranda Donald Tramp. Unda ham o'ziga yarasha. U ham inglizcha gapiradi.
(Laughter)
(Kulgu)
And here is Ms. Kardashian, and she is an English speaker, too. So here are three speakers of the English language. What worldview do those three people have in common? What worldview is shaped through the English language that unites them? It's a highly fraught concept. And so gradual consensus is becoming that language can shape thought, but it tends to be in rather darling, obscure psychological flutters. It's not a matter of giving you a different pair of glasses on the world.
Mana miss Kardashyan, u ham shu tilda gapiradi. Xo'sh, bu yerda uchta ingliz tilida muloqot qiluvchi inson. Ular dunyoni qanday ko'radi? Bu ularni qanday farqlaydi? Ingliz tilidagi qanday dunyoqarash ularni birlashtiradi? Bu o'ziga xos muammoli g'oya. Ko'pchilik shunday xulosaga kelmoqdaki, til fikrlarni shakllantiradi, lekin bu nozik va tushunarsiz psixologik aspektlarda namoyon bo'ladi. Bu chet tili sizga boshqacha dunyoqarash taqdim etadi degani emas.
Now, if that's the case, then why learn languages? If it isn't going to change the way you think, what would the other reasons be? There are some. One of them is that if you want to imbibe a culture, if you want to drink it in, if you want to become part of it, then whether or not the language channels the culture -- and that seems doubtful -- if you want to imbibe the culture, you have to control to some degree the language that the culture happens to be conducted in. There's no other way.
Shunday ekan, o'zi nega tillarni o'rganishimiz kerak? Agar bu sizning fikrlashingizni o'zgartirmasa, unda bunga qanday sabablar bor? Ular bir nechta. Birinchidan, siz qandaydir madaniyatni o'rganmoqchi, o'zlashtirmoqchi bo'lsangiz, uning bir qismi bo'lishni istasangiz, til bunda rol o'ynaydimi yo'qmi, jamiyatni o'rganish uchun, siz qaysidir bir darajada o'sha tildan foydalanishingizga, unda muloqot qilishingizga to'g'ri keladi. Boshqa yo'li yo'q.
There's an interesting illustration of this. I have to go slightly obscure, but really you should seek it out. There's a movie by the Canadian film director Denys Arcand -- read out in English on the page, "Dennis Ar-cand," if you want to look him up. He did a film called "Jesus of Montreal." And many of the characters are vibrant, funny, passionate, interesting French-Canadian, French-speaking women. There's one scene closest to the end, where they have to take a friend to an Anglophone hospital. In the hospital, they have to speak English. Now, they speak English but it's not their native language, they'd rather not speak English. And they speak it more slowly, they have accents, they're not idiomatic. Suddenly these characters that you've fallen in love with become husks of themselves, they're shadows of themselves.
Qiziq bir misol bor. Men hozir sal tushunarsiz gapiraman, lekin siz mazmunini tushunishingiz kerak. Kanadalik rejissyor Deni Arkan tomonidan suratga olingan bitta film bor. Ingliz tilida uning ismi "Dennis Arcand" deb yoziladi, agar qidirishni xohlasangiz. U "Monreallik Iso" deb nomlanadigan film suratga olgan. Undagi ko'pchilik qahramonlar — chaqqon, tez, kulgili, qizg'in, fransuzcha gapiruvchi, qiziqarli franko-kanadaliklar edi. Yakuniga oz qolganda, bitta sahna bor, unda ular do'stini hamma inglizcha gapiradigan shifoxonaga oborishlari kerak bo'ladi. U yerda ular shu tilde gapirishlari kerak bo'ladi. Ular shunday qilishadi ham, lekin bu ularning ona tili emas. Odatda ular unda gapirmaslikni ma'qul ko'rishadi. Va ular sekin gapirishadi, aksent bilan, oddiy so'zlar orqali. Hamma yoqtiradigan qahramonlar endi birdan o'zlarining oddiy, kulrang soyalariga aylanishadi.
To go into a culture and to only ever process people through that kind of skrim curtain is to never truly get the culture. And so to the extent that hundreds of languages will be left, one reason to learn them is because they are tickets to being able to participate in the culture of the people who speak them, just by virtue of the fact that it is their code. So that's one reason.
Jamiyatga sho'ng'ish va insonlarni bunday xira oyna orqali tushunishga harakat qilish — ularni chindan tushuna olmaslikka olib keladi. Agar bor-yo'g'i bir necha yuzta til qoladigan bo'lsa, ularni o'rganish uchun birinchi sabab: ularning har biri — alohida chipta, u sizga biror bir tilda gapiruvchi jamiyatning bir qismi bo'lishga yo'l ochadi, chunki u chinakam kod vazifasini bajaradi. Bu birinchi sabab.
Second reason: it's been shown that if you speak two languages, dementia is less likely to set in, and that you are probably a better multitasker. And these are factors that set in early, and so that ought to give you some sense of when to give junior or juniorette lessons in another language. Bilingualism is healthy.
Ikkinchi sabab: isbotlanganki, agar siz ikki xil tilda gapirsangiz, demensiya kasalligiga chalinish ehtimoli sizda ancha kam, va menimcha, siz bir vaqtning o'zida nechta vazifani uddalay olasiz. Bu bolalikdan aniq bo'la boshlaydi, va siz endi tushunasiz, farzandlaringizni qachonda til o'rganishga yuborishingizni. Bilingvizm sog'liq uchun foydali.
And then, third -- languages are just an awful lot of fun. Much more fun than we're often told. So for example, Arabic: "kataba," he wrote, "yaktubu," he writes, she writes. "Uktub," write, in the imperative. What do those things have in common? All those things have in common the consonants sitting in the middle like pillars. They stay still, and the vowels dance around the consonants. Who wouldn't want to roll that around in their mouths? You can get that from Hebrew, you can get that from Ethiopia's main language, Amharic. That's fun.
Uchinchi sabab: chet tillari — judayam qiziq. Bizga tushintirishlaridan ko'p marta qiziqarliroq. Masalan, arab tilida "kataba" — "u yozdi", "yaktubu" — "u yozayapti". "Uktub" — "yozing", buyruq so'z. Bu soz'larda qanday umumiylik bor? Hammasida bir xil undoshlar, va ular so'zning markazida, xuddi ustundek. Ular joyida qoladi, unlilar esa ular atrofida raqsga tushmoqda. Kimga bu so'zlar orqali til o'rganish yoqmaydi? Ivritda ham shunday, Efiopiya davlat tili — amxarchada ham. Bu juda qiziqarli.
Or languages have different word orders. Learning how to speak with different word order is like driving on the different side of a street if you go to certain country, or the feeling that you get when you put Witch Hazel around your eyes and you feel the tingle. A language can do that to you.
Yana har tilda har xil so'z joylashuvi bor. So'zlarni boshqa tartibda qo'yib gapirishni o'rganish, bu xuddi chap tarafga harakatlanadigan mamlakatda mashina haydashdek gap, yoki ko'zga gamamelis ekstraktli suyuqlikni tomizgandan keyin paydo bo'ladigan hissiyotga o'xshaydi. Chet tili sizni shunday bir boshqacha tuyg'ularni his
So for example, "The Cat in the Hat Comes Back," a book that I'm sure we all often return to, like "Moby Dick." One phrase in it is, "Do you know where I found him? Do you know where he was? He was eating cake in the tub, Yes he was!" Fine. Now, if you learn that in Mandarin Chinese, then you have to master, "You can know, I did where him find? He was tub inside gorging cake, No mistake gorging chewing!" That just feels good. Imagine being able to do that for years and years at a time.
qilishga majbur qila oladi. Masalan, "Shlyapa kiygan mushukning qaytishi" — ko'pchiligimiz sevib o'qigan, va yana takror o'qiydigan kitob, xuddi "Mobi Dik" kabi. U yerda shunday so'zlar bor: "Bilasanmi, uni qayerdan topib oldim? U nimagadir yuvinishga kirib ketdi. Vannada o'tirib pirog yerdi. Xa. U qila oldi." Agar siz buni xitoycha variantini o'qisangiz, quyidagini eslab qoling: "Uni qayerdan topganimni topa olasanmi? U chala yeyilgan tortda yuvinayotgan edi. Shubhasiz, tortni u ishtaha bilan yeyayotgandi!" Bu menga yoqadi. Tasavvur qiling, til o'rganish bilan yillab shug'ullana olasiz.
Or, have you ever learned any Cambodian? Me either, but if I did, I would get to roll around in my mouth not some baker's dozen of vowels like English has, but a good 30 different vowels scooching and oozing around in the Cambodian mouth like bees in a hive. That is what a language can get you.
Siz qachondir kxmer tilini o'rganganmisiz? Men ham yo'q. Lekin agar o'rganganimda edi, men og'zimda 13 ta undosh harfni emas, ingliz tilida bo'lganidek, balki kambodjaliklar tilida jaranglaydigan 30 ta undosh harfni his qilgan bo'lardim, xuddi arilarga o'xshab. Mana sizga nima bera oladi chet tillari.
And more to the point, we live in an era when it's never been easier to teach yourself another language. It used to be that you had to go to a classroom, and there would be some diligent teacher -- some genius teacher in there -- but that person was only in there at certain times and you had to go then, and then was not most times. You had to go to class. If you didn't have that, you had something called a record. I cut my teeth on those. There was only so much data on a record, or a cassette, or even that antique object known as a CD. Other than that you had books that didn't work, that's just the way it was.
Undan tashqari, hozirda chet tillarini o'rganish har qachongidan-da oson. Oldinlari darslarga borish kerak bo'lardi, u yerda qandaydir bir o'qituvchi o'tirardi, zo'r o'qituvchi, — lekin u yerda u ma'lum bir paytda bo'lardi va uning oldiga aynan shu payt borish kerak bo'lardi. Darslar esa unchalik tez bo'lavermasdi. Siz darslarga qatnashishga majbur edingiz. Agar bunday imkoniyat bo'lmasa, sizga plastinka asqotardi. Men buning ustasi edim. Plastinkalar, kassetalar, xattoki CD-disc deb ataluvchi eskicha bir uskuna, unda ma'lumotlar chegaralangan edi. Ulardan tashqari, kitoblar bor edi — foydasiz kitoblar. Hammasi shunday edi.
Today you can lay down -- lie on your living room floor, sipping bourbon, and teach yourself any language that you want to with wonderful sets such as Rosetta Stone. I highly recommend the lesser known Glossika as well. You can do it any time, therefore you can do it more and better. You can give yourself your morning pleasures in various languages. I take some "Dilbert" in various languages every single morning; it can increase your skills. Couldn't have done it 20 years ago when the idea of having any language you wanted in your pocket, coming from your phone, would have sounded like science fiction to very sophisticated people.
Bugun esa bir joyga o'rnashib olib, masalan, mehmonxona polida, burbon ichgan holda, mustaqil ravishda xohlagan bir tilni o'rganish mumkin, Rosetta Stone kabi ajoyib dasturlar yordamida. Yana men Glossika deb nomlanadigan bitta kursni maslahat beraman. Istalgan bir vaqtda, xohlaganingizcha o'rganishingiz mumkin. Siz ertalablari chet tillariga bog'liq bo'lgan nimadir bilan o'zingizni hursand qilishingiz mumkin, bu sizga qobiliyatingizni yanada oshirishga yordam beradi. Men har kuni ertalab "Dilbert" komikslarini o'qiyman, har xil tillarda. 20 yil oldin buning iloji yo'q edi. Til o'rganish materiallarining hammasi cho'ntagimizga sig'ishi, ya'ni telefonimizga, xattoki rivojlangan insonlar uchun ham fantastikadek ko'rinardi.
So I highly recommend that you teach yourself languages other than the one that I'm speaking, because there's never been a better time to do it. It's an awful lot of fun. It won't change your mind, but it will most certainly blow your mind.
Shuning uchun ham men sizlarga tillarni o'rganishingizni maslahat beraman, chunki buning uchun hozirgidek imkoniyatlar hech qachon bo'lmagan. Bu judayam qiziqarli. Bu balki fikrlashingizni o'rgartirmas, lekin bu sizni hayratlantirishi aniq.
Thank you very much.
Katta rahmat.
(Applause)
(Qarsaklar)