I know what you're thinking. You think I've lost my way, and somebody's going to come on the stage in a minute and guide me gently back to my seat. (Applause) I get that all the time in Dubai. "Here on holiday are you, dear?" (Laughter) "Come to visit the children? How long are you staying?"
我知道你哋諗咩 你哋覺得我走錯咗上台 然後有人會好快帶我返落去 (掌聲) 我喺杜拜成日會遇上呢啲問題︰ 「嚟呢度度假吖?」 (笑聲) 「嚟探小朋友吖?你會留幾耐?」
Well actually, I hope for a while longer yet. I have been living and teaching in the Gulf for over 30 years. (Applause) And in that time, I have seen a lot of changes. Now that statistic is quite shocking. And I want to talk to you today about language loss and the globalization of English. I want to tell you about my friend who was teaching English to adults in Abu Dhabi. And one fine day, she decided to take them into the garden to teach them some nature vocabulary. But it was she who ended up learning all the Arabic words for the local plants, as well as their uses -- medicinal uses, cosmetics, cooking, herbal. How did those students get all that knowledge? Of course, from their grandparents and even their great-grandparents. It's not necessary to tell you how important it is to be able to communicate across generations.
其實我想留耐啲 我喺波斯灣生活同教書已經超過 30 年啦 (掌聲) 呢 30 年裏面,我睇到好多變化 宜家呢份數據幾嚇人 而我今日要講嘅係 語言消失同埋英語全球化 我想講一講我朋友 喺阿布扎比教大人英文 喺一個晴天嘅日子,佢帶學生去花園 喺嗰度教學生一啲大自然嘅詞彙 但最後卻變成我朋友 學曬所有當地植物嘅阿拉伯名 同埋植物用途 例如用喺藥物、化妝品 烹飪用途、草藥 呢啲學生點樣得到呢啲知識嘅呢? 當然係由佢哋嘅祖父母 甚至曾祖父母獲得架啦 所以跨世代溝通我唔需多講有幾重要
But sadly, today, languages are dying at an unprecedented rate. A language dies every 14 days. Now, at the same time, English is the undisputed global language. Could there be a connection? Well I don't know. But I do know that I've seen a lot of changes. When I first came out to the Gulf, I came to Kuwait in the days when it was still a hardship post. Actually, not that long ago. That is a little bit too early. But nevertheless, I was recruited by the British Council, along with about 25 other teachers. And we were the first non-Muslims to teach in the state schools there in Kuwait. We were brought to teach English because the government wanted to modernize the country and to empower the citizens through education. And of course, the U.K. benefited from some of that lovely oil wealth.
但遺憾嘅 今日好多語言正以前所未有嘅速度消失 每 14 日就有一種語言消失 與此同時 英文卻無庸置疑成為國際語言 當中有關聯嗎? 我唔知 但我知我見證好多轉變 當我第一次嚟到波斯灣,我去咗科威特 當時英文老師仍然唔係一份好工 其實,我嚟呢度做嘢唔係好耐之前 但做老師唔太好係講緊更加早之前 總之,英國文化協會 請咗我同其他 25 位老師 我哋係第一批喺科威特嘅國立學校 任教嘅非穆斯林老師 我哋被派到嗰度教英文 係因為當地政府希望國家可以現代化 同埋提升公民嘅教育水平 當然,英國從中獲得石油財富 言歸正傳
Okay. Now this is the major change that I've seen -- how teaching English has morphed from being a mutually beneficial practice to becoming a massive international business that it is today. No longer just a foreign language on the school curriculum, and no longer the sole domain of mother England, it has become a bandwagon for every English-speaking nation on earth. And why not? After all, the best education -- according to the latest World University Rankings -- is to be found in the universities of the U.K. and the U.S. So everybody wants to have an English education, naturally. But if you're not a native speaker, you have to pass a test.
我見過最大嘅改變, 就係英語教學 由原本大家互惠互利嘅經濟手段 演變成今日全世界大規模嘅生意 英語唔再係學校課程裡面嘅外語科目 亦唔再只係英國嘅專利 英語教學嘅商機已經成為 所有英語國家想分一杯匙嘅嘢 點解唔係呢? 畢竟,根據最新嘅世界大學排名 最好嘅教育嚟自英國同美國嘅大學 所以自然每個人都想接受英語教育 但如果你嘅母語唔係英文 你就要考英文試
Now can it be right to reject a student on linguistic ability alone? Perhaps you have a computer scientist who's a genius. Would he need the same language as a lawyer, for example? Well, I don't think so. We English teachers reject them all the time. We put a stop sign, and we stop them in their tracks. They can't pursue their dream any longer, 'til they get English. Now let me put it this way: if I met a monolingual Dutch speaker who had the cure for cancer, would I stop him from entering my British University? I don't think so. But indeed, that is exactly what we do. We English teachers are the gatekeepers. And you have to satisfy us first that your English is good enough. Now it can be dangerous to give too much power to a narrow segment of society. Maybe the barrier would be too universal.
但單憑英語能力決定收唔收學生 咁樣做啱嗎? 譬如有一位電腦科學家,佢係天才嚟嘅 但他需唔需要有律師一樣嘅語言能力? 我唔覺得要 但身為英語老師嘅我哋 卻總係拒絕收呢啲人 我哋喺佢個人發展嘅路上處處設限 將學生擋喺路上 令佢哋無法追求自己嘅夢想 直至佢哋通過咗英文考試 我哋至畀佢過 容我換個方式講 如果我遇到一位只會講荷蘭文嘅人 而呢個人能夠醫好癌症 我會阻止佢入英國大學嗎?我諗唔會 但事實上,我哋的確咁樣做 我哋英語老師嘅工作就係把關 學生必須先令我哋覺得佢哋嘅英文夠好 我哋至會畀佢哋上 但咁樣可以係危險嘅 因為社會將太多權力交畀一小撮人 或者呢種升學障礙全世界都有
Okay. "But," I hear you say, "what about the research? It's all in English." So the books are in English, the journals are done in English, but that is a self-fulfilling prophecy. It feeds the English requirement. And so it goes on. I ask you, what happened to translation? If you think about the Islamic Golden Age, there was lots of translation then. They translated from Latin and Greek into Arabic, into Persian, and then it was translated on into the Germanic languages of Europe and the Romance languages. And so light shone upon the Dark Ages of Europe. Now don't get me wrong; I am not against teaching English, all you English teachers out there. I love it that we have a global language. We need one today more than ever. But I am against using it as a barrier. Do we really want to end up with 600 languages and the main one being English, or Chinese? We need more than that. Where do we draw the line? This system equates intelligence with a knowledge of English, which is quite arbitrary.
我聽到你哋話 「咁研究呢?佢哋全部都用英文。」 書藉用英文寫 期刊都係用英文寫 但呢個只係自我滿足嘅情況 有英語需求自然就有英語供給 所以英語出版長做長有 我想問大家,翻譯發生咗啲咩呢? 如果你哋諗返伊斯蘭嘅黃金時代 當時翻譯盛行 啲人將拉丁文同希臘文 翻譯成阿拉伯文或波斯文 然後再由阿拉伯文同波斯文翻譯成 歐洲日耳曼系以及羅曼系嘅語言 可以話文明照亮咗歐洲嘅黑暗時代 但唔好會咗意,我唔係反對英語教學 尤其在座咁多位英語老師喺度 我好高興我哋有一個國際語言 國際語言今時今日更加需要 但我反對用英語阻止他人升學發展 唔通我哋真希望世界剩返 600 種語言 其中以英文或者中文做主流? 世界需要更多語言 咁幾多語言先至夠多呢? 呢個制度將成績同英語水平畫上等號 咁係相當武斷嘅 (掌聲)
(Applause)
我想提醒各位
And I want to remind you that the giants upon whose shoulders today's intelligentsia stand did not have to have English, they didn't have to pass an English test. Case in point, Einstein. He, by the way, was considered remedial at school because he was, in fact, dyslexic. But fortunately for the world, he did not have to pass an English test. Because they didn't start until 1964 with TOEFL, the American test of English. Now it's exploded. There are lots and lots of tests of English. And millions and millions of students take these tests every year. Now you might think, you and me, "Those fees aren't bad, they're okay," but they are prohibitive to so many millions of poor people. So immediately, we're rejecting them.
站在巨人肩膀嘅當代知識分子 唔需要識英文或者通過英語考試 愛因斯坦就係其中一個例子 順便講下,愛因斯坦曾被學校認為 係需要補救嘅學生 因為佢有讀寫障礙 但佢當時嘅世界好好彩 佢唔需要通過英語考試 因為美國英語測驗托福 1964 年先至開始 宜家英語測試氾濫 有太多英語測試 甚至每年過百萬嘅學生都參加呢啲考試 宜家你會認為呢啲考試費用唔貴 價錢合理咁 但對於幾百萬窮人嚟講 呢啲考試太過奢侈 所以考試令到好多人卻步
(Applause)
(掌聲)
It brings to mind a headline I saw recently: "Education: The Great Divide." Now I get it, I understand why people would want to focus on English. They want to give their children the best chance in life. And to do that, they need a Western education. Because, of course, the best jobs go to people out of the Western Universities, that I put on earlier. It's a circular thing.
呢樣令我諗起最近睇到嘅 一個新聞標題: 「教育:分開人嘅工具」 我終於明白點解 大家都想焦點擺喺英語度 因為佢哋想孩子得到最好嘅機會 為咗達成,佢哋需要畀孩子西方教育 畢竟,唔可否認 最好嘅工都係留返畀 西方大學畢業出嚟嘅人 就好似我之前所講咁 呢個係一種循環
Okay. Let me tell you a story about two scientists, two English scientists. They were doing an experiment to do with genetics and the forelimbs and the hind limbs of animals. But they couldn't get the results they wanted. They really didn't know what to do, until along came a German scientist who realized that they were using two words for forelimb and hind limb, whereas genetics does not differentiate and neither does German. So bingo, problem solved. If you can't think a thought, you are stuck. But if another language can think that thought, then, by cooperating, we can achieve and learn so much more.
等我講兩位科學家嘅故事 有兩位英國科學家做一項 用到動物前後肢嘅遺傳學實驗 但佢哋得唔到佢哋想要嘅結果 佢哋唔知點算 直到嚟咗一位德國科學家 佢發現前肢同後肢喺英文裡面 係兩隻唔同嘅字 但遺傳學同德文都唔會分 所以,得咗! 問題解決咗 如果你諗唔到嘢,你會卡喺度 但如果用另一種語言可以諗到嗰樣嘢 講唔同語言嘅我哋就可以透過合作 達到目的,學到更多
My daughter came to England from Kuwait. She had studied science and mathematics in Arabic. It's an Arabic-medium school. She had to translate it into English at her grammar school. And she was the best in the class at those subjects. Which tells us that when students come to us from abroad, we may not be giving them enough credit for what they know, and they know it in their own language. When a language dies, we don't know what we lose with that language.
我個囡由科威特嚟到英格蘭 因為佢喺阿拉伯讀中學 佢用阿拉伯文讀科學同數學 喺英國文法學校裡面 佢要翻譯所有嘢做英文 而佢呢兩科擺全班第一 呢樣話畀我哋聽,當外國學生嚟搵我哋 我哋未必有按到佢哋所知道嘅嘢畀足分 因為佢哋用佢哋自己嘅語言 去講佢哋知道嘅嘢 當一個語言消失 我哋唔肯定有咩係同個語言一齊消失
This is -- I don't know if you saw it on CNN recently -- they gave the Heroes Award to a young Kenyan shepherd boy who couldn't study at night in his village, like all the village children, because the kerosene lamp, it had smoke and it damaged his eyes. And anyway, there was never enough kerosene, because what does a dollar a day buy for you? So he invented a cost-free solar lamp. And now the children in his village get the same grades at school as the children who have electricity at home. (Applause) When he received his award, he said these lovely words: "The children can lead Africa from what it is today, a dark continent, to a light continent." A simple idea, but it could have such far-reaching consequences.
呢個…我唔知大家最近有冇睇 CNN 佢哋頒咗一個英雄獎 畀一位年輕嘅肯亞牧童 同村裡面其他小朋友一樣 佢無辦法夜晚讀書 因為火水燈產生嘅煙霧會整傷佢隻眼 再者,佢冇足夠火水 畢竟每日只有一蚊美金嘅收入 你可以買到啲咩? 所以他發明咗唔使成本嘅太陽能燈 宜家佢條村嘅細路仔嘅成績 同屋企有電嘅細路仔成績都一樣 (掌聲) 當佢攞到個獎時 他講咗呢番可愛嘅說話: 「呢啲孩子可以帶領非洲 由宜家呢刻一塊黑暗大陸 走冋明日光明一片嘅大陸。」 一個簡單嘅諗法卻有著咁深遠嘅影響
People who have no light, whether it's physical or metaphorical, cannot pass our exams, and we can never know what they know. Let us not keep them and ourselves in the dark. Let us celebrate diversity. Mind your language. Use it to spread great ideas.
無論屋止冇光定係英文唔好 都通過唔到我哋嘅測試 而且我哋永遠無辦法知道佢哋知嘅嘢 唔好畀佢哋同我哋自己處身於黑暗裡邊 等我哋一齊為語言多元化歡呼 好好保護你母語 用佢嚟傳播偉大嘅諗法 (掌聲)
(Applause)
Thank you very much.
多謝
(Applause)
(掌聲)