一个会说9国语言的人的故事

Watch This Guy Speak 9 Languages Like A Native

一个会说9国语言的人的故事

Matthew Youlden speaks nine languages fluently and understands more than a dozen more. He’s what is known as a polyglot, a member of the multilingual elite who speaks six or more languages fluently. He’s also a sociolinguist who studies the revitalization of minority languages. But to see him in action on a daily basis – deftly and comfortably talking to native-speakers in their own languages – suggests that he’s more than a polyglot. Matthew, who is originally from Manchester, England, is a language chameleon: Germans think he’s German, Spaniards think he’s Spanish, Brazilians think he’s Portuguese (he proudly speaks the good-old European variety).

马休尤登能流利地说9种语言，并了解超过12种语言。他就是传说中“多语种精英”中的一员，这些人均能流利地说6种以上语言。马休也是一位社会语言学家，致力于少数民族语言复兴研究。但如果从他日常用土著语言跟当地人说话时那种熟练地道的感觉来看，便会觉得他不仅仅是一名多语种精英。出生于英国曼彻斯特的马休可以说是一条“语言变色龙”，但德国人听他说话会当他是德国人，西班牙人会当他为西班牙人，巴西人会当他是葡萄牙人（他自豪地说着各种欧洲大陆上古老而又美好的语言）。

By his own account, Matthew has mastered a staggering number of languages by utilizing abilities that we all possess: persistence, enthusiasm and open-mindedness. If your classic polyglot is an über-nerd who studies languages full-time, then Matthew is something different. His version of multilingualism doesn’t isolate him in an ivory tower; it connects him to people all over the world. According to Matthew, the more languages you speak, the more points of view you have:

据他自述，马休能够掌握数量如此惊人的语言，正是靠着我们每个人都有的能力：坚持不懈、保持热情和开阔思维。如果你眼中的典型多语言精英是不停学习的“书呆子”，那么马休可能要颠覆你的认识了。他的多语言能力并未将他束缚于象牙塔之内，而是跟全世界的人都联系起来。马休说，一个人掌握的语言越多，拥有的观点也就越多：

“I think each language has a certain way of seeing the world. If you speak one language then you have a different way of analyzing and interpreting the world than the speaker of another language does. Even if they’re really closely-related languages such as Spanish and Portuguese, which are to a certain extent mutually intelligible, they are at the same time two different worlds – two different mindsets.

“我认为每种语言都有其特定的认识世界的方法。如果你讲一种语言，那么你对世界的分析以及认知会与讲另一种语言的人对世界的理解与认知不同。，即使是两种相似度很高的语言，如西班牙语和葡萄牙语，他们在某种程度上确实互通，但同时他们又代表两个不同的世界，两种不同的思维方式。”

“Therefore, having learned other languages and been surrounded by other languages, I couldn’t possibly choose only one language because it would mean really renouncing the possibility to be able to see the world in a different way. Not in one way, but in many different ways. So the monolingual lifestyle, for me, is the saddest, the loneliest, the most boring way of seeing the world. There are so many advantages of learning a language; I really can’t think of any reason not to.”

“因此，学会了多种语言，或置身于不同的语言环境中，我很难选择只用一种语言，因为这意味着你将会放弃另外一种看世界的方式，这不仅仅是一种方式而是很多种。所以与我而言，单语种生活方式是最难过、最孤独、最无趣的。学习另外一种语言好处如此之多，我真的想不到不去学的理由。”