在學英語的過程中，有沒有感覺口語尤其難突破呢？
自己明明單詞量還不錯，語法也OK，但一到張口要說的環(huán)節(jié)就掉鏈子，要表達的意思突然就不知該如何翻譯，一緊張更是亂了陣腳，最后導致無法與對方有效溝通。
如果你有類似苦惱，那可就要好好看下這期TED，語言學家Marianna Pascal分享了在20年英語教學中總結出的能夠有效使用英語交流的關鍵。
TED視頻使用小Tips：
1. 你可以在不看字幕或原文的情況下聽一遍，看看自己能聽懂多少，有哪些地方沒有聽懂。
2. 記下沒有聽懂的地方，閱讀英文原文看自己是否能讀懂。如有必要，可以參照翻譯。
3. 攻克掉沒聽懂的部分后，重新看一遍視頻，檢驗自己是否能夠通篇順利地聽下來。
原文
So for the past 20 years, I’ve been helping Malaysian and other Southeast Asians to speak better English. Andthrough training thousands of Southeast Asians, I’ve discovered a very surprising truth.
在過去的20年里，我一直在幫助馬來西亞人和其他東南亞人講一口流利的英語。通過培訓成千上萬的東南亞人，我發(fā)現了一個令人驚訝的真相。
I’ve discovered that how well somebody communicates in English actually has very little to do with their English level. It has a lot to do with their attitude towards English.
我發(fā)現一個人用英語交流的好壞實際上與他們的英語水平沒有多大關系。這與他們對英語的態(tài)度有很大關系。
There are people out there who have a very, very low level of English, and they can communicate very very well. One of them that I remember was a student, a participant of mine, named Faizal. He was a factory supervisor–English level very very low–but this guy could just sit and listen to anybody, very calmly, clearly, and then he could respond, absolutely express his thoughts beautifully, at a very low level of English.
有些人的英語水平非常非常低，他們能夠很好地交流。我記得其中的一位是學生，我的一個參與者，名叫費扎爾。他是個廠長——英語水平很低——但是這個家伙可以坐下來聽任何人說英語，非常平靜、清晰，然后他可以做出反應，用非常低的英語水平完美地表達他的想法。
So, today I want to share with you what is so different about people like Faizal? How do they do it?
所以，今天我想和大家分享一下像費扎爾這樣的人為何能與眾不同，他們是怎么做到的？
And second of all, why is this so important not only to you, but to your children, to your community, and to the future of Malaysia?
其次，為什么這不僅對你很重要，而且對你們的孩子，對你們的社區(qū)，對馬來西亞的未來同樣重要？
And third of all, what’s one thing you can do, starting today, if you want to speak with that calm, clear confidence that people like Faizal have.
第三，從今天開始，如果你希望像費扎爾這樣的人有冷靜、明確的自信，你可以做一件事。
So first of all, what is so different? How do people like Faizal do it?
首先，有什么不同呢？像費扎爾這樣的人是怎么做到的？
So to answer that question, I’m going to take you back about 10 years, okay? I was training staff at that time, and my daughter, at that time, was taking piano lessons. And I started to notice two really strong similarities between my daughter’s attitude or thinking towards playing the piano and a lot of Malaysians’ thinking or attitude towards English.
所以要回答這個問題，我會帶你回到10年前，好嗎？那時我正在培訓工作人員，我女兒當時正在上鋼琴課。我開始注意到我女兒對彈鋼琴的態(tài)度和很多馬來西亞人對英語的想法和態(tài)度有兩個非常相似的地方。
Now first of all, I should tell you my daughter absolutely hated piano, hated the lessons, hated practicing. This is my daughter practicing piano, okay? This is as good as it got. This is the real thing.
首先，我要告訴你，我女兒非常討厭鋼琴，討厭功課，討厭練習。這是我女兒練習鋼琴，好嗎？這已經是她最好的表現了，這是真的。
And she dreaded going to piano lessons because to my daughter, going to piano lessons, she was filled with this sort of dread, because it was all about not screwing up, right?
她害怕去上鋼琴課，因為我女兒，去上鋼琴課這件事本身，就讓她充滿了這種恐懼，因為這一切都是為了不搞砸，對吧？
Because like for a lot of piano students, to both my daughter and her teacher, her success in piano was measured by how few mistakes she made. Now at the same time, I noticed that a lot of Malaysians went into English conversations with the same sort of feeling of dread. This sort of feeling that they were going to be judged by how many mistakes they were going to make, and whether or not they were going to screw up.
因為就像很多鋼琴學生一樣，對我女兒和她的老師來說，她在鋼琴上的成功取決于她犯的錯誤有多少。與此同時，我注意到很多馬來西亞人進入英語會話時都帶著同樣的恐懼感。這種感覺是，他們會被評判犯了多少錯誤，他們是否會搞砸。
Now, the second similarity that I noticed was to do with self-image. See, my daughter, she knew what good piano sounded like, right? Because we’ve all heard good piano. And she knew what her level was, and she knew how long she’d have to play for to play like that.
現在，我注意到的第二個相似點與自我形象有關。我女兒，她知道彈得好的鋼琴聽起來像什么，對吧？因為我們都聽過好聽的鋼琴曲。她知道自己的水平怎樣，也知道自己要彈多長時間才能達到這樣的水平。
And a lot of Malaysians, I noticed, had this idea of what good proper English is supposed to sound like, and what their–I see a lot of you nod–and what their English sounded like, and how far they would have to go to get there. And they also felt like they were–like my daughter–just bad, bad piano player, bad English speaker, right? My English not so good, lah. Cannot…Sorry, yah. Cannot…Ah–
我注意到，很多馬來西亞人都有這樣的想法：他們知道好的英語應該聽起來像什么，他們——我看到你們許多人點頭——而他們自己的英語聽起來像什么，以及他們要走多遠才能達到那個水平。他們也覺得，就像我女兒一樣，水平不好，鋼琴彈得不好，英語說得不好，對吧？我的英語不是很好，嗯。做不到……對不起，是的。做不到……啊——
So I could see these similarities, but I still couldn’t figure out, okay, what is it about these people like Faizal, that are so different, that can just do it smoothly, calmly, with confidence?
所以我可以看到這些相似之處，但是我仍然無法弄清楚，像費扎爾這樣的人，有什么不同，可以順利地，平靜地，自信地完成英語溝通。
One day, I discovered that answer, and I discovered it quite by chance. It was a day when my computer broke down, and I had to go to a cyber cafe. Okay, it was my first time, and I discovered cyber cafes are disgusting places, okay? They’re really gross. They’re smelly, and they’re filled with boys. And they’re all playing noisy, violent games. They’re just disgusting places.
有一天，我發(fā)現了那個答案，而且我是偶然發(fā)現的。那天我的電腦壞了，我不得不去網吧。好，這是我第一次，我發(fā)現網吧是惡心的地方，好嗎？它們真的很惡心。它們很臭，而且里面都是男孩。他們都在玩吵鬧、暴力的游戲。只是些惡心的地方。
But I had to go there. So I sat down, and I started noticing this guy beside me. And I became very interested in this guy next to me. Now, this guy is playing this game that is basically, it’s like shooting people until they die. And that’s it. That’s the game, right?
但是我必須去那里。于是我坐下來，開始注意到我旁邊的那個人。我對我旁邊的那個人很感興趣?，F在，這個家伙正在玩這個游戲，基本上就是不停地殺人直到殺死別人。就這樣。這就是游戲，對吧？
And I’m noticing that this guy is not very good. In fact, he’s terrible, right? Because I’m looking, and I’m seeing, like, a lot of shooting and not much dying, right?But what really interested me was behind this lousy player were three of his friends, sort of standing there watching him play. What I really noticed was even though this guy was terrible, even though his friends were watching him, there was no embarrassment. There was no feeling of being judged. There was no shyness. In fact, quite the opposite.
但是我注意到這個人他不會玩游戲，事實上，他玩得很糟糕，因為我再看他玩得時候發(fā)現，他開了很多槍，但沒殺掉幾個人，但真正讓我感興趣的是這個糟糕的玩家背后的三個朋友，他們站在那里看著他比賽。我真正注意到的是，即使這個家伙水平很差，即使他的朋友在看他，他也沒有什么尷尬。沒有被評判的感覺。一點兒不羞怯。事實上，恰恰相反。
This guy’s like totally focused on the bad guys, smile on his face. All he can think about is killing these guys,right? And I’m watching him. And I suddenly realize: this is it. This is the same attitude that people like Faizal have when they speak English, just like this guy.
這個家伙好像把注意力全都集中在壞家伙身上了，他臉上掛著微笑。他滿腦子想到的就是殺了這些敵人，對吧？我在看著他。我突然意識到：就是這樣。這就是像費扎爾這樣的人講英語時所持的態(tài)度，就像這個家伙一樣。
When Faizal goes into an English conversation, he doesn’t feel judged. He is entirely focused on the person that he’s speaking to and the result he wants to get. He’s got no self-awareness, no thoughts about his own mistakes.
當費扎爾進入英語會話時，他不覺得自己受到了評判。他全神貫注于和他談話的人以及他想要得到的結果。他沒有自我意識，不考慮自己的錯誤。
I want to share with you a real, true example, to paint a picture, of somebody who speaks English like they are playing piano and someone who speaks English like they are playing a computer game. And this is a true story. It happened to me.
我想和你們分享一個真實的例子，來描繪一幅面，一個人說英語就像在彈鋼琴，而另一個人說英語就像在玩電腦游戲。這是一個真實的故事。這件事發(fā)生在我身上。
A while ago, I was in a pharmacy. I had to buy omega; my doctor said I should get omega. And I go to the shelf, there’s tons of omega, there’s omega that’s high in DHA, omega that’s high in EPA, and I don’t know which one to buy.
不久前，我在一家藥房。我不得不去買omega（藥品），因為我的醫(yī)生說我應該吃omega。我走到貨架上，貨架上有很多omega，有富含DHA的omega，和高EPA含量的omega，我不知道買哪一種。
Now, the sales rep happened to be there. And I saw she’s like this well-dressed, professional woman. I walk over to her, and I see this look as she sees me, this sort of–it’s a look I recognize very well. Her eyes go all wide. It’s sort of that panic: Oh my God! I’ve got to speak to a native speaker; she’s going to judge me and notice my mistakes.
這時，銷售代表碰巧在那兒。我看到她像個穿著講究的職業(yè)女性。我走到她跟前，我看到了她看到我時的表情，這種表情——這是我很熟悉的一種表情。她的眼睛睜得大大的。有點恐慌：我的天哪！我得和一個說英語為母語的人講話，她會對我評頭論足，注意到我的錯誤。
I go up to her, and I explain my situation: which omega do I get? And she starts explaining to me everything about DHA and EPA you could possibly imagine. She speaks very quickly, goes all around in circles. And when she finishes, no idea what to buy.
我走到她跟前，向她解釋我的處境：我吃哪種？她開始向我解釋，所有你可以想象到的關于DHA和EPA的一切。她說得很快，繞圈子。當她講完之后，我還是不知道該買什么。
So I turn to the girl behind the counter. Now, the girl behind the counter, I heard her before, her English level is very low. But when I walk over to her, this girl, there’s no fear. Infact, she’s just looking at me. You know that look? Like Yeah? Okay So, how? Yeah, I’ve been in Malaysia a long time.
所以我轉向柜臺后面的女孩?，F在，柜臺后面的女孩，我以前聽說過她，她的英語水平很低。但是當我走向她，這個女孩，沒有恐懼。事實上，她只是看著我。你知道那個樣子嗎？是吧？好，怎么辦？是的，我在馬來西亞待了很長時間。
So, I go up to her and I explain the problem, EPA and DHA. She looks at me, she says, “Okay, yeah” “Ah, EPA forheart.” “DHA for brain.” “Your heart okay or not?”
所以，我走到她跟前，解釋一下問題，EPA和DHA。她看著我，說，“好的，是的”，“啊，EPA是給心臟用的”，“DHA是給大腦的”，“你的心臟好不好？”
So I said, “Yeah, yeah,” I said, “my heart is really, I think it’s pretty good.”
所以我說，“是的，是的，”我說，“我的心真的很好，我認為它非常好。”
She says, “Your brain okay or not?”
她說：“你的大腦還好嗎？“
I said, “No. No, my brain is not as good as it used to be.”
我說：“不，不，我的腦子沒有以前那么好。”
She looks and says, “Okay lah, you take Omega DHA!”
她看了看然后說：“好吧，你拿歐米茄DHA！“
Problem solved, right? So we’ve got two different kinds of communicators. We’ve got the one who’s got a high level, but totally focused on herself and getting it right, and therefore, very ineffective. We’ve got another one, low-level, totally focused on the person she’s talking to and getting a result. Effective. And there in lies the difference.
問題解決了，對吧？我們有兩種不同的交流者。我們有一個水平很高，但完全專注于自己，并把事情做好的人，因此，效率很低。我們還有一個，低級別的，完全專注于她正在交談的人并獲得結果。有效。其中的區(qū)別就在于此。
Now, why is this distinction so important not just to you, to your children, but to the future of Malaysia and countries like Malaysia? And to answer that, let’s take a look at who actually is speaking English in the world today, okay?
現在，為什么這種區(qū)別不僅對你，對你的孩子，而且對馬來西亞和像馬來西亞這樣的國家的未來如此重要？為了回答這個問題，讓我們來看看今天世界上誰在說英語，好嗎？
So, if we looked at all of the English conversations in the whole world, taking place right now on planet Earth, we would see that for every native speaker, like me, there are five non-native speakers. And if we’d listen to every conversation in English on planet Earth right now, we would notice that 96% of those conversations involved non-native English speakers–only 4% of those conversations are native speaker to native speaker. This is not my language anymore, this language belongs to you. It’s not an art to be mastered; it’s just a tool to use to get a result.
所以，如果我們看看現在地球上發(fā)生的所有英語會話，我們會發(fā)現對于像我一樣的每個母語者來說，就會有五個非英語母語的人參與對話。如果我們現在收聽地球上用英語進行的每一場英語對話，我們會注意到96%的會話涉及非母語的英語者——只有4%來自英語為母語的的人之間的對話。這不再是我的語言，這語言屬于你們的。這不是一門需要掌握的藝術，它只是一種用來獲得結果的工具。
And I want to give you a real-life example of what English is today in the world, real English today. This is another true story. I was at a barbecue a little while ago–this was a barbecue for engineers, engineers from all over the world. And they were making hot dogs.
我想給你們舉一個真實生活中的例子，告訴你們當今世界的英語是什么。這是另一個真實的故事。我剛才參加了一個燒烤會——這是為來自世界各地的工程師、工程師舉辦的燒烤會。他們在做熱狗。
Now some of the hot dogs were regular hot dogs, and some were these cheese hot dogs, you know, with the cheese in the middle. A French engineer is cooking the hot dogs, and he turns to this Korean engineer, and he says, “Would you like a hot dog?”
有些熱狗是普通的熱狗，有些是奶酪熱狗，你知道的，中間有奶酪。一位法國工程師正在做熱狗，他轉向這位韓國工程師，說：“您想吃熱狗嗎？”
And the Korean guy says, “Yes,please!”
韓國人說：“是的，謝謝！“
He says, “Do you want the cheese?”
他說：“你要奶酪嗎？“
And the Korean guy looks around at the table, he says, “I no see cheese.”
韓國人環(huán)顧四周，他說：“我看不到奶酪?！?/span>
The French guy says, “The hot dog is contains the cheese.”
法國人說：“熱狗里有奶酪?！?/span>
The Korean guy doesn’t understand him, right? So the French engineer tries again: “The hot dog is making from withthe cheese.”
韓國人不理解他，對嗎？所以法國工程師再次嘗試：“熱狗是用奶酪做的?！?/span>
Korean guy still doesn’t understand. He tries again, he says, “The hotdog is coming from–No, the cheese is coming from the hot dog.” Korean guy cannot understand.
韓國人仍然不了解。他試了一次，他說，“熱狗是來自–不，奶酪是熱狗做的。”韓國人無法理解。
Now there’s a Japanese engineer who’s been listening to this conversation, turns to the Korean engineer and he says, “Ah! Cheese integrator!” He understands, okay. Everybody understands. So, this is what English is today. It’s just a tool to play around with to get a result, like a computer game.
Now, the challenge is that we know in schools all around the world, English is not really being taught like it’s a tool to play with. It’s still being taught like it’s an art to master. And students are judged more on correctness than on clarity.
現在，挑戰(zhàn)是我們知道，在世界各地的學校，英語教學并不是真的像玩工具一樣。它仍然被當作一門藝術來教授。對學生的評判更多的是基于正確性，而不是清晰性。
Some of you might remember the old comprehension exam in school. Does everybody remember in school when you’d get a question about a text that you read, you’d have to read through some text, right? And then answer a question to show that you understood the text? And this may have happened to you that you showed that you understood the text, but you got a big X because you made a little grammar mistake. Like this student.
你們中的一些人可能還記得學校里以前的理解考試。在學校里每個人都記得嗎，當你看到一個關于你讀過的課文的問題時，你必須讀一些課文，對嗎？然后回答一個問題，表明你理解課文？這可能發(fā)生在你身上，你表明你理解課文，但是你得到一個大X，因為你犯了一點語法錯誤。就像這個學生。
Now this student clearly understood paragraph four. But no, not correct! Because he left the letter N off the word “environment.” But in the real world, what would matter? In the real world, what would matter is did you understand the email, or did you understand your customer so that you can go ahead and take action?
這個學生清楚地理解了第四段。但是，不，不對！因為他把字母N從“環(huán)境”一詞中忘掉了。但是在現實世界中，又有什么關系呢？在現實世界中，重要的是你能理解郵件的內容嗎？或你了解你的客戶？以便您可以繼續(xù)采取行動？
Now, the problem that I see here, over and over, is that people take the attitude they developed about English in school, and they bring it into their adult life and into their work.
現在，我在這里一遍又一遍地看到的問題是，人們采取他們在學校里對英語形成的態(tài)度，并將其帶入他們的成年生活和工作中。
And if you’re in a stressful situation, and you’re having a conversation, and you’re trying to give a result to someone and say it correctly, your brain multi-tasks, it cannot do two things at once. And what I see is the brain just shutting down. And you may recognize these three symptoms of the brain shutting down.
如果你處于一個有壓力的境地，你正在進行一次談話，你試圖給某人一個結果并正確地說出來，你的大腦多任務，它不能同時做兩件事。我看到的是大腦剛剛關閉。你可能會意識到大腦關閉的這三個癥狀。
The first one is that your listening goes. Someone is talking to you, and you’re so busy thinking about how you’re going to respond and express yourself correctly, you don’t actually hear what the other person said. And I can see a lot of nodding in the audience.
第一個癥狀，你的聽力下降了。有人在和你說話，而你卻忙于思考如何正確地回應和表達自己，你實際上沒有聽到別人說什么。我可以看到很多觀眾點頭。
The second thing to go is your speaking. Your mind sort of shuts down, and that vocabulary you do know just disappears, and the words don’t come out.
第二個癥狀就是你的講話。你的頭腦有點停頓，你所知道的詞匯就這樣消失了，話就說不出來了。
The third thing to go is your confidence. And the worst thing about this is you may only be confident because you cannot express yourself clearly, but to the person talking to you, they may misunderstand this as a lack of confidence in your ability to do the job, to perform.
第三癥狀就是是你的信心。最糟糕的是，你可能只是因為不能清楚地表達自己，而變得沒有自信，但是對于和你談話的人，他們可能誤解為缺乏自信，對自己的工作能力和執(zhí)行能力缺乏信心。
So if you want to speak English like Faizal with that great confidence, here’s the one thing that you can do. When you speak, don’t focus on yourself. Focus on the other person and there sult you want to achieve.
所以如果你想像費扎爾那樣自信地說英語，這能做的只有一件事：當你說話的時候，不要把注意力集中在自己身上，把注意力集中在別人和你想要達到的結果上。
Imagine a next generation of Malaysians, all with that wonderful confidence in communication that Faizalhas, at any level of English. Because let’s remember that English today is not an art to be mastered, it’s just a tool to use to get a result. And that tool belongs to you.
想像一下，下一代馬來西亞人，無論英語水平如何，都像費扎爾一樣對交流充滿信心。因為讓我們記住，今天的英語不是一門需要掌握的藝術，它只是一個用來獲得結果的工具。那工具是屬于你的。
