TED励志英文演讲稿

我知道你们在想什么，你们觉得我迷路了，马上就会有人走上台 温和地把我带回我的座

位上。

（掌声）

。我在迪拜总会遇上这种事。

“来这里度假的吗，亲爱的？”

（ 笑声）

“来探望孩

子的吗？这次要待多久呢？

< br>

恩，事实上，我希望能再待久一点。我在波斯湾这边生 活和教书已经超过

30

年了。

（掌

声）这段时间里，我看到了很多变化。现在这份数据是挺吓人的，而我今天要和你们说的是< /p>

有关语言的消失和英语的全球化。我想和你们谈谈我的朋友，她在阿布达比教成人英语。在

一个晴朗的日子里，她决定带她的学生到花园去教他们一些大自然的词汇。但最后却变成 是

她在学习所有当地植物在阿拉伯语中是怎么说的。

还有这些植 物是如何被用作药材，

化妆品，

烹饪，香草。这些学生是怎么得 到这些知识的呢？当然是从他们的祖父母，甚至曾祖父母那

里得来的。不需要我来告诉你 们能够跨代沟通是多么重要。

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

dont

know.

but

i

do

know

that

ive

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

empower

the

citizens

through

education.

and

of

course,

the

u.k. benefited from some of that lovely oil wealth.

但遗憾的是，今天很多语言正在

以前所未有的速度消失。

每

14

天就有一种语言消失，

而与此同时，

英语却无庸置疑地成为全

球性的语言。这其中有 关联吗？我不知道。但我知道的是，我见证过许多改变。初次来到海

湾地区时，我去了科 威特。当时教英文仍然是个困难的工作。其实，没有那么久啦，这有点

太久以前了。

总之，

我和其他

25

位老师一起被英国文化协会聘用。

我们是第一批非穆斯林的

老 师，在科威特的国立学校任教。我们被派到那里教英语，是因为当地政府希望国家可以现

代化并透过教育提升公民的水平。当然，英国也能得到些好处，产油国可是很有钱的。

okay. now this is the major change that ive seen -- how teaching english has

morphed from being a mutually

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 youre not a native speaker, you have to pass a test.

言归正传，我见过最大的改变，就是英语教学的蜕变如 何从一个互惠互利的行为变成今

天这种大规模的国际产业。英语不再是学校课程里的外语 学科，也不再只是英国的专利。英

语（教学）已经成为所有英语系国家追逐的潮流。何乐 而不为呢？毕竟，最好的教育来自于

最好的大学，而根据最新的世界大学排名，那些名列 前茅的都是英国和美国的大学。所以自

然每个人都想接受英语教育，但如果你不是以英文 为母语，你就要通过考试。

now can it be right to reject a student on linguistic ability

well, i dont think so. we english teachers reject them all the time. we put a

stop

sign,

and

we

stop

them

in

their

tracks.

they

cant

pursue

their

dream

any

longer,

till they get english. now let me put it this way, if i met a dutch

speaker who had the cure for cancer, would i stop him from entering my british

university? i dont 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.

但仅凭语言能力就拒绝学生这样对吗？譬如如果你碰到 一位天才计算机科学家，但他会

需要有和律师一样的语言能力吗？我不这么认为。

但身为英语老师的我们，

却总是拒绝他们。

我 们处处设限，将学生挡在路上，使他们无法再追求自己的梦想，直到他们通过考试。现在

容我换一个方式说，如果我遇到了一位只会说荷兰话的人，而这个人能治愈癌症，我会阻止

他进入我的英国大学吗？我想不会。但事实上，我们的确在做这种事。我们这些英语老师就

是把关的。你必须先让我们满意，使我们认定你的英文够好。但这可能是危险的。把太多的

< br>权力交由这么小的一群人把持，也许会令这种障碍太过普及。

okay. but, i hear you say, what about the research? its all in english. so the

books

are

in

english,

the

journals

are

done

in

english,

but

that

is

a

self-fulfilling

.

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

dont

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 .

于是，我听到你们问但是研究呢

?

研究报告都要用英文。

”的确，研究论著和期刊都要用

英文发表，但这只是一种理所当然的现象。有英语要求，自然就有英语供给，然后就这么循< /p>

环下去。我倒想问问大家，为什么不用翻译呢？想想伊斯兰的黄金时代，当时翻译盛行，人

们把拉丁文和希腊文翻译成阿拉伯文或波斯文，然后再由拉伯文或波斯文翻译为欧洲的日 耳

曼语言以及罗曼语言。于是文明照亮了欧洲的黑暗时代。但不要误会我的意思，我不是 反对

英语教学或是在座所有的英语老师。

我很高兴我们有一个全 球性的语言，

这在今日尤为重要。

但我反对用英语设立障碍。难 道我们真希望世界上只剩下

600

种语言，其中又以英文或中文

为主流吗？我们需要的不只如此。那么我们该如何拿捏呢？这个体制把智能和英语能力画 上

等号这是相当武断的。

and i want to remind you that the giants upon whose

shoulders todays stand did not have to have

english, they didnt 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

didnt

start until 1964 with toefl, the american test of english. now its 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

arent

bad,

theyre

okay, but they are prohibitive to so many millions of poor people. so immediately,

were rejecting them.

我想要提醒你们，扶持当代知识分子的这些“巨人肩膀 不必非得具有英文能力，他们不

需要通过英语考试。爱因斯坦就是典型的例子。顺便说一 下，他在学校还曾被认为需要课外

补习，

因为他其实有阅读障碍 。

但对整个世界来说

,

很幸运的当时他 不需要通过英语考试，

因

为他们直到

1 964

年才开始使用托福。

现在英语测验太泛滥了，