正文翻譯
原創翻譯：龍騰網 http://www.ltaaa.com 翻譯：tangerl 轉載請註明出處
It’s probably time to learn Chinese
也許是時候學中文了
Eric Meltzer
埃裡克 · 梅爾澤
For over a century, learning English has been one of the highest ROI things a non-English speaker could do. English went from being a language spoken by a few million people on an island to the the language of a world-spanning empire to a de-facto global language in a few centuries. I think, despite accusations of provincialism from polyglot Europeans, English is still by far the most useful language in the world and that being a monolingual English speaker isn’t the worst thing in the world. I say that as someone who loves learning languages; realistically, there are many interesting things to learn in the world and our time is pretty limited.
一個多世紀以來，學習英語一直是非英語使用者所能達到的最高投資回報率之一。
在幾個世紀的時間裡，英語從一個小島上幾百萬人使用的語言，變成了一個橫跨世界的帝國的語言，成為事實上的全球性語言。
我認為，儘管通曉多種語言的歐洲人指責英語是地方主義，但英語仍然是世界上最有用的語言，而且只會說一種語言並不是世界上最糟糕的事情。
我想說，作為一個熱愛學習語言的人，實際上，世界上有許多有趣的事情值得我們去學習，而我們的時間是相當有限的。
However, the benefits of learning Mandarin have grown a lot over the past two decades. We’re in a critical period where the demand for bilingual English/Mandarin speakers is extremely high from maturing Chinese institutions looking to go abroad, but the supply of those speakers remains relatively low. The world also seems to be moving from a unipolar America-led situation towards a bi-or-multipolar one where China assumes a lot more importance, so speaking Chinese is a good hedge in that sense.
在過去的二十年裡，學習中文的好處大大增加了。
我們正處於一個關鍵時期，成熟的中國組織、機構、企業希望走出國門，對會說英語和中文的人的需求非常高，但這類人才的供應仍然相對較低。
世界似乎也正在從美國領導的單極世界向中國扮演更重要角色的雙極或多極世界轉變，因此說中文在這個意義上是一個很好的對沖。
Learning Mandarin has been one of the most rewarding I’ve ever done, up there with learning how to program.
學習中文是我做過的最有意義的事情之一，就像學習如何編程一樣。
Before I explain how to quickly learn Mandarin, here are a few explicit reasons why you may want to:
在我解釋如何快速學習中文之前，這裡有一些你可能想學習中文的明確原因：
Important reasons
一些重要的原因
China is emerging from its copycat phase and is beginning to produce interesting technology and cultural products again.
· 中國正從山寨階段走出來，並開始再次生產有趣的技術和文化產品;
Almost as many people speak Mandarin as English; about 1.5 billion for each language. Very few Mandarin speakers also speak English. The oft-cited figure of 300 million english-speakers in China is laughable propaganda, and the true number is probably closer to 10 million, or less than 1% of the population.
· 說中文的人幾乎和說英語的人一樣多，大約各有約15億人;
· 說普通話的人很少會說英語，一個經常被引用的說法是，中國說英語的人口是3億，這是一個可笑的宣傳，真實的數字可能僅僅接近1000萬，或者說還不到總人口的1% ;
Fun reasons
有趣的理由
The linguistic legacy of ancient Chinese imperial expansion is visible in Korean and Japanese, and to a lesser extent in Vietnamese . With no background in Japanese, you can read some menus, get the gist of newspaper articles, read most signage, and generally get around in Japan if you speak Chinese. Amusingly, you will be more able to understand sophisticated academic texts or ancient novels than modern stuff, since the influence of Chinese on the Japanese language peaked during the Tang dynasty.
· 中國古代帝國擴張的語言遺產在韓語和日語中非常突出，在越南語中也有所體現，只是程度較小。即使你沒有日語背景，如果你會說中文，你仍然可以看懂某些菜單，瞭解報紙文章的要點，看明白大部分標牌，一般情況下在日本四處走動不成問題。
有趣的是，你會比現代人更能理解複雜的學術典籍或古代小說，因為漢語對日語的影響在唐朝達到頂峰。
The Chinese literary corpus (modern and ancient both) is huge, deep, and sparsely translated into English. It contains a lot of works that have no English equivalent, and a lot of philosophy that resembles the more practical of the Hellenistic philosophers who were interested in how to live a good life. You’ll gain access to a whole bunch of interesting material you otherwise would have no way to read.
· 中國文學語料庫 ( 現代的和古代的) ，規模龐大，內容深刻，英文譯本稀少，它包含了許多沒有英文版本的著作，以及許多類似於希臘哲學家的哲學，他們對如何過上美好的生活有著濃厚的興趣，但是更實際，你必然會接觸到一大堆有趣的資料，否則你將無法閱讀。
How to become fluent in Mandarin
如何熟練掌握普通話
If you can go to China, do so.
如果你能去中國，我推薦你直接去中國。
You can learn Chinese without moving to China. It will take longer, especially in the beginning — you can go from nothing to conversational a lot faster if you are immersed. Your pronunciation will also suffer if you don’t learn in China, and your vocabulary and diction may be a little bit less natural. It’s still doable and worthwhile though. If you can’t move to China, you can skip over this next section and I’ll discuss some ways to simulate immersion without actually being in China.
當然，如果你不用去中國也是可以學中文的，但這樣花費的時間更長，尤其是在開始的時候——如果你沉浸其中的話，你可以從什麼都不會變得更為健談。
如果你不在中國學習，你的發音也會受到影響，自然你的詞彙量也會少一點，儘管如此，這仍然是可行的和有價值的。
如果你不能去到中國，你可以跳過下面這一節，後面我會討論一些不去中國，但可以模擬沉浸感的方法。
Specifically, go to Beijing, Shanghai, or Chengdu
具體來說，去北京、上海或者成都
Beijing is the central capital of the most centralized country on earth. The government is in Beijing, the best educational institutes are in Beijing, the movie industry is in Beijing, the art world is still largely centered in Beijing, Beijing is the startup hub of China, and Beijing is roughly tied with Shanghai as a financial hub. Modern Mandarin is based on the Beijing dialect, so if you learn Chinese in Beijing your accent will be considered easy to understand and “standard.” The inner city of Beijing (everything inside the 2nd ring road, and to a lesser extent everything inside the 3rd) is charming, liveable, and still has many of the courtyard houses and snaking alleyways that have made up the city since the Ming dynasty. Beijing (and modern Asian cities in general) is one of the most convenient places to live on the planet. Many business models that are marginal in American low-density cities are solid in ultra high-density Beijing: there are multiple profitable food-delivery startups, wash and fold laundry services are plentiful, there will be a grocery store, many restaurants, bars, and convenience stores within feet of wherever you live. The air pollution is bad, but a couple of good HEPA filters in your house eliminates more than 50% of your exposure, and going elsewhere during the winter eliminates another large chunk of it.
北京是這個星球上最集中的首都與中心，最好的教育機構在北京，電影業在北京，藝術世界仍然主要集中在北京，北京還是中國的創業中心，作為金融中心與上海大致相當。
現代漢語普通話是基於北京方言的，所以如果你在北京學習中文，你的口音會被認為是容易理解和“標準”的。
北京的內城 ( 二環以內以及三環以內 ) 是迷人的，宜居的，並且仍然有許多四合院和蜿蜒的小巷，這些都是明代以來的北京建築。
北京 ( 以及現代化的亞洲城市) 是地球上最適宜居住的地方之一。
許多在美國低密度城市邊緣的商業模式在高密度的北京得到了鞏固：
有許多賺錢的食品配送創業公司，洗衣服務豐富，雜貨店，餐館、酒吧和便利店集聚你居住的地方几英尺範圍內。
空氣汙染很嚴重，但高效微粒空氣過濾器可以消除超過50% 的汙染，而在冬天去別的地方可以消除大部分的汙染。
The most accessible and easy way to go to China is to take a job teaching English. It’s also the absolute worst way to go there. It’s poorly paid, does nothing to advance your Chinese language skills, and ensures the people you will be in contact with through your job are people who specifically are paying to not speak Chinese with you. Here are some better options:
去中國最容易的方法就是找一份教英語的工作，但這絕對是最糟糕的方式，這份工作薪水很低，對提高你的中文技能毫無幫助，而且你得明白你通過工作接觸到的人，是那些專門花錢來學英語而不是和你說中文的人，我覺得有一些更好的選擇：
Go through your school
留學，通過學校去中國
Most top colleges in the US have China study-abroad options. I’ve heard particularly good things about Middlebury, U.C. Berkeley, Stanford, Harvard, and Yale. Stanford has a very swanky center at Peking University which is cool. Harvard and Yale have the oldest Sinology programs in the country but that may be of limited importance to you if your goal is simply conversational fluency. U.C. Berkeley has the UCEAP program which, if your Chinese is good enough, lets you take normal classes at the “Harvard of China,” Peking University. The biggest disadvantage of going through your college is the temptation to hang out with other Americans. There’s something about immersion that seems to accelerate language learning in a nonlinear way, and it can be derailed by even a small amount of daily exposure to one’s mother language. If you think being disciplined about not speaking English will be an issue for you, a study-abroad program may not be ideal.
美國大多數頂尖大學都可以選擇去中國留學，明德學院、加州大學伯克利分校、斯坦福大學、哈佛大學和耶魯大學都有這樣的項目。
斯坦福大學在北京大學有一個非常活躍的交流中心，很贊，哈佛大學和耶魯大學擁有全國最古老的漢學課程，但如果你的目標僅僅是流利的對華，那麼這對你來說可能並不重要。
加州大學伯克利分校有一個UCEAP項目，如果你的中文足夠好，你可以在“中國的哈佛”——北京大學上正常的課程。
進入大學的最大缺點就是與其他美國人交往的誘惑，沉浸感似乎以一種非線性的方式加速了語言學習，即使是每天少量接觸母語也會打亂語言學習的進程，如果你認為自覺不說英語對你來說是個問題，那麼海外留學項目可能並不理想。
Get a job that allows you to work remotely
找一份能讓你遠程工作的工作
If you’re a freelancer, or if you work for a company that allows remote work, this is a great option. Although changes to the exchange rate and cost of living have made this less true than it once was, being paid in USD and spending RMB will enable you to live very comfortably even in first-tier cities. Compared to working at a Chinese company or going through a study-abroad program, your daily Mandarin exposure will be reduced, but you can still speak it during every non-working hour. If you’re a freelancer you can also start mixing in Chinese clients once your Mandarin improves.
如果你是一個自由職業者，或者你工作的公司允許遠程工作，這是一個很好的選擇。
雖然匯率和生活成本的變化已經使這種情況不像以前那樣真實了，但是用美元支付和花人民幣將使你即使在一線城市也能生活得非常舒適。
與在中國公司工作或參加留學項目相比，你每天接觸中文的機會會減少，但你仍然可以在非工作時間講中文，如果你是一個自由職業者，一旦你的中文水平有所提高，你也可以開始和中國客戶交流。
Get a job with a Chinese company
去一家中國公司找份工作
If you speak no Mandarin, this will be difficult but definitely not impossible. If you have skills that are in demand, many Chinese companies are hiring and have official policies that state English should be spoken in the office. In reality you’ll find that English is rarely spoken, but while that won’t be good for your initial productivity, it will be awesome for generating immersion and helping you learn quickly.
如果你不會說中文，這會很困難的，但也不是絕對不可能。
如果你有技能，許多中國公司正在招聘，並且有官方政策規定在辦公室說英語。
事實上，你會發現很少有人說英語，但是儘管這對你最初的工作效率不會有好處，但是它會讓你沉浸其中，幫助你快速學習。
Attend a Chinese university as a fulltime student
以全日制學生身份進入中國大學學習
Set up your environment. Change your computer and smartphone language to Chinese. Download Sogou Pinyin, which is much better than the default Windows or Mac IME. Block Facebook and Twitter. Find a stream of Chinese TV and leave it on in your house whenever possible. Chinese TV is largely garbage but your brain will be absorbing the sounds in the background which is useful.
· 自建語境氛圍
更改你的電腦和智能手機語言為中文，下載搜狗拼音（比默認的 Windows 或 Mac 輸入法要好得多），屏蔽 Facebook 和 Twitter，找一臺能放中文節目的電視機，在家的時候儘可能把它開著，中國的電視很大程度上都是垃圾，但你的大腦會吸收背景中的聲音，這點很有用。
Set up The Loop. My friend coined this term for the system we used for acquiring and remembering new words in Chinese. You need a dictionary and a spaced-repetition flashcard app. Pleco is both, and much more: a truly venerable app that got its start as a Palm Pilot app almost twenty years ago. In the meantime it’s developed into one of the most powerful apps I’ve ever had the pleasure of using. The app itself and several good dictionary files for it are free — you pay for additional features as you need them. The handwriting recognition, main dictionary pack, and flashcard functionality are must-haves; the rest you can decide for yourself if you need or not. You’ll start the loop either by walking around China and drawing (not writing; at this stage you won’t know the correct order of strokes for characters, so just roughly draw what they look like) characters you don’t understand into Pleco. You can hit the [+] on any character card to add it to your flashcard deck. Pleco has a bunch of different flashcard modes, all of which are useful for different things. Do a mix of them every single night. Don’t be tempted to import any pre-made flashcard decks. Making your own deck from the words you actually encounter is way more effective. This simple practice will improve your vocabulary shockingly fast.
· 建立循環
我的朋友創造了這個詞，指的是我們用來獲取和記憶中文新詞的系統。
你需要一本字典和一個帶記憶卡片的APP，Pleco這款APP既是字典，又是一款值得尊敬的應用程序，大約20年前它從Palm Pilot 發展起來，到現在，它已經發展成為我有幸使用過的最強大的APP之一。
這個APP本身及其一些很棒的字典文件都是免費的ーー需要付費的是其他功能。
手寫識別、主詞典包和抽認卡功能是必備的，其餘的你可以自己決定是否需要。。。巴拉巴拉巴拉。。
（譯註：翻到這裡譯者發現這很有可能是一篇恰飯文章。。。後面介紹APP的一段就不翻了）
Find conversational partners. I learned a lot of Mandarin from hanging out in a mandarin-speaking Linux tech support group on IRC. You can find conversational partners on Wechat, on IRC, on Weibo (“Chinese twitter”), Douban (no US equivalent! Interesting hipster-y site focused on books and music), or on dating apps like Momo or Tantan. Have “thick face skin,” the Chinese term for being shameless, and keep speaking even through your embarrassing mistakes. Add any words you have issues with to your flashcard loop. Try not to use any phrases you haven’t seen a native speaker use. You should start conversation practice way before you feel remotely ready for it, because it will ensure that the phrases you learn are those which native speakers actually use, rather than the fifty-year-old ones being taught in textbooks.
· 尋找對話夥伴
我從 IRC 上一個講中文的 Linux 技術支持小組中學到了很多中文知識，受益良多。
你可以在微信、 IRC、微博 (“中國推特”)、豆瓣 ( 美國沒有同類網站！一個很讚的流行網站專注於書籍和音樂 ) 上找到對話夥伴！ 或者約會APP，如陌陌或探探等。
“臉皮厚”（thick face skin）很重要，即使你犯了令人尷尬的錯誤，也要堅持說下去。
把任何你覺得有問題的單詞添加到你的抽認卡，儘量不要使用以中文為母語的人沒有使用過的短語。
你應該在你還沒有完全準備好之前就開始練習對話，因為這將確保你學到的短語現在中文母語者實際使用的，而不是教科書上教50歲的人使用的那些。
Whatever you do, don’t underestimate the importance of tones. Many foreign speakers of Chinese have horrible tones or seem to think of them as an optional part of the language. They aren’t; they’re central to conveying meaning and you will sound permanently foreign if you don’t master them. The typical tonal learning curve is to go from barely even being able to hear the difference, to being able to hear it after about 4 months of practice, to being able to repeat it with some effort after another 4, and finally to having mostly correct tones after 6–8 months of total study. This assumes that you are paying tones the attention they deserve, and working hard to correct your mistakes.
無論你做什麼，都不要低估音調的重要性，許多講漢語的外國人有可怕的音調，或者認為它們只是學習這門語言的一個可選部分——它們不是，它們是傳達意義的核心，如果你不能掌握它們，你的發言永遠像個外國人。
典型的音調學習曲線是從幾乎聽不出差別，到經過大約4個月的練習後能聽出差別，再經過4個月的努力能夠重複，最後經過6-8個月的總體學習後能聽出大部分正確的音調，當然，前提是你能給予音調應有的關注，並努力改正你的錯誤。
Don’t waste time learning how to write characters, at least until you’re already conversational and can read fast. A lot of people seem to love the app Skritter, but I’d avoid it because it will just teach you how to write characters well, a skill which is not especially useful.
不要浪費時間學習如何書寫，至少在你學會交談並能快速閱讀之前不要這樣。
很多人似乎都喜歡 Skritter 這個APP，但我會避免使用它，因為它只會教你如何寫好字，而這種技能並不是特別有用。
評論翻譯
原創翻譯：龍騰網 http://www.ltaaa.com 翻譯：tangerl 轉載請註明出處
Alex Zito-Wolf
but the supply of those speakers remains relatively low
Do you have a source for this? English is currently taught as the second language in nearly every school in China, so I’m not sooo sure there is as much of a shortage as you claim.
“對會說英語和中文的人的需求非常高，但這類人才的供應仍然相對較低”
—— 你有這方面的消息來源嗎? 目前，中國幾乎所有的學校都把英語作為第二語言來教授，所以我不太確定是否存在你所說的那種短缺。
Kayla Jo
I teach Chinese kids full immersion English via VIPKID. I converse with Chinese parents on the WeChat app. My 7 year old learns full immersion Chinese via a sister company lingo bus. So fun!
我通過 VIPKID 教授中國孩子完全沉浸式的英語，我在微信APP上與中國父母交談，我7歲的孩子通過 Lingo bus 完全沉浸式的學習中文，太有趣了！
閱讀更多 龍騰網看世界 的文章
