學一門新語言能改變大腦

LEARNING A NEW LANGUAGE MAKES YOU SMARTER

學一門新語言會讓你變得更聰明

The Benefits of Bilingualism:

會兩門語言的好處：

Outside of the obvious travel and social aspects of language learning, we also change our brain in numerous ways.

學習一門語言，它除了在旅遊和社交這些方面有顯而易見的好處以外，還在很多方面改變着我們的大腦。

Knowledge of more than one language has demonstrated in studies to improve attention, Memory, and self-control.

研究表明，擁有多門語言的知識能夠提高我們的注意力、記憶力以及自控力。

Ellen Bialystok of York University discovered that knowing two languages delayed dementia by 5 years.

約克大學的艾倫·比亞里斯托克發現：會2門語言，能使老年癡呆延緩5年到來。

And strangely, it seems that our personality is intimately linked to the language we speak. Our words are part of our identity.

而且，神奇的是，我們的人格似乎和我們講的語言緊密地聯繫在一起。我們說的話，其實就是我們身份的一部分。

We all talk to ourselves, and studies have shown that in the event that someone loses their ability to speak, they also report feeling like they lack self-awareness.

我們每個人都會自言自語，而且有研究發現：一些喪失了說話能力的人會覺得自己缺少了自我意識。

They lose a part of who they are.

他們失去了自己的一部分。

Psychologists has also found that people behave differently depending on the language they’re speaking, and they may change the way we perceive the world.

心理學家還發現，人們的行爲根據各自使用的語言而有所不同，這些語言很可能在影響着我們看世界的方式。

Tim Keeley believes that learning a language is to reinvent yourself. Each language becomes a new identity.

提姆·基立相信：學一門語言就是在改造你自己。每一門語言都會爲我們創造一個新的人格。

When Keeley studied Chinese speakers learning Japanese, those that could empathize with others and see from new perspectives more easily were the ones that reached greater fluency.

基立曾經研究過學日語的中國人，其中那些達到更流利水平的人都能更好地和人進行情感交流，並能從新的角度看問題。

Learning more than one language will give you a greater range of self, allowing you to empathize more easily and adapt to situations more effectively.

學一門新的語言，能讓你的“自我”擁有更大的變化空間，並能讓你擁有更好的情感交流能力，還能讓你更高效地適應新環境。

Yeah, this is why you really should learn a foreign language.

對，這就是爲什麼你真的應該學一門外語。

Learning a language is a powerful mental workout that uses every form of memory we have.

學習一門語言是一種很強大的思維訓練，它會用上我們每一種形式的記憶力。

We need to form a vocabulary vast enough to express our messages.

我們需要積累足夠大的詞彙量才能表達自己的意思。

We also need the grammatical knowledge to put it all together.

我們還需要語法方面的知識來把他們串起來。

We need to use our muscles and motor control to wrap our tongue around the pronunciation.

我們需要動用自己的肌肉和運動控制能力來操縱舌頭髮聲。

And we need to be able to do it fast, intuitively, without stopping to think about each translation.

而且我們還需要做到足夠快、足夠下意識，而不是在每一句翻譯前都停下來想。

Fluency in any language requires a higher order understanding of it. Memorization will fall short, you can’t just accumulate words, you need to see the relationships and interactions between them.

想要流利地使用任何一門語言，你都需要對它有高階的理解。死記硬背的東西很快就會忘掉，你不能僅僅去背單詞，你需要看清他們之間的關聯與互動。

Mastery requires both the possession of ready knowledge and the conceptual understanding of how to use it.

“精通”不光意味着記得已學的知識，還意味着從概念層面上知道怎麼去運用他們。

As with many other higher forms of knowledge — such as music theory, a programming language, math or physics — it’s essential to see the whole system, to take a holistic view and understand intuitively how each piece works within it.

這就和很多其他的高階知識一樣——比如樂理、編程語言、數學和物理學——“看清整個系統”是至關重要的，有了這種宏觀的視角，你才能從知覺層面直接感知各部分的運作機制。

Learning a language is not easy, but in a way that’s the point, you need to be patient and put in the effort to see the reward.

學一門語言並不容易，但從某一方面來講，這正是它的好處，你需要有耐心並且願意花精力，然後才能看到回報。

And it is a great reward.

而它的回報是非常可觀的。