掌握7門外語的秘訣

掌握7門外語的秘訣

　　人們常說小孩子學外語最厲害，但這并不是說成年人就該放棄了。我們向TED字幕翻譯計劃的多語使用者請教了掌握一門外語的秘訣。他們的方法可以提煉成7條基本法則：

　　1. Make language-learning a lifestyle change. Elisabeth Buffard, who in her 27 years of teaching English has always seen consistency as what separates the most successful students from the rest. Find a language habit that you can follow even when you’re tired, sick or madly in love.

　　1. 讓外語學習成為你的生活習慣。伊利莎白·布法爾德教了27年英語，她一直認為正是習慣使得成功的學生從其他人中脫穎而出。培養學習外語的習慣，能讓你不管累了、病了還是墮入愛河了，都會去學習。

　　2. Get real. Decide on a simple, attainable goal to start with so that you don’t feeloverwhelmed. German translator Judith Matz suggests: “Pick up 50 words of a language and start using them on people — and then slowly start picking up grammar.”

　　2. 投身于真實語境。從定一個簡單、可實現的目標開始，那樣你就不會找不著方向。德語翻譯朱迪思·馬茨建議：先找50個外語單詞，用它們來跟別人交流，然后慢慢地學習語法。

　　3. Play house with the language. The more you invite a foreign language into your daily life, the more your brain will consider it something useful and worth caring about. “Use every opportunity to get exposed to the new language,” says Russian translator Olga Dmitrochenkova. Label every object in your house in this language, read kids’ books written in it, watch subtitled TED and TEDx talks, or live-narrate parts of your day to an imaginary foreign friend.

　　3. 和語言玩過家家。你越多地讓外語進入日常生活，你的大腦就越會認為它有用并給予關注。“利用好每一個接觸新語言的機會，”俄語翻譯歐嘉·迪米特羅肯科娃說。用那門語言做成標簽貼在家里的每一樣東西上，讀用那門語言寫的童話，看有字幕的TED演講，或者跟你想象中的外國朋友講述一些一天里發生的事。