老外學外語：多小才嫌小

How young is too young to start learning another language?

For the past few months, my three-year-old daughter has spent an hour every week learning a foreign language. She taps along the corridor to a small room in a local school, where she and a handful of three- and four-year-olds spend the next hour dancing to 「La Vaca Lola」, a song about a Spanish cow, creating finger puppets to voice what they like and don』t like (me gusta, no me gusta) and shouting out which animals are big (grande) or small (peque?o).近幾個月來，我3歲的女兒每周會學一個小時的外語。她走進本地一所學校，沿著走廊輕聲走進一間小教室，然後在接下來一個小時里和幾個三、四歲的孩子一起伴著「La Vaca Lola」——一首關於一頭西班牙奶牛的歌曲——跳舞，戴著手指玩偶說「me gusta, no me gusta」（西班牙語：我喜歡什麼，我不喜歡什麼）， 喊出哪些動物「grande」（西班牙語：體型大），那些動物「peque?o」 （西班牙語：體型小）。

She tells us little about the classes. In fact, for the first few weeks, nothing at all. I begin to wonder if it was a huge mistake (each lesson works out at about ￡9) but then I show her 「La Vaca Lola」 on YouTube. She shouts vaca with enthusiasm, and with what I hope is a Spanish accent.她很少跟我們講都學了什麼。事實上，頭幾周她什麼都沒說。我開始懷疑這可能是個巨大的錯誤（算下來，每節課要交9英鎊學費）。不過後來當我在YouTube上給她放「La Vaca Lola」，她會興奮地大喊「Vaca」——我希望她說的是西班牙語。

The desire to enrol her in language lessons came, like most things, gradually and then in a sudden, panicked rush. In my day job, I read and edit stories about the Chinese economy, the rusting American heartland and Britain』s faltering Brexit negotiations. For a long time, I felt that it would be good for her to learn another language but I had no great plan as to when.讓她上外語課這件事就跟大多數事一樣，先是逐漸起了念頭，然後倉皇之間一下子就做了決定。我平常負責閱讀和編輯新聞報道，內容涉及中國經濟、不斷銹化的美國腹地，以及英國拖泥帶水的脫歐談判。很早以前我就覺得學一門外語對她有好處，但我沒有制定過完整的計劃，比方說什麼時候開始學。

Then I read a colleague』s book (Edward Luce』s The Retreat of Western Liberalism) and all my latent thoughts and anxiety about the economy, politics and the rise of the far right coalesced into an incoherent middle-of-the-night panic. Waking in a sweat, it seemed obvious that if my daughter was to have any kind of future, she would have to learn another language. Ideally, immediately.然後我讀到了一本同事寫的書——愛德華?盧斯(Edward Luce)的《西方自由主義的撤退》(The Retreat of Western Liberalism)——這本書將我對經濟、政治和極右翼勢力崛起的所有潛在思想和焦慮，通通化為一次驚慌失措的午夜驚魂。我滿身大汗地驚醒，前景已經很明確了，如果我女兒還想有未來可言，她必須學一門外語。而理想的學習時間是，馬上。

I thought about Mandarin Chinese, one of the top 10 languages most important for our future, according to the British Council (others include Arabic, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, Dutch and Japanese). But there were no classes for toddlers nearby. There were, however, local Spanish classes — the number-one language on the list. When she started to sing 「Incy Wincy Spider」 in Spanish and English — helped by a Hispanic nursery worker — our decision was made.我考慮過讓她學中文，這是英國文化教育協會(British Council)提出的未來我國十大重要外語之一，其他還有阿拉伯文、法文、德文、葡萄牙文、義大利文、俄文、荷蘭文和日文。但我家附近沒有中文幼兒培訓班。不過有西班牙語班，這可是排在榜單首位的外語。當我女兒在一位拉美裔幼教工作者的幫助下，開始用西班牙語和英語唱「小小蜘蛛」(Incy Wincy Spider)時，我們下了決定。

I told myself that she was growing up in a multicultural world — one in five primary schoolchildren in England are exposed to a language other than English at home, and in at least one London borough this figure rises to about 75 per cent. She needed to be equipped for the future. Still, a few people grimaced when I told them about the classes and I wondered if she was too young to start formal learning. But I felt backed up by the weight of research. The earlier children learn a language, the better.我告訴自己她成長在一個多元文化世界，英國有五分之一的小學生在家裡能接觸到一門外語，而倫敦地區至少有一個自治市的這個比例超出75%。她需要為未來做好準備。不過，當我說起孩子上外語課這件事，有些人會露出怪怪的表情，我自己也懷疑她現在就開始正式學外語會不會太小。但研究成果給了我支持：兒童越早學習外語越好。

「Babies all over the world are what I like to describe as citizens of the world. They can discriminate all the sounds of all languages,」 says Patricia Kuhl, a professor of speech and hearing, in her TED talk, 「The linguistic genius of babies」. 「We [adults] can discriminate the sounds of our own language, but not those of foreign languages. So the question arises: when do those citizens of the world turn into the language-bound listeners that we are? And the answer: before their first birthdays.」言語及聽覺學教授帕特里夏?庫爾(Patricia Kuhl)在她的TED演講「嬰兒的語言天賦」中說過：「我喜歡把世界各地的寶寶們稱為世界公民。他們可以辨別所有語言的所有發音。我們成年人可以辨別我們母語的發音，但辨別不了外語的發音。於是問題來了：那些世界公民們是從什麼時候開始變成像我們這樣受制於語言的聽眾呢？答案是：從他們周歲之前。」

While my daughter is starting young, so did I. We spoke English at home but I learnt Irish at school from the age of four. As well as Irish, later there was French and also German, thanks to a nun from a convent in Koblenz. The classes fed an already active imagination. As a teenager, raised on a televisual diet of Indiana Jones, Charlie』s Angels and The Saint, I entertained the fantasy that the right language at the right moment could save me from danger. I imagined myself as a female James Bond, moving from one train carriage to the next and effortlessly switching languages to communicate with border guards. 「Passport, bitte.」 「Ja, gerne.」我女兒開始學外語的年齡確實很小，不過我自己也是。我們家說的是英語，但我從4歲起就在學校學習愛爾蘭語了。除了愛爾蘭語之外，我後來還學了法語，還有德語，這要感謝一位來自科布倫茨某修道院的修女。這些外語課充盈了我本就活躍的想像力。作為一個從小看著《奪寶奇兵》(Indiana Jones)、《查理的天使》(Charlie』s Angels)、《俠探西蒙》(The Saint)等電視劇長大的少女，我懷有一個幻想：在正確的時間使用正確的語言可以助我脫離危險。我幻想自己是女版詹姆斯?邦德(James Bond)，從一節車廂走進下一節車廂，輕鬆自如地切換各種語言，與邊防警衛對談如流。「Passport, bitte.」（德語：請出示護照。）「Ja, gerne.」（德語：好的，請看。）

The reality was much less glamorous.現實就沒那麼刺激了。

We competed for a three-week scholarship to Germany, funded by a German auto parts company with an office in Wexford. I didn』t get it but received a cobbled-together second prize to serve food to pilgrims at a German convent. In what would be a harbinger of many future attempts to master a foreign language, I stayed in a flat with four other Irish people, ate too much cake and scarcely spoke any German at all.一家在韋克斯福德(Wexford)設有辦公室的德國汽車零件公司資助了我們一次為期三周的德國獎學金之旅，我們為此展開了競賽。我沒有得到獎學金，但獲得了一個臨時攢的二等獎：在德國一家修道院為朝聖者提供食物。這次經歷成了我日後數次試圖掌握一門外語的預示，我和另外四個愛爾蘭人住在一間公寓里，蛋糕吃了不少，德語一句沒說。

While there, I felt lucky that the Germans spoke such good English because I doubted I would ever be any good. I loved Irish but could never really see the use for it, nor the endless Irish proverbs we were taught. Globe-trotting heroines didn』t resort to Irish to get themselves out of a tricky situation. 當時讓我感到特別幸運的是，德國人的英語說得真好，不然我都懷疑自己什麼忙都幫不上。我對愛爾蘭語有著深沉的愛，但恐怕永遠看不出它有什麼用處，更別提我們學不完的那些愛爾蘭諺語了。週遊世界的女英雄們是不會靠愛爾蘭語幫她們脫離困境的。

I laughed at the Frenchman who had studied the Irish language at Trinity, wore an Aran jumper and had for some reason chosen to teach us our native language at secondary school. Any Frenchman worth his salt would surely stay in Paris and not waste his time at the Presentation Convent on Grogan』s Road. He struggled with his Irish accent but bravely persisted in the face of our taunts.我曾嘲笑過一個法國人，他曾在三一學院(Trinity)學習愛爾蘭語，常穿著件阿蘭毛衣，出於某種原因選擇來中學向我們教授我們的母語。每個名副其實的法國人當然都會留在巴黎，而不是把時間浪費在格羅根路的Presentation修道院。他的愛爾蘭語發音令人無語，但依然勇敢地直面我們的嘲諷。

I find myself thinking of him as I watch my daughter practise her cute holas. I think about the confidence it takes to use those words in the real world, to continue talking even as native speakers stare at you blank-faced.我看著女兒可愛地練習著「hola」（西班牙語：你好），不由得想起了他。我想，一個人得多自信才能在現實世界說那些話，甚至當母語人士面無表情地看著你時還在繼續說。

Maybe, I think, that is why the English are so reluctant to learn languages. While my corner of south-west London may be multilingual and many people do indeed speak a second language at home, the evidence suggests that fewer people are studying foreign languages.我覺得，也許這就是為什麼英國人這麼不願意學外語的原因吧。雖然我所在的倫敦市西南角可能是多語言環境，許多人也的確會在家講第二門語言，但事實證明學習外語的人越來越少了。

Just under 10,000 people sat A-level French in 2013, less than half the number that took it in 1996, a drop that in part reflects the fact that, since 2004, languages are no longer compulsory after the age of 14.2013年只有不到1萬人參加了A-Level法語考試，不到1996年參加考試人數的一半，這一下降部分反映了一件事，從2004年開始，外語不再是14歲以上學生的必修課。

There is an even sharper north/south divide. In summer 2016, 65 per cent of pupils in inner London took a language GCSE compared with just 43 per cent in north-east England. And the UK doesn』t compare well with its peers. In a European Commission survey of foreign language competence, England came last, with only 9 per cent of pupils achieving the level of an 「independent user」 of a foreign language, defined as the ability to deal with straightforward, familiar matters. Top of the scale was Sweden, with 82 per cent.南北方的對比甚至更為明顯。2016年夏天，內倫敦65%的小學生參加了英國普通中等教育證書(GCSE)外語考試，而英國東北部只有43%。而且與歐盟其他國家相比英國的情況也不容樂觀。在歐盟委員會(European Commission)一項外語能力調查中，英國排名最後，只有9%的小學生達到了一門外語「獨立使用者」(independent user)水平，即能夠處理簡單的、熟悉的事務。排名最高的是瑞典，比例為82%。

「People think, 『Everyone speaks English, so why should I even bother?』」 says Vicky Gough, schools adviser for the British Council. 「[But] only a fifth of the world』s population speak English, four-fifths don』t. We still need to be able to communicate.」英國文化教育協會的學校顧問維奇?高夫(Vicky Gough)說：「人們覺得，『既然每個人都會說英語，我幹嘛還費那個勁學別的語言呢？』可是全球只有五分之一的人說英語，五分之四的人是不說的。我們還是需要有能力去溝通。」

With the UK renegotiating its place on the world stage, it is more important than ever to learn foreign languages, she says, but, if anything, the vote to leave the EU added to the sense of malaise about language teaching. 「The referendum created a lot of uncertainty, we had reports of [secondary] kids saying, 『We don』t need to do this any more,』」 she says. 「Around 35 per cent of language teachers in the UK are from the EU?.?.?.?their status still isn』t clear. If those teachers left, teaching of languages would collapse.」她表示，隨著英國開始重新協商自己在世界舞台上的地位，學習外語比以往任何時候都更重要，但脫歐公投可能加劇了外語教學問題。她說：「這次全民公投造成了很多不確定性，我們收到報告，有中學生說『我們再也不用學這個了』。英國約有35%的外語教師來自歐盟……他們的處境還未定。如果這些教師離開了，外語教學就徹底垮了。」

Gough tells me that, in particular, the study of German is in decline. It is viewed as elite and academic. For someone who attended a school where most students learnt at least some German, this strikes me as depressing. She refers me to a quote by professor Jo Lo Bianco, a professor of language at the University of Melbourne. 「There are two disadvantages in global language arrangements: one of them is not knowing English; and the other one of them is knowing only English.」高夫告訴我，德語學習的下滑尤為明顯，這門語言被看做是精英和學術語言。我當年上的學校里，絕大多數學生至少都學過些德語，所以這個消息令我深感沮喪。她向我提到了墨爾本大學(University of Melbourne)語言學教授約瑟夫?洛?比安科(Joseph Lo Bianco)的一句話，「全球的語言分布有兩大缺點：一部分人不懂英語，還有一部分人只懂英語。」

Gough adds: 「It is a really interesting thought, if you are monolingual Brit, [you are] as disadvantaged as someone who doesn』t have English at all, you only have access to that one world view.」高夫補充說：「這是個非常有趣的想法，如果你是個只懂一種語言的英國人，那麼你就像一個完全不懂英語的人一樣處於劣勢，你只能接觸到一種世界觀。」

The more I consider monolingualism and what it means, the more I start to think an hour a week is not enough. I buy a CD of Spanish nursery rhymes. My daughter loves them and her baby brother bangs his porridge bowl on the table in time to 「Sol Espa?ol」.我對單語及其影響思考得越多，就越覺得每周一小時學習是不夠的。我買了一張西班牙語童謠CD。我女兒很喜歡這些童謠，而她弟弟每逢聽到「Sol Espa?ol」會用他的粥碗敲桌子。

If I really want her to learn the language, then I should probably learn it myself and structure it into our daily routine. But after reading about the endless plasticity and flexibility of baby brains, my own feels set in concrete. After years of trying, I know how difficult it is to not only master another tongue but to retain fluency in it. I remember being so good at Irish, I could have lived in the Gaeltacht, the Irish-speaking area of Ireland. Years ago I hit 「peak French」 in west Africa. It was wonderful, like finally finding the right frequency for your favourite radio station. Now my Irish works in fits and starts and my French has run away from me like water downhill. Faced with a job application, I would struggle to categorise my fluency. If you understand the headlines in Le Monde is that good? Or just basic?如果我真的希望她學習這門語言，那麼我自己也該去學，並將它融入到我們的日常生活中。但在我讀過資料知道了嬰兒大腦有無盡的可塑性和適應性之後，我自己的腦子就像灌了水泥。經過這麼多年努力，我深知要掌握另一門語言，還要做到流利使用有多麼困難。我記得有段時間我講愛爾蘭語特別棒，就像是個住在「Gaeltacht」——愛爾蘭境內講愛爾蘭語區——的人。幾年前在西非我達到了「法語巔峰」。那種感覺很奇妙，就像你終於找到了最喜歡的電台的正確調頻。現在我的愛爾蘭語還能湊合著說，而法語已經像流下山的水那樣離我遠去。如果要去找工作，我恐怕很難定位自己的語言流利程度。能看懂法國《世界報》(Le Monde)的頭條算是優秀呢，還是只能算基礎？

As the Spanish lessons progress, I find myself picking up the Irish storybooks my daughter was given when she was born. 「Póg mar seo」, she shouts, not remotely understanding what it means (「a kiss like this」) but liking the rhythm and the repetition. I make no serious effort to teach her Irish but am touched that the words mean something to her.隨著女兒開始上西班牙語課，我無意識地撿起了她出生時收到的一件禮物——一本愛爾蘭語故事書。「Póg mar seo」（愛爾蘭語：像這樣親吻），她喊道，完全不知道何意，但喜歡它的節奏和重複。我沒有認真教過她愛爾蘭語，但很感動這些詞對她是有意義的。

I wonder if, like the Frenchman, these few Irish words will offer her something she won』t get in the cosmopolitan city that is her home, and whether in years to come she will be left with just a few fragmented Spanish phrases and only a vague memory of how she learnt them.我不知道這寥寥幾句愛爾蘭語是否能給她帶來一些她的大都會家鄉不會給予她的東西，就像那個法國人一樣；也不知道多年後她是否只能記得幾句西班牙短語，以及學習這些短語的模糊回憶。

If nothing else comes of these lessons, I console myself her life will have been a little richer for not having been conducted solely in English. After all this time, I still remember my Irish proverbs. Mar dhea (a sceptical harrumph) and plámás (a particularly oily or self-serving flattery) are phrases I recall on an almost daily basis. There are no English equivalents that roll off my tongue quite as smoothly. And when I get the train home in the evening, I stand at Waterloo station, words filtering into my head as the light drops through the arches: dá fhada an lá tagann on tráthnóna (however long the day, the evening comes).就算這些課什麼也沒教會她，我安慰自己她的生活也比只接觸英語要豐富了一些。畢竟直至現在，我仍記得我的愛爾蘭諺語。我幾乎每天都會想起「Mar dhea」（愛爾蘭語：懷疑的哼聲）、「 plámás」（愛爾蘭語：特別諂媚或是為謀私利的奉承）這些短語。英語就沒這樣的辭彙能這麼流利地從我嘴裡說出來。每當夜裡我要坐上回家的火車，站在滑鐵盧站，那些詞句就像透過拱門的光柱一樣滲入我的腦海：「dá fhada an lá tagann on tráthnóna。」（愛爾蘭語，「再長的一天，也會有夜幕降臨。」）

Orla Ryan is a writer and editor at the FT

奧拉?萊恩是英國《金融時報》的一名撰寫人兼編輯