閱讀-滋養心靈的養料

05-08

作者/安妮師太

引

我曾寫過一篇文章，稱寫作是形成超越型智力的秘密武器，因為它鍛造思維的嚴酷勝過任何教練。今天，我要給大家介紹另一個秘密武器，卻不是用來削尖或者磨礪思維的，而是滋潤心靈的養料，即閱讀。寫作和閱讀這兩者不可或缺：前者是攝入營養，後者是體能訓練，都有益身心。

1 閱讀是件苦差事

你們是聽過那些誘導我們增加閱讀的勸世良言的：閱讀不僅滋潤心靈，增強智力，還能通過豐富我們的內涵來提升我們的行為舉止，讓我們品行高尚，閃耀高貴人性的光輝。然而，即使有大賢們如此的諄諄教誨，人們依然常常選擇無腦娛樂，在文化的沙漠里糊塗跋涉，就因為閱讀要費些腦筋的，不是什麼捻指即來的小玩意。

至少，你們是如此以為的「閱讀是件苦差事」，直到有一天，你品嘗到這樣的甜頭：你腦中本來漿糊一團的某概念，被一番縝密而行雲流水的論述給鋪平了，給梳理得透透徹徹，在心頭敞亮地秀立起來。觀賞清透哲思織成的縷縷文字，何等賞心悅目；於冰冷清澈、閃著古今偉大心靈之光芒的語句溪流里浸潤，何等靜穆通靈；通過閱讀在腦中建立起知識的大廈，何等蓬勃的成就感。

那些「雞湯」，不管是大賢所教導的還是我剛拋給你的，先放在一邊吧。實際上，不論你是努力達到英語流利還是成為優秀的翻譯，閱讀就是你的錦囊妙計。

2 閱讀與口譯

我不禁回想自己最初介面譯兼職時的情形：由於我對相關領域的概念非常熟悉，無論是用中文還是用英文做媒介都耳濡目染了較長時間，結果一上手就如魚得水。我的個人傳譯機理如下：聽到內容後，先在原文思維模式中理解其本意（不是通過翻譯來理解），緊接著我把自己的思考系統切換到另一種語言下，再把意思複述出來。後來我聽到一個詞叫做「語言脫殼」，我靈光一閃：那就是我無意中已經掌握的秘訣！這個原理的反面就是：如果我們非得解釋一個我們不熟悉的概念，即使是用母語，也會磕磕絆絆——這是由於此概念的語言域並不存在，或是碎片化的。

我想再次解釋真正的口譯是怎樣進行的：你的工作不應該是處處在對應的英語片語和中文片語間修建小橋。你在接受信息時，恰恰應該暫時忘記目的語和源語的交叉 - 就按你所聽到讀到的理解，無需另一個語言的參與。隨後你切換到目的語系統，把你聽到或讀到的那一層意思像是講你自己的故事，或者論證你自己的觀點一般講述出來，源語在這裡不需要存在。

我們當中的絕大部分人都愛拄著中文的拐杖行走英文的星球，或是老透過中文的玻璃觀賞英文的風景。這是因為母語是我們的舒適區。其實，母語正像我們的舒適腳墊，每走一步就墊一層，難怪我們第二語言的小腿肌肉萎縮了。

3 學語言要遠離舒適區

你可能會抗議，先修建起兩個精密的語言體系，然後再建立二者之間的聯繫？這個過程豈不是耗時太長？那，你有更好的建議嗎？每走幾步修座小橋，過完橋再慌慌張張地聚攏語言元素搭建屋廈？這或許就是為什麼並非所有聯合國同聲傳譯員都有資格做母語到外語的同傳——有些人的第二語言尚未形成一種本能。

你怎麼判斷自己的二外是否在朝著這個方向進展呢？我必須先問你們這個問題，再來揭示具體方法路徑。答案是：當你能輕鬆自如的能用此門語言思考問題，你就知道自己水平已差不多了。 另一個成功的徵兆就是：你已經能夠通過此門語言獲取知識、學習技巧甚至教授其它學科知識，譬如數學、音樂、地理或歷史。

我猜你們正在想，噢噢，我現在要努力學英文，這樣將來我就可以用英語去思考、去學其他內容了。如果此時的你們並不認識26個字母或是缺乏基本語法概念，這個說法是對的；但像你們專業是英美文學、語言學、MTI或是想要進MTI的同學，你需要以「到達」的心理狀態來前行，也就是說你不是先學英文再用英文，而是現在就用英文！別再抱著漢語譯文找借口，「你說的很對，但我沒有時間磨英文...讓我看幾眼中文解釋來理個頭緒」，又或是「我沒有要達到『母語標準』那麼高的外語要求...基本流利就行。」可是，你們要知道，取其上者得其中- 把目標定高一點，遠離自己的舒適區。

4 我的建議

我在方法上的建議是：深入閱讀英美報刊書籍（虛構和非虛構），在各方面大量閱讀並深入閱讀其中的精華選摘。本文開頭對閱讀一般意義上的討論，和下面對如何成為優秀口譯員的探討，在這個建議上就落實一處了。強化閱讀原版刊物（不依賴中文解釋，甚至完全不用中文解釋，如果你跟我一樣絕對的話），能把你自己完全浸泡在你想要獲得的元素中，直到它融入你的血液，深入你的骨髓，成為你的構成。

在此，我們Gambition團隊提供強化閱讀班來幫助大家，通過閱讀來接受全方位的通識教育，尤其是那些能夠引起國際關注的、人類共通的領域。教學目標是：你們學會以原著閱讀為利劍，突破任何生疏的領域。同時，在胸中建立起源源不斷的優美英文表達。充盈你內心的，會自然而然流露出來；那麼我們最好努力給自己填充最關鍵，最美好的內容。

下面是英文版

I wrote an article before, calling writing the secret weapon to superior intellectuality for it whips your mind into shape like no other. I am going to reveal another secret today - a tool not so much like a sharpener or a grinder, but as food for your mind - reading. We need them both : sustenance and exercise, physically and brain wise.

You know the rhetoric the wise and concerned press on us to make us read more:1) it nourishes your soul2) it feeds into your intelligent power3) it even changes your mannerism by enriching your heart4) it is downright ennobling, or reflects your sublime humanity. Yet many of you drudge in the desert of brainless entertainment anyway, as the alternative - reading is simply too much work.

At least, you thought that, until you tasted the sweetness of having a blob of meanings stretched open, combed through and become crystal clear in you, through a well-written article or book. Oh, the joy of resting your eyes on the beauty of clear thoughts, the tranquility of immersion in the cold and lucid stream of words dappled with luminescence off of the brightest minds, and the sense of fulfillment welling up in you as you build up in you an architecture of subject knowledge through reading.

The rhetoric, theirs and mine, can be put aside for now.Practically, whether you need to achieve fluidity in English communication or to become an excellent interpreter or translator, reading is the way. "You speak from the abundance of your heart." - said in the Bible. When there is no filling, there is no spilling over. When there is saturation, there is easy transfusion.

I remember how I started doing interpretation as a side job: it felt easy because I was so familiar with the field of interest in both languages, the facts and the expressions were at the top of my mind and came to me on command. This is how I always do it : I hear something, I understand the meaning organically(not by translation) and I just retell it by switching on the other language system. Later I heard the word "deverbalization and instantly I saw what kind of key I had stumbled upon(lucky me). The flip side of the coin is, if we have to explain things of an unfamiliar field even in our mother tongue, we fumble and wobble- the system is just not there or in pieces.

Let me explain again how, in my experience, true interpretation works: you don』t build mini-bridges between phrases and their target-language equivalent as you receive the information. No, you rather forget about what role the other language might play here to your understanding. You comprehend what is delivered to you as it is. Then you enter into the other language as if it is a separate room, and you just speak what you just heard or read as if that is your own story or own argument to tell or make. The original language has no business here.

Most of us tend to walk the English earth with a Chinese crutch, or look on the English vista through the Chinese glass. Our mother tongue - our comfort zone, literally becomes a comforter-type padding for every step of the way, no wonder we got withered calf muscles with the build of the second language.

You could be protesting now: isn』t it too long a process to build two exquisite systems first before you can be the connections between them? Well, what other way do you suggest? Set up your small bridges every few steps, cross them and then scramble to pile together the scattered logs ? Thats probably why not all UN simultaneous interpreters are encouraged to translate their first language to another language - the other language hasnt become the interpreters second nature yet.

How do you know you have arrived? I ask you this before I go on to unveil the road to get there. You know you are hitting the mark, the moment you can think freely in English, or in whatever second language you are working to acquire. Another sign is, you can use the language to gain knowledge , to learn a skill and even to teach things other than the language itself, like math, music, geography or history.

I am guessing you are thinking, hmm, I need to LEARN English hard so one day I could be there- able to use English to think and to learn other things . Thats correct, if you havent known your ABC and basic grammar yet; Wrong answer, because you need to tap at the finish line to get to the finish line. Especially you, who majors in English literature or English linguistics or MTI or aspires to get into an MTI program, start using English to think and to learn NOW. There is no shortcut, there is no "yes, but no time.. let me wet my feet with Chinese first" or "I dont have to heed such a high standard.. basic fluency is fine." You know what? you need to aim twice as high to get to where you might be comfortable.

An exhortation for reading published English literatures(fiction and non-fiction)intensively, in large quantity with well-rounded content and in depth with a selected few, will be the knot I tie between the thought about reading in general, and the later trail concerning the best way to master a second language and interpretation. Intensive English reading (without leaning on Chinese expositions all the time or at all if you are extreme like me) soaks you up in the element you want to gain, until that element becomes part of you, your blood and your system. Reading as an entrance into a plateau of knowledge, instead of solely for the sake of learning a language, drives you through with more fun and a better measure for progress.

Hereby at Gambition we offer this Intensive Reading class to assist you, through reading, to become informed in an all-round manner, with emphasis on the areas where international forums like to dabble. Our objective is that, you will learn to crack open any unfamiliar field with the sword of published works in English, and while doing that, install flows of the English language in you. Whatever is in you comes out naturally, therefore we better fill ourselves with the essential and the best stuff.

原文鏈接：閱讀-滋養心靈的養料