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compelling reasons remain for learning other languages. They range from the intellectual to the economical to the practical. First of all, learning any foreign language helps you understand all language better—manyAnglophones first encounter the words 「past participle」 not in an English class, but in French. Second, there is the cultural broadening. Literature is always best read in the original.但是，還是有一些重要的原因督促著我們學習其它語言。這些因素包括求知慾，經濟收益還有實用因素。首先，只要學習一門外語，你對所有語言的理解也會增強。很多英語母語者是在法語課，而不是英語課上最先遇到「過去分詞」一詞。其次，這也會拓寬你的文化視野。文學作品永遠是讀原版最好。Poetry and lyrics suffer particularly badly in translation. And learning another tongue helps the student grasp another way of thinking. Though the notion that speakers of different languages think differently has been vastly exaggerated and misunderstood, there is a great deal to be learned from discovering what the different cultures call this, that or das oder.詩歌在翻譯時受到的破壞尤為嚴重。學習多一門語言可以幫助學生掌握另一種思維方式。雖然不同語言使用者的思維方式不同這一點被廣泛地誇大和誤解了，但是發現學習不同的文化把不同的事物叫作什麼還是可以讓你學到很多東西。The practical reasons are just as compelling. In business, if the team on the other side of the table knows your language but you don』t know theirs, they almost certainly know more about you and your company than you do about them and theirs—a bad position to negotiate from. Many investors in China have made fatally stupid decisions about companies they could not understand. Diplomacy, war-waging and intelligence work are all weakened by a lack of capable linguists. Virtually any career, public or private, is given a boost with knowledge of a foreign language.從實用方面講，學習外語的好處也很大。在商場上，如果談判桌對面的隊伍理解你的語言，而你不理解他們的語言。那他們對你和你的公司了解幾乎肯定會比你對他們的了解更多，在談判時這可不是什麼有利條件。很多中國的投資者在自己不能理解的公司上做出了一些致命的愚蠢決定。外交，戰爭和情報工作在缺少能幹的語言工作者時都會處於劣勢。幾乎所有的職業，不管是在公共崗位還是私營崗位上，懂得一門外語總是會給你加分。So which one should you, or your children, learn? If you take a glance at advertisements in New York or A-level options in Britain, an answer seems to leap out: Mandarin. China』s economy continues to grow at a pace that will make it bigger than America』s within two decades at most. China』s political clout is growing accordingly. Its businessmen are buying up everything from American brands to African minerals to Russian oil rights. If China is the country of the future, is Chinese the language of the future?那麼你，或者你的孩子應該學什麼語言呢？如果你看看紐約的廣告或是英國的劍橋高級水準科目選擇，答案似乎顯而易見：中文。中國的經濟正在持續以高速增長，最多再花20年就會趕上美國。中國的政治影響力也隨之增大。中國商人在世界各地採購，從美國商標，到非洲礦物，到俄羅斯石油開採權無所不包。如果中國是未來的大國，那中文是不是也就成了未來的首選語言呢？If your interests span the globe, and you』ve read this far, you already know the most useful global language. But if you want another truly global language, there are surprisingly few candidates, and for me French is unquestionably top of the list. It can enhance your enjoyment of art, history, literature and food, while giving you an important tool in business and a useful one in diplomacy. It has native speakers in every region on earth. And lest we forget its heartland itself, France attracts more tourists than any other country—76.8m in 2010, according to the World Tourism Organisation, leaving America a distant second with 59.7m. Any visit there is greatly enhanced by some grasp of the language. The French are nothing but welcoming when you show them and their country respect, and the occasional frost that can greet visitors melts when they come out with their first fully formed sentence. So although there are other great languages out there, don』t forget an easy, common one, with far fewer words to learn than English, that is almost certainly taught in your town. With French, vous ne regretterez rien.如果你的興趣遍及全球，而且你已經讀到這兒了，你已經會最有用的全球語言了。但是如果你想再學一門全球語言，讓人很驚訝的是，可供選擇的語言其實不多。對我來說在這些語言中法語毫無疑問是列在榜首的。法語可以增進你對藝術，歷史，文學和烹飪的欣賞，同時也讓你掌握一項在商界很重要，在外交界很有用的工具。法語母語者遍布地球上每個主要地區。而且我們不要忘了法語的中心地，法國每年吸引的遊客超過任何其它國家。根據世界旅遊組織2010年遊客達7680萬。排名第二的美國只有區區5970萬。對於法語有一定掌握會給你的法國之行增色不少。如果你表達了你對法國和法國人的尊重，法國人會對你無任歡迎。偶爾法國人會對遊客非常冷漠，但是當你說出一句完整的法語句子時，所有的這種冷漠都會消融。所以說雖然有很多其他語言都很不錯，不要忘記還有一門簡單常用，單詞比英語少得多的語言。不管你身在何方，在你住的城鎮幾乎肯定有地方學習法語。學習法語吧，你不會後悔的。
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