MatthewYoulden speaks nine languages fluently and understands more than adozen more. In fact, for the longest time I didn’t even know he wasBritish. When I told Matthew how I’ve been struggling to merelypick up a second language, he had the following advice for me. Ifyou believe that you can never becomebilingual, take note!
马修·约登能流利说9门语言，还能听懂另外十几门！其实很久我都不了解他是英国人。我连学一门外语都感觉超吃力，后来他给我以下的要素。假如有和我一样感觉自己没天分学得累的人，开始笔记吧！
1. KNOW WHYYOU’RE DOING IT
1.弄清学外语的目的
This mightsound obvious, but if you don’t have a good reason to learn alanguage, you are less likely to stay motivated over the long-run.Wanting to impress English-speakers with your French is not a verygood reason; wanting to get to know a French person in his or herown language is another matter entirely.
这听起来仿佛没什么，但假如没好的原因，你就很可能在这场长跑中掉队。为了炫技而想要学法语，这可不是什么好理由；而想掌握法语去知道法国人，这就另当别论了。
2. DIVEIN
2.潜心修行
“I tend towant to absorb as much as possible right from the start. So if Ilearn something I really, really go for it and try to use itthroughout the day. For me it’s about actually putting what you’relearning into practice – be that writing anemail, speaking to yourself, listening to music, listening to theradio. Surrounding yourself, submerging yourself in the newlanguage culture is extremely important.”
“从下决心学的那一刻，我就开始用全身心吸收。所以我刚开始学习语言，就会一整天都用它，譬如写邮件、自言自语、听音乐等，把自己完全丢进那个语言文化环绕起来的环境里。这个尤为重要的。”
“I always haveat the back of my mind that it’s adapting your way of thinking tothe way of thinking in that language.”
“我一直感觉，脑海里的考虑都要转变成这种语言文化。”
3. FIND APARTNER
3.找到你的小伙伴
Matthewlearned several languages together with his twin brother Michael. Matthew and Michael, or the Super PolyglotBros. as I’d like to now refer to them, gained their superpowersfrom good-ol’, healthy sibling rivalry:“You have someone with whomyou can speak, and that’s the idea behind learning alanguage.”
马修有好几种外语都是和他双胞胎兄弟迈克尔一块学的（他们8岁就学了希腊语）！我为何要强调这对超级学霸兄弟，由于总感觉他们之间的良性角逐关系，对学习特别有帮助。
4. KEEP ITRELEVANT
4.学百遍不如用一遍
If you makeconversation a goal from the beginning, you are less likely to getlost in textbooks.:“You’re learning a language to be able to useit. The creative side is really being able to put the language thatyou’re learning into a more useful, general, everyday setting– be that through writing songs, generallywanting to speak to people. You don’t necessarily have to goabroad; you can go to the Greek restaurant down the road and orderin Greek.”
建议你刚开始就把交流放进目的，如此就不会陷在教科书里了。“学语言的目的是为了用它，最好是创造性地把它融进日常。可以是写歌词、挖掘和人说话的渴望。你甚至不必肯定去海外，譬如学希腊语就只须找到当地的希腊饭店，用希腊语点单。”
5. HAVE FUNWITH IT
5.游戏学习
Using your newlanguage in any way is a creative act. The Super Polyglot Bros.practiced their Greek by writing and recording songs. Think of somefun ways to practice your new language: make a radio play with afriend, draw a comic strip, write a poem, or simply talk towhomever you can. If you can’t find a way to have fun with the newlanguage, chances are you aren’t following step four.
用各种方法学外语本身是个很有创意的事，这对学霸兄弟学外语时会用它来写歌和录歌。想个合适你一个人的有趣的方法：和朋友一块做个广播剧、画连环画、写诗歌，或者和任何一个你能交流的人聊天！你如果感觉找不到合适你的，那或许你没按第4条做。
6. ACT LIKEA CHILD
6.像孩子一样去学
The key tolearning as quickly as a child may be to simply take on certainchildlike attitudes: for instance, lack of self-consciousness, adesire to play in the language and willingness to make mistakes.New research cannot find a direct link between age and the abilityto learn. As kids, we are expected to make mistakes, but as adultsmistakesbecometaboo. When it comes to learning a language, admitting that youdon’t know everything is the key togrowth and freedom. Let go of yourgrown-up inhibitions!
迅速学习语言的秘诀，是要有孩子一样的态度：即时、无知、爱玩、犯了错误。没研究能证明学习力和年龄的直接关系，但孩子子想犯了错误，成年人却包袱太重，怕犯了错误怕笑话！当你要学好一门语言，就要承认和同意自己如孩子般无知，这是获得成长和自由的重点。所以，让顾忌和做作去死吧！
7. LEAVEYOUR COMFORT ZONE
7.离开你的舒适区
Willingness tomake mistakes means being ready to put yourself in potentiallyembarrassing situations: talk to strangers in the language, ask fordirections, order food, try to tell a joke. The more often you dothis, the bigger your comfort zone becomesand the more at ease you can be in new situations:
经过上一步，意味着你做好筹备可以面对尴尬：和陌生人聊天、问路、点餐、开始讲笑话。突破越多你的舒适区就越大，在各种情境里就愈加应付自如：
“At thebeginning you’re going to encounter difficulties: maybe thepronunciation, maybe the grammar, the syntax,or you don’t really get the sayings. But I think the most importantthing is to always develop this feel. Every native speaker has afeel for his or her own language, and that’s basically what makes anative-speaker – whether you can make thelanguage your own.”
“刚开始你会遇见一些难点：可能是发音，可能是语法，或是你还没有学到的表达方法，要紧的是培养我们的感觉。所有人说我们的母语都会有语感，能否把外语学成母语，重点就看有没这个语感了！
8.LISTEN
8.仔细听
You must learnto look before you can draw:“We’re able to pronounce anything, it’sjust we’re not used to doing it. For example the rolled r doesn’texist in my form of English. When I was learning Spanish there werewords with the hard r in them like perro andreunión. For me, the best way to go aboutmastering that is actually to hear it constantly, to listen to itand to kind of visualize or imagine how that is supposed to bepronounced,becausefor every sound there is a specific part of the mouth or throatthat we use in order to achieve that sound.”
人在掌握画画之前，肯定先掌握察看：“要相信你有能力学会所有发音方法，不过没习惯而已。举个栗子，英语里没R的大舌头音，我学西班牙语时就遇见perro或reunión这种需要卷舌才能发出的单词，我找到最高效学习办法就是不停地听其他人说。先听，然后想象这个音是用口腔的那个部位发的，再模仿。
If you can’twatch and imitate a native-speaker in person, watchingforeign-language films and TV is a good substitute.
如果身边没老外供你察看，看电影和电视剧也是很好的选择。
9. TALK TOYOURSELF
9.自言自语
“It mightsound really weird, but actually speaking to yourself in a languageis a great way to practice if you’re not able to use it all thetime.” This can keep new words and phrases fresh in your mind andbuild up your confidence for the next time you speak withsomeone.“
听起来可能有点怪，但在你没法整天用这门语言的时候，自言自语是训练的好方法。”让新的单词、词语常常跳跃在你的脑海里，下次开口聊天前你也会更有筹备！
10.RELAX!
10.心态放轻松
You are notgoing to annoy people by speaking their language poorly. If youpreface any interaction with, “I’m learning and I’d like TOPractice…” most people will be patient, encouraging and happy tooblige.
你不会由于讲得不好就惹人厌烦的，假如聊天开始前你说：“我正在学，很期望训练……”大部分人都会非常耐心，乐意鼓励和帮你的。
BUT WHAT’STHE POINT?
但有哪些意义呢？
We’ve goneinto HOW to start learning a language, but are you still on thefence about WHY to learn? Matthew has one last point tomake:
大家已经探讨了如何开始学外语，可你是否还停留在为何要学外语？马修还有一个看法：
“I think eachlanguage has a certain way of seeing the world. If you speak onelanguage then you have a different way of analyzing andinterpreting the world than the speaker of another language does.Even if they’re really closely-related languages such as Spanishand Portuguese, which are to a certain extent mutuallyintelligible, they are at the same time two different worlds– two different mindsets. “
我觉得每种语言都有其特定的认识世界的方法。不一样的语种，会叫你们有不一样的对世界的剖析和认知。即便是两种相似度非常高的语言，如西班牙语和葡萄牙语，在某种程度上确实互通，但同时他们又代表两个不一样的世界——不一样的思维方法。”
“Therefore,having learned other languages and been surrounded by otherlanguages, I couldn’t possibly choose only onelanguage becauseit would mean really renouncing the possibility to be able to seethe world in a different way. Not in one way, but in many differentways. So the monolingual lifestyle, for me, is the saddest, theloneliest, the most boring way of seeing the world. There are somany advantages of learning a language; I really can’t think of anyreason not to.”
“因此，掌握了不同语言，置身在不一样的文化，我非常难再选择单语言的生活方法，由于这意味着你将舍弃另一种看世界的方法，不只一种，而是非常多种。对我而言，单语种的生活是最悲哀、最孤独、最无趣的了。学习外语有哪些好处这样之多，我真的想不到不去学的原因。”
