书城外语双语学习丛书-校园之路
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第6章 On Learning Foreign Languages外语学习(3)

这个时候,毫无疑问你们已经拉近了距离,思想上也达到了某种默契,这就是一种对自我力量的认知。

你处于一种特殊的地位,对那个问题的了解要比老师多得多。

And if you employ your power with delicacydelicacy n.微妙 as I have advised, so that she does not either run away from you in fright as from an intellectual monster, or in a fit of mad pride buy a grammar and learn her own language, you can retain this position of loftylofty adj.高高的, 崇高的, 高傲的, 高级的 helplessnesshelpless adj.无助的, 无能的, 没用的 throughout the duration of the romance.

For at every stage of the proceeding your mind will know more about the language than hers; her knowledge is in her tongue.There are only two forces in this world, love and pride, and upon these two I base my linguisticlinguistic adj.语言上的, 语言学上的 system. I do not assaultassault v.袭击 you with rules of syntax, with paradigms, with conjugationsconjugation n.结合, declensions, and other things appealing purely to the intellect, and to that weakly.

如果按我的意见去做,并且举止得体,既不把她吓跑掉——像看到一个聪明过人的怪物那样拔腿逃跑,又不让她在虚荣心的支配下,立刻去买一本语法书,学习起她自己的语言来。你便能在这个浪漫的时刻,处于一个有利的求助地位。

因为在前进的每一个阶段,你自己心中明白,你的语法知识比她强,而她的口语比你的强得多。

爱心和自尊心是这个世界上的两种力量。在它之上我建立了自己的语言系统。我不用语法规则、词形变化、动词变化、语尾变化以及其他纯粹诉诸于智力、但不起多大作用的东西来向你进攻。

I go straight to the heart. I put you in the position of a child, for whom life itself—this is, love and pride—demands a learning of his language. And I put your wind and the waves and the stars and the sunshine, and all the forces of nature, run to help you when you have made yourself a child.

You will read your grammar in the intervalsinterval n.间隔, 距离, 幕间休息 of study. It will rest and relax you from the thrillingthrilling adj.毛骨悚然的, 颤动的, 发抖的 excitement of your lessons. You will find its pages colored with the same emotion, but in a milder tone.

And if you do not overdo it—if you do not get all the most passionate words in the language whirling through your brain at a rate fatal to the tissuetissue n.薄的纱织品, 薄纸, 棉纸, [生]组织, 连篇—I guarantee that inside of two weeks you will have communicated some of the most profound and dangerous thoughts in our soul.

我直抵内心。我把你放在一个小孩子的位置上。对于孩子而言,生活就是爱和自尊,这要求他好好学语言。我把你放到风、浪、星辰、阳光以及自然界的万物都会跑过来帮助你的位置,帮助你这个成为小孩子的人。

当然,你可以在学习的间隙读你的语法。它会使你从紧张的课程中解放出来,得到休息和放松。你会发现语法书同样充满感情色彩,只是语气温和些。

如果你不冒失的话,也就是说你没有把最火辣的词汇以最快的速度装进脑袋的话(顺便说一下,这对于大脑的机体极其有害),那么我保证在两周之内你便可以与人进行思想和灵魂上的沟通。

Inside of a month you will have said enough in that language to keep you busy regretting in English as it begins to get loose in a foreign language.

Those words mean what they say, but they do not mean it seriously. They are play words. They are exercises of agilityagility n.敏捷, 活泼. They are not yet firmly gearedgear v.调整, (使)适合 in with the real world, arising out of causes and attached to consequences. They are laughing in spacein space 片刻就, 一会儿就. Prudence would be an affectation. You say wild things and you say them with enormous and sincere enthusiasm—enthusiasm about your ability to say them.

It is not only learning a language when you learn it according to my system—it is taking a little breath of the free.

用不了一个月,你就能基本自如地使用这种语言了,而且变得口无遮拦、信口开河,并为自己的母语是英语而遗憾。

那些词字面上是那些意思,但不要太认真。它们只不过是文字游戏,是用来操练舌头的。它们和现实世界的联系并不紧密,由一定的原因而产生,又导致一定的结果。它们容易遭到嘲笑。谨慎成为一种掩饰。你有一种说话的热情,不仅巨大,而且真诚,它使你出言不逊。

如果你用我的方法来学习外语,你就觉得自己不仅是在学外语,而且是在自由呼吸。

学习任何一门语言都是一种思想的交流,而创造语境会让我们学起来更加有效,更加直接。学习语言不能囿于语法,语法作为此种语言的一种规则,只是让这种语言更加合理和顺畅。但我们应该掌握基本的语法规则,以至更深,这样可以更好地完善我们的外语学习。学习语言的过程中,我们要真正投入感情,这样的我们的舌头会运用得轻松自如。