【厦门韦博英语】外语学习:学语言别怕出洋相
【厦门韦博英语】外语学习:学语言别怕出洋相
Miguel Bloombito has some travel advice for his 75,000-plus Twitter followers: “Los subwayo farehikeros esta too mucho expensivo. Take tu helicoptero to worko insteado!”
恶搞纽约市长迈克尔·布隆伯格(Michael Bloomberg)的Twitter账户@ElBloombito，以“Miguel Bloombito”的名义给75000多名粉丝提供了一些出行建议：“Los subwayo fare hikeros esta too mucho expensivo. Take tu helicoptero to worko insteado!”（意：地铁票价涨得太厉害了，还是乘坐直升飞机上班吧！）
New Yorkers are having fun with their mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Spanish. The parody@ElBloombito account is one example. But Mr Bloomberg, whose Spanish announcements during last year’s Hurricane Sandy brought his heavily accented attempts to a worldwide YouTube audience, is not giving up.
纽约人喜欢揶揄他们市长的西班牙语水平，这个恶搞的山寨账户便是一例。去年飓风桑迪(Hurricane Sandy)来袭时，布隆伯格那带着浓重口音的西班牙语公告通过YouTube传遍了全世界。但他没有放弃学习。
He got a D in French at school and dropped plans to major in university physics because so much of the literature was then in German, he told the New York Times recently.
近期，布隆伯格对《纽约时报》(New York Times)表示，他上学时的法语成绩为D，而在主修物理的计划也因当时多数文献系用德语写成而泡汤。
But he insisted he was getting better at his latest language. “I will not die until I can speak Spanish like a quasi-native,” he said.
但他坚持认为自己的西班牙语正在进步：“如果不把西班牙语练成准母语者的水平，我是不会死去的。”
Learning languages defeats less determined English-speakers, who reckon most business and travel conversations take place in English anyway. Even those who know that their customers would be impressed by an attempt to speak their language find it too daunting.
学习外语会让意志不够坚定的英语母语者打退堂鼓，因为他们觉得，反正大多数商务对话和旅行交谈都是用英语进行的。即使有些人明白尝试说客户的语言能够讨好客户，但他们仍害怕学外语。
A few years ago, during a holiday in Spain, I put on a sample of a compact disc by Michel Thomas and immediately felt I had found something different.
几年前在西班牙度假时，我听了米歇尔·托马斯(Michel Thomas)的光盘样品，立刻感到耳目一新。
I wasn’t alone. Woody Allen, Bob Dylan, Emma Thompson and executives of top companies paid Thomas thousands of dollars for Spanish, French or German lessons.
我不是唯一的一个。伍迪·艾伦(Woody Allen)、鲍勃·迪伦(Bob Dylan)、艾玛·汤普森(Emma Thompson)和顶级公司的高管都曾花费数千美元，购买托马斯的西班牙语、法语或德语课程。
Thomas died in 2005, aged 90, but his audio lessons are available, along with CDs by other instructors teaching languages such as Mandarin and Russian using his methods.
托马斯2005年去世，享年90岁，但他的音频课程仍可以买到，此外还有其他教师使用他的方法教授汉语、俄语等语言的光盘。
Thomas led an extraordinary life. Born Moniek Kroskof to a Jewish textile manufacturing family in Lodz, Poland, he studied in Germany and, when the Nazis tightened their grip, escaped to France. He fought with the resistance, escaped near death several times and took several noms de guerre, ending with Michel Thomas.
托马斯的一生非同寻常。他原名莫涅克·克罗斯科夫(Moniek Kroskof)，出生于波兰罗兹一个从事纺织制造业的犹太家庭，后来在德国学习。当纳粹加强控制时，他逃往法国。他与法国抵抗运动并肩作战，几度与死神擦肩而过，多次改名换姓，最后化名米歇尔·托马斯。
As the allies advanced across France, he linked up with American forces, using his perfect German to act as an interrogator, and then washed up, stateless, in the US, where he set up his language-teaching business.
随着盟军在法国所向披靡，他与美军取得联系，利用自己娴熟的德语审讯战俘。之后，他以无国籍人士的身份来到美国，发展起自己的语言教学业务。
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