20年前，幼兒園里的小朋友還在跟著老師學(xué)習(xí)漢語(yǔ)拼音，而今天，已經(jīng)有越來(lái)越多的幼兒園開(kāi)始教授外語(yǔ)課程。過(guò)早的外語(yǔ)教學(xué)在社會(huì)上也引起了一些爭(zhēng)議。學(xué)習(xí)外語(yǔ)，多早算太早?不僅是中國(guó)的父母，全世界的父母似乎都有這樣的困惑。

For the past few months, my three-year-old daughter has spent an hour every week learning a foreign language.

近幾個(gè)月來(lái)，我3歲的女兒每周會(huì)學(xué)一個(gè)小時(shí)的外語(yǔ)。

She tells us little about the classes. In fact, for the first few weeks, nothing at all. I begin to wonder if it was a huge mistake (each lesson works out at about 9 pounds) but then I show her “La Vaca Lola” on YouTube. She shouts vaca with enthusiasm, and with what I hope is a Spanish accent.

她很少跟我們講都學(xué)了什么。事實(shí)上，頭幾周她什么都沒(méi)說(shuō)。我開(kāi)始懷疑這可能是個(gè)巨大的錯(cuò)誤(算下來(lái)，每節(jié)課要交9英鎊學(xué)費(fèi))。不過(guò)后來(lái)當(dāng)我在YouTube上給她放“La Vaca Lola”，她會(huì)興奮地大喊“Vaca”——我希望她說(shuō)的是西班牙語(yǔ)。

The desire to enrol her in language lessons came, like most things, gradually and then in a sudden, panicked rush. In my day job, I read and edit stories about the Chinese economy, the rusting American heartland and Britain’s faltering Brexit negotiations. For a long time, I felt that it would be good for her to learn another language but I had no great plan as to when.

讓她上外語(yǔ)課這件事就跟大多數(shù)事一樣，先是逐漸起了念頭，然后倉(cāng)皇之間一下子就做了決定。我平常負(fù)責(zé)閱讀和編輯新聞報(bào)道，內(nèi)容涉及中國(guó)經(jīng)濟(jì)、不斷銹化的美國(guó)腹地，以及英國(guó)拖泥帶水的脫歐談判。很早以前我就覺(jué)得學(xué)一門(mén)外語(yǔ)對(duì)她有好處，但我沒(méi)有制定過(guò)完整的計(jì)劃，比方說(shuō)什么時(shí)候開(kāi)始學(xué)。

Then I read a colleague’s book (Edward Luce’s The Retreat of Western Liberalism) and all my latent thoughts and anxiety about the economy, politics and the rise of the far right coalesced into an incoherent middle-of-the-night panic. Waking in a sweat, it seemed obvious that if my daughter was to have any kind of future, she would have to learn another language. Ideally, immediately.

然后我讀到了一本同事寫(xiě)的書(shū)——愛(ài)德華.盧斯(Edward Luce)的《西方自由主義的撤退》(The Retreat of Western Liberalism)——這本書(shū)將我對(duì)經(jīng)濟(jì)、政治和極右翼勢(shì)力崛起的所有潛在思想和焦慮，通通化為一次驚慌失措的午夜驚魂。我滿身大汗地驚醒，前景已經(jīng)很明確了，如果我女兒還想有未來(lái)可言，她必須學(xué)一門(mén)外語(yǔ)。而理想的學(xué)習(xí)時(shí)間是，馬上。

I thought about Mandarin Chinese, one of the top 10 languages most important for our future, according to the British Council (others include Arabic, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, Dutch and Japanese). But there were no classes for toddlers nearby. There were, however, local Spanish classes — the number-one language on the list. When she started to sing “Incy Wincy Spider” in Spanish and English — helped by a Hispanic nursery worker — our decision was made.

我考慮過(guò)讓她學(xué)中文，這是英國(guó)文化教育協(xié)會(huì)(British Council)提出的未來(lái)我國(guó)十大重要外語(yǔ)之一，其他還有阿拉伯文、法文、德文、葡萄牙文、意大利文、俄文、荷蘭文和日文。但我家附近沒(méi)有中文幼兒培訓(xùn)班。不過(guò)有西班牙語(yǔ)班，這可是排在榜單首位的外語(yǔ)。當(dāng)我女兒在一位拉美裔幼教工作者的幫助下，開(kāi)始用西班牙語(yǔ)和英語(yǔ)唱“小小蜘蛛”(Incy Wincy Spider)時(shí)，我們下了決定。

I told myself that she was growing up in a multicultural world — one in five primary schoolchildren in England are exposed to a language other than English at home, and in at least one London borough this figure rises to about 75 per cent. She needed to be equipped for the future.

我告訴自己她成長(zhǎng)在一個(gè)多元文化世界，英國(guó)有五分之一的小學(xué)生在家里能接觸到一門(mén)外語(yǔ)，而倫敦地區(qū)至少有一個(gè)自治市的這個(gè)比例超出75%。她需要為未來(lái)做好準(zhǔn)備。

Still, a few people grimaced when I told them about the classes and I wondered if she was too young to start formal learning. But I felt backed up by the weight of research. The earlier children learn a language, the better.

不過(guò)，當(dāng)我說(shuō)起孩子上外語(yǔ)課這件事，有些人會(huì)露出怪怪的表情，我自己也懷疑她現(xiàn)在就開(kāi)始正式學(xué)外語(yǔ)會(huì)不會(huì)太小。但研究成果給了我支持：兒童越早學(xué)習(xí)外語(yǔ)越好。

“Babies all over the world are what I like to describe as citizens of the world. They can discriminate all the sounds of all languages,” says Patricia Kuhl, a professor of speech and hearing, in her TED talk, “The linguistic genius of babies”. “We [adults] can discriminate the sounds of our own language, but not those of foreign languages. So the question arises: when do those citizens of the world turn into the language-bound listeners that we are? And the answer: before their first birthdays.”

言語(yǔ)及聽(tīng)覺(jué)學(xué)教授帕特里夏.庫(kù)爾(Patricia Kuhl)在她的TED演講“嬰兒的語(yǔ)言天賦”中說(shuō)過(guò)：“我喜歡把世界各地的寶寶們稱為世界公民。他們可以辨別所有語(yǔ)言的所有發(fā)音。我們成年人可以辨別我們母語(yǔ)的發(fā)音，但辨別不了外語(yǔ)的發(fā)音。于是問(wèn)題來(lái)了：那些世界公民們是從什么時(shí)候開(kāi)始變成像我們這樣受制于語(yǔ)言的聽(tīng)眾呢?答案是：從他們周歲之前。”