Ditch your French and German textbooks and start learning Mandarin, David Cameron told the UK’s school pupils after his return from a visit to China last week.
扔掉法语和德语课本，开始学习汉语吧。戴维•卡梅伦(David Cameron)最近从中国访问回来之后，这样对英国的小学生说。
The UK prime minister should be happy with any language skills his young compatriots manage to pick up. But it is true that it would be useful if more people spoke the main language of the world’s soon-to-be largest economy.
不管英国小同胞们学会什么语言技能，卡梅伦都应该感到高兴。但如果有更多的人会说即将成为世界最大经济体的国家的主要语言，确实大有裨益。
I asked China-based colleagues if they knew of any foreign business leaders who spoke Mandarin. The list was short and limited to executives working in China. Roland Decorvet, the Swiss head of Nestlé in China, speaks fluent Mandarin. Peter Humphrey, the British fraud investigator who did work for GlaxoSmithKline and who has been detained by the Chinese authorities, also speaks excellent Mandarin.
我曾问在中国的同事，知不知道哪些外国公司高层会说汉语。列出来的人非常少，并且仅限于在中国工作的高管。雀巢(Nestlé)大中华区的瑞士总裁狄可为(Roland Decorvet)汉语说得很流利。英国反欺诈调查员、曾为葛兰素史克(GlaxoSmithKline)效力、已被中国有关当局拘留的韩飞龙(Peter Humphrey)的汉语也说得很好。
No doubt there are others, but there don’t appear to be many. A colleague who travelled with Mr Cameron and his large business delegation says he did not hear any of them make a speech in Mandarin.
当然也有其他人会说汉语，但显然不多。我的一名同事随同卡梅伦及其大型商务代表团访华，他说，他们没有一个人讲过汉语。
If they are to make progress, children should start learning early. But Mandarin is very different from European languages and harder for an English speaker to learn than French or German. Also, in the race to learn other languages, the Chinese are way ahead in learning English. Although the English-language component of the Chinese university entrance exam has been reduced, there are 50,000 English-language teaching companies in the country. Internationally-minded companies regard English as important. Lenovo, the Chinese computer company, has made it its official language.
如果要取得进步的话，孩子们应该尽早学习汉语。但汉语与欧洲语言非常不同，对于一个说英语的人来说，汉语比法语和德语要更难学。此外，在学习外语的竞争中，中国人在学习英语方面遥遥领先。尽管英语在中国高考中的比重有所下降，这个国家还是有五万个英语培训机构。具有国际视角的公司非常重视英语。中国电脑制造商联想(Lenovo)就将英语列为官方语言。
Throughout Europe, English is now essential for anyone wanting to reach a senior corporate position. It is a given, a background skill like knowing how to create a PowerPoint presentation or find your way to the office.
在整个欧洲，英语对于任何想要晋升到公司高层位置的人都很关键。它是一种默认的基础技能，就像知道如何制作PPT或者是找到去办公室的路。
That will be the case in China too. Foreign Mandarin speakers may establish better contacts and win business. But if China follows the European pattern, its future young executives will listen as their anglophone counterparts struggle a while in their school-learnt Mandarin and they will then switch to English because it wastes less time.
在中国也是这样。会说汉语的外国人可能建立更好的人脉并赢得业务。但如果中国像欧洲对待英语那样对待 汉语，其未来的年轻高管将会听到，与他们对话的以英语为母语的高管们，磕磕绊绊地讲着学校里学来的汉语，于是他们会转而说英语，因为这样可以少浪费时间。
The problem, when international business discussions take place in English, is that many English speakers are not much better at using it than they are at foreign languages. Many don’t know how to adjust their English for an international audience.
在用英语开展国际商务讨论的时候，问题则在于，许多说英语的人运用英语的能力并不比运用外语好多少。很多人不知道如何面向国际听众调整他们的英文。
Here are a few phrases I heard a UK manager use in a speech to some Brazilians: “it’s level pegging”; “the second myth I’d like to debunk”; “we have a stopgap with that”. Some of the Brazilians had chosen to listen to a Portuguese translation through headphones; those who had thought their English was good enough to manage without looked as if they were regretting their choice.
下面是我听一名英国经理对一些巴西人说的话：“这势均力敌”；“这是我想揭穿的第二个谎言”；“我们有应急措施”。其中一些巴西人选择戴上耳机听葡萄牙语翻译，而那些认为自己英语很好、不用戴耳机的人，看上去则非常后悔自己的选择。
For an English speaker, mastering foreign languages is excellent; being able to speak the international business tongue so that you can be understood is just as important.
对一个说英语的人来说，掌握外语是非常棒的；而能够操一口国际商务通用的语言并且能够让人理解也非常重要。
When I suggested a while back that English speakers avoid figurative language and phrasal verbs such as “put out”, some readers took issue with me. “Most idioms are intuitive and you can guess . . . from the context, for example “pin hopes on” or “shrug off” are pretty easy . . . I actually enjoy learning a new colourful phrase from a Brit and being able to deduce its meaning,” one reader wrote. Indeed, at a conference in Brussels recently, I heard non-native English speakers nonchalantly using phrasal verbs and idioms such as “he touched upon that”, “we’ve laid down detailed rules” and “our ideas in a nutshell”.
不久前我建议说英语的人避免使用比喻和“put out”等动词短语时，一些读者就与我争论了。一位读者写道，“大多数习语都是凭直觉就能懂的，可以通过上下文来猜，比如说‘寄希望于’或者‘耸耸肩’都非常简单。实际上，从英国人那学习新的、丰富多彩的短语并且能够推断其意思，让我觉得很有趣。”最近在布鲁塞尔召开的一次会议上，我听到非英语母语人士非常自然地使用一些动词短语和习语，比如“他提到那点”，“我们制定了具体的规则”以及“简要谈谈我们的想法”。
These largely came from speakers of Germanic languages, which have their own phrasal verbs, but it also became clear that they were highly competent English speakers and I had to adjust my English accordingly. Patronising your audience is as bad as losing them through being too colloquial.
这些主要是日耳曼语族的人，日耳曼语族有自己的动词短语。但同样明显的是，他们的英语能力很强，而我也必须调整我的英语。以高人一等的态度对待听众，与太口语化而失去听众一样糟糕。
How can English speakers find the appropriate way to speak their language to non-native speakers? Learning a foreign language, any language, is useful in helping you understand what it is like to work in your non-native tongue. But so is understanding the structure and idiosyncrasies of your own language so you can adjust your use of it to the situation.
说英语的人如何找到恰当的方式对非英语母语者说英语呢？学习一门外语，任何一门外语，对于帮助你理解运用非母语是什么一种状态都是有用的。但理解英语本身的结构和特点也很有用，因为这样你就可以根据情境来调整你的英语。
Yes, English-speaking children should learn Mandarin. But they need a more sophisticated command of English too.
诚然，以英语为母语的孩子应该学习汉语，但他们也需要在英语上有更高的造诣。