Learn a Foreign Language Before It’s Too Late學外語不宜晚

侯世達/文　杜磊/譯

AI translators may seem wondrous but they also erode a major part of what it is to be human.

AI翻譯看起來了不起，卻正慢慢消磨掉很大一部分生而為人的意義。

A few weeks ago， my very dear Italian friend Benedetto Scimemi passed away， and I spent hours writing heartfelt emails of condolence to all the members of his family. It happens that I lived in Italy for nearly three years and， on top of that， my two children and I have spoken Italian for 30 years as our family language， so my Italian is very fluent and comfortable—but， even so， it is not the Italian of a native speaker. In writing those difficult and emotional emails， I was constantly adjusting my words and phrases， lovingly remembering Benedetto and all the wonderful things we had done together， and pushing my Italian to its very limits. It took me perhaps two or three times as long as it would have taken me in English， but I did it with all my heart. I was proud of myself and of the manner in which， over decades， I had come to be able to express myself clearly， strongly， and with a deeply felt voice in a tongue that was not my mother tongue.

幾周前，我親愛的意大利朋友貝內代托·希梅米走了，我花了好幾個小時寫了一封電子郵件，由衷地向他的每個家人表達了哀悼之情。我曾在意大利待了近三年的時光，不僅如此，30年來，我和我的兩個孩子在家里一直講意大利語。所以，我的意大利語講得流暢自如，得心應手，但即便如此，我的意大利語聽著還不像母語。在寫這些富含情感、比較難寫的郵件時，我得不斷地調整措辭，把我的意大利語水平發揮到極致，深情地回憶起貝內代托和我們一起經歷的所有美好往事。這比我用英語寫差不多要多花上一兩倍的時間。但我寫這封信是全身心投入的。我為自己感到驕傲，為數十年來我終于能學會用一種我母語之外的語言，將深切的情感清晰、強烈地表達出來而感到驕傲。

Leaving aside my native tongue， I have devoted many thousands of hours of my life to seven languages （French， Italian， German， Swedish， Russian， Polish， and Chinese）—sometimes flailing1 desperately and sometimes finding enormous gratification. But through thick and thin2， I have relentlessly bashed my head against each of those languages for years， because I love each ones sounds， words， intonation patterns， idioms， proverbs， poetry， songs， and so on.

拋開母語不談，我曾投入數千小時學了七門外語（法語、意大利語、德語、瑞典語、俄語、波蘭語和漢語）——有時毫無章法地拼命亂學，有時卻能從中找到巨大的滿足感。但不管遇到怎樣的困難，我一直不屈不撓，對每種語言都絞盡腦汁鉆研，多年堅持不懈，因為我喜歡每一種語言的發音、單詞、語調模式、習語、諺語、詩歌、歌曲等等，不一而足。

But today we have Google Translate. Today we have DeepL. Today we have ChatGPT—and so on. Today its a piece of cake to send an email in a tongue you dont know a word of. You just click on “Translate” and presto！ Assuming that there are no egregious3 translational blunders （which there often still are）， what you are sending off is slick but soulless text.

但今天我們有谷歌翻譯，有DeepL翻譯引擎，有ChatGPT，林林總總。今天，用你一竅不通的語言發送一封電子郵件不過是小菜一碟。你只需點擊一下“翻譯” 即可！即便翻譯沒有產生令人大跌眼鏡的錯誤（常常仍然會有），你發送的也不過是個流暢有余但毫無靈魂的文本。

Todays AI technology allows people of different cultures to communicate instantly and effortlessly with one another. Wow！ Isnt it a wonderful miracle？ Isnt the soon-to-arrive world where everyone can effortlessly speak every language just glorious？

今天的人工智能技術使不同文化背景的人能夠即時、輕松自如地相互交流。哇！這難道不算一個偉大的奇跡嗎？在不久的將來，每個人都可以毫不費力地講每一門外語，這難道不美好嗎？

Some readers will certainly say “yes，” but I would say “no.” In fact， I see this looming scenario as a great tragedy. I see it as the beginning of the end of the age-old tradition of learning foreign languages.

有些讀者肯定會說“不錯”，但我卻會說“不對”。事實上，我將這種日益迫近的情境視為一場巨大的悲劇，將其看作是學習外語這一古老傳統宣告終結的開始。

Suppose I had composed my condolences to Benedettos family in English and had then run them through a translation program such as DeepL. The words would have come out very differently from what I wrote in Italian. When I was writing in Italian， I was thinking in Italian， not in English. I was using words and phrases that I have made my own over decades， by having countless intimate conversations with close Italian friends （such as Benedetto himself）， by reading hundreds of childrens books in Italian to my kids when they were little tykes4， by listening hundreds of times to CDs of lilting5 Italian songs from the 1930s， by devouring Italian newspapers， by giving untold dozens of lectures in Italian， by watching scores of old Italian movies， by memorizing a few Italian poems， and so on. All that unique flavor， reflecting the myriad6 idiosyncratic7 pathways by which I lovingly internalized the Italian language， would be missing from an email that I composed in English and that was instantly converted into Italian by a machine.

假設我用英語先寫好給貝內代托家人的悼詞，然后用DeepL之類的翻譯程序翻一下。這樣翻譯出來的意大利語與我用意大利語寫出來的將會有天壤之別。我用意大利語寫的時候，我是用意大利語而非英語思考的。我使用的是本人幾十年來已經內化了的那些單詞和短語，那可是通過與親近的意大利友人（比如貝內代托本人）進行了無數次親密交談、在孩子們還是小淘氣鬼的時候給他們念上數百本意大利語兒童讀物、聽了數百遍20世紀30年代動聽的意大利歌曲CD、津津有味地閱讀意大利語報紙、用意大利語做了好幾十場講座、看了幾十部意大利老電影、背了一些意大利語詩歌等方式得來的。這種獨特的味道反映了與眾不同的紛繁經歷——我正是經由這些經歷將鐘愛的意大利語內化于心，但如果我用英語寫好電子郵件，再用機器立馬轉化成意大利語，這種特色將蕩然無存。

Speaking any language， for me， is a living， dynamic process that is permeated8 by my own unique humanness， with all its frailties and strengths. When I speak any language， I am always searching for the most appropriate word or idiom， frequently hesitating， stumbling， or suddenly changing course midstream; constantly joking by playing with ambiguity; having fun by putting on droll accents and personas; citing proverbs and quoting snippets of poetry; mixing metaphors; etc. How is all of this wildly bubbling richness in Language A going to be mirrored in real time in Language B by a mechanical device that has nothing of those qualities driving it， that has no sense of humor， that has no understanding of irony or self-mockery， that has no awareness of how phrases are unconsciously blended， and so on？

對我來說，無論講哪一種語言，都是一個富有生機和活力的過程。這個過程充滿著我個人的獨特印記，既有缺陷也有優勢。任何一種語言，當我講的時候，我總是在尋找最為合適的詞匯或習語，經常猶豫不決，磕磕絆絆，或中途易輒；總要玩點歧義梗；通過模仿古里古怪的口音、扮演不同的人設來取樂；引用諺語或一段段詩句，將種種隱喻混在一塊兒；等等。機械裝置完全不具備那些語言驅動特質，絲毫沒有幽默感，沒法理解諷刺與自嘲是怎么回事，也根本不知道要怎么才能自然而然地將短語組合到一起，它又如何能實時地在B語言中反映出A語言那種噴薄而出的多樣性呢？

For me， using language is the very essence of being human. When I speak， I am communicating not only facts， but a way of being. Through my word choices and subtle intonations and tiny hesitations， I am revealing who I am.

對我而言，使用語言是人之為人的精髓所在。當我說話時，我不僅在傳達事實，還在表現一種存在的方式。通過對詞語的選擇、微妙的語調和不起眼的停頓，我展示出了自我。

Today， though， it strikes9 me as possible that humans are collectively going to knuckle under10 and throw in the towel11 as far as foreign languages are concerned. Are we language users going to obsequiously hand over all engagement with other tongues to chatbots？ If everything we might ever wish for is just handed to us gratis12 on a silver platter， then what， I wonder， is the purpose of living？

然而，今天，我感覺人類有可能會在外語方面集體屈服、認輸。我們這些使用語言的人是否會諂媚奉承地把與外語打交道的事兒一股腦交給聊天機器人？如果我們希望得到的東西都可以不費分毫地被放在一只銀盤里遞給我們，那我不禁要思考了，人活著還有什么意義？

As my friend David Moser put it， what may soon go down the drain forever， thanks to these new AI technol-ogies， is the precious gift that one can gain only by immersing oneself deeply in another culture and thereby acquiring an entirely new set of ways of looking at the world. David knows perfectly whereof he speaks， because in his 30s he recklessly threw himself into the bustling， boiling cauldron of China and its mysterious languages， and he emerged as a marvelously fluent speaker of Chinese， able to come out with breathtakingly witty puns on the fly13 and to do stand-up comedy on national television， not to mention hosting his own weekly TV show in Chinese， about little-known facets of Beijing.

正如我的朋友戴維·莫澤（莫大偉）所說的那樣，人只有通過深入沉浸于另一種文化才能獲得嶄新的世界觀，而這些新的人工智能技術可能會讓這份寶貴的天賦永遠消失殆盡。戴維完全知道他說的是怎么回事，因為他在30多歲時義無反顧地去了蓬勃發展的中國，投身于學習其難懂的語言，最終得以講一口極為流利的漢語——那些機智到令人嘆為觀止的雙關語他能不假思索脫口而出，他還能在國家電視臺表演單口相聲，用漢語主持自己的周播電視節目、展現北京鮮為人知的種種側面就更不在話下了。

To Mo Dawei， as David is known in China， its incredibly depressing to contemplate the profound impoverishment of peoples mental and emotional lives that is looming just around every corner of the globe， thanks to the slick14 seductiveness of AI translation apps， insidiously15 creeping their way into ordinary peoples lives and sapping their desire to make other tongues their own.

在中國，人們都用戴維的中文名莫大偉叫他。令他十分沮喪的是，由于AI翻譯應用程序對人的誘惑非常討巧，正悄無聲息地滲入普通人的生活，削弱他們學習外語的愿望，全球各地，幾乎每個角落，人們的精神和情感生活都透出了深深的貧瘠之態。

When children first hear the sounds of another language， they cant help but wonder： What in the world would it feel like to speak that language？ Such eager childlike curiosity might seem universal and irrepressible. But what if that human curiosity is suddenly snuffed out forever by the onrushing16 tsunami of AI？ When we collectively abandon the age-old challenge of learning the languages of other lands， when we relinquish17 that challenge to ultrarapid machines that have no inner life of their own but are able to give us fluent but fake facades in other languages， then we will have lost a major part of what it is to be human and alive.

當孩子們第一次聽到另一種語言的聲音之時，他們會不禁思考：講這樣一門語言究竟會是怎樣的一種感覺呢？這種充滿渴望的孩童般的好奇心似乎是人皆有之且無法遏制的。但是，如果人的這種好奇心突然之間被人工智能的兇猛海嘯扼殺了，那結果會怎樣？當我們集體放棄學外語這項古老的挑戰，把這挑戰交由內心空無生氣卻能為我們呈現出流利但卻虛假的外語表象的超速機器時，我們將丟失掉的是很大一部分作為人而活著的意義。

（單位：浙江大學外國語學院）

1 flail亂動，胡亂擺動。? 2 through thick and thin不顧艱難險阻；赴湯蹈火。? 3 egregious

（錯誤等）極其嚴重的。

4 tyke調皮鬼，小淘氣。? 5 lilting（嗓音或曲調）動聽的，抑揚頓挫的。? 6 myriad無數。? 7 idiosyncratic有不尋常特征的。

8 permeate滲透；充滿。? 9 strike給人以……感覺；使產生……想法。? 10 knuckle under屈服；認輸。? 11 throw in the towel認輸。

12 gratis免費的（地）；無償的（地）。? 13 on the fly未經準備或較多考慮就開始匆忙做……（往往與其他事情一起進行）。

14 slick取巧的；靈巧的。? 15 insidiously隱匿地。? 16 onrushing猛沖的，突進的。? 17 relinquish放棄。