How: there are five principles and seven actions.

怎么做呢？ 有5個原則和7個行動可以跟隨。

There may be a few more but these are absolutely core.

可能有更多，但這些絕對是核心部分。

And before I get into those I just want to talk about two myths, dispel two myths.

進入這些點之前我想先說說兩個神話并消除它們。

The first is that you need talent.

第一個是你需要有天賦。

Let me tell you about Zoe.

讓我跟你們說說關于佐伊的事情。

Zoe came from Australia, went to Holland, was trying to learn Dutch, struggling a great deal and finally people were saying: ‘you're completely useless,' ‘you're not talented,' ‘give up,' ‘you're a waste of time' and she was very, very depressed.

佐伊是澳大利亞人，她去到荷蘭并嘗試學習荷蘭語。她非常掙扎，最后人們跟她說，“沒用的，”“你沒有天賦，”“還是放棄吧，”“你根本就是在浪費時間。”她對此感到非常沮喪。

And then she came across these five principles, she moved to Brazil and she applied them and within six months she was fluent in Portuguese, so talent doesn't matter.

后來，她無意中發現了這5個原則，去了巴西，并把這些原則應用到她學習葡萄牙語中，6個月內，她可以說流利的葡萄牙語了。因此，天賦不重要。

People also think that immersion in a new country is the way to learn a language.

人們還認為學會一門外語最好的方式就是到說該門語言的國家去。

But look around Hong Kong, look at all the westerners who've been here for ten years, who don't speak a word of Chinese.

但是看看在香港已經呆了10年的西方人，還是一句中文也不會說。

Look at all the Chinese living in America, Britain, Australia, Canada who have been there ten, twenty years and they don't speak any English.

看看那些居住在美國、英國、澳大利亞、加拿大10年、20年的中國人，還是不會一句英文。

Immersion per se doesn't not work, why?

只呆在一個新的國家本身是沒有用的。為什么？

Because a drowning man cannot learn to swim.

因為溺水的人是學不會游泳的。

When you don't speak a language you're like a baby and if you drop yourself into a context which is all adults talking about stuff over your head, you won't learn.

當你不能說那種語言，你就像一個嬰兒，如果你進入一個環境，那里全部都是成年人在嘰嘰呱呱的說一些你完全聽不明白的話，你還是學不會。

So, what are the five principles that you need to pay attention to;

那么，你需要注意的那5個原則是什么呢？

first: there are four words, attention, meaning, relevance and memory, and these interconnect in very important ways. Especially when you're talking about learning.

首先，有四個詞，注意力、含義、關聯和記憶， 而這些在很多非常重要的方面是相互連接的，特別在你談論學習的時候。

Come with me on a journey through a forest.

請跟隨我來一趟森林之旅。

You go on a walk through a forest and you see something like this.

你穿越森林，然后你看到一個像這樣的東西。

Little marks on a tree, maybe you pay attention, maybe you don't.

你可能注意到了樹上的這些小標記，可能你沒有注意它們。

You go another fifty metres and you see this.

然后你繼續向前走50米，你看到了這個。

You should be paying attention.

你應該要注意了。

Another fifty metres, if you haven't been paying attention, you see this.

再50米，如果你還沒注意的話，你會看到這個。

And at this point, you're paying attention.

當看到這個的時候，你就會注意了。

And you've just learned that this is important, it's relevant because it means this, and anything that is related, any information related to your survival is stuff that you're going to pay attention to and therefore you're going to remember it.

你剛剛學習到了這個是重要的，它與你有重要關系，因為它代表這個。任何有關聯的東西，任何有關你生存的信息都是值得你注意的，而你給注意力的就會記住的。

If it's related to your personal goals then you're going to pay attention to it, if it's relevant you're going to remember it.

如果它關于你個人目標的，那么你就會注意到它，如果它與你是有關聯的，你就會記住它。

So, the first rule, the first principle for learning a language is focus on language content that is relevant to you.

因此，學習一門語言的第一個原則就是注意那些與你息息相關的語言內容上。

Which brings us to tools.

這就讓我們談到工具。

We master tools by using tools and we learn tools the fastest when they are relevant to us.

我們通過使用工具來掌握工具，而當這些工具與我們息息相關的時候，我們就可以學得很快。

So let me share a story.

先讓我分享一個故事。

A keyboard is a tool.

鍵盤是一個工具。

Typing Chinese a certain way, there are methods for this. That's a tool.

有不同方法打中文字。這些方法屬于工具的一種。

I had a colleague many years ago who went to night school;

多年前，我有一位同事，她上夜校學習中文打字。

Tuesday night, Thursday night, two hours each night, practicing at home, she spent nine months, and she did not learn to type Chinese.

每周二、周四晚上，她都用2個小時上課，然后也在家練習，她花了9個月的時間，仍然沒學會打中文字。

And one night we had a crisis.

一天晚上，我們有一件緊急的事情。

We had forty eight hours to deliver a training manual in Chinese.

我們有48個小時來準備用中文發表一本訓練手冊。

And she got the job, and I can guarantee you in forty eight hours, she learned to type Chinese because it was relevant, it was important, it was meaningful, she was using a tool to create value.

她獲得了這個任務 ，并且我可以像你保證，在48個小時內，她學會了用中文打字。因為這是相關的、重要的、有意義的，她在使用一種工具來創造價值。

So the second tool for learning a language is to use your language as a tool to communicate right from day one. As a kid does.

因此，學習一門語言的第二個工具是從第一天開始，用你的語言作為一種工具來溝通，像一個孩子那樣做。

When I first arrived in China I didn't speak a word of Chinese, and on my second week I got to take a train ride overnight.

當我初次來到中國，我一句中文都不會說。第二個星期我乘坐火車過夜。

I spent eight hours sitting in the dining car talking to one of the guards on the train。He took an interest in me for some reason, and we just chatted all night in Chinese and he was drawing pictures and making movements with his hands and facial expressions and piece by piece by piece I understood more and more.

我花了8個小時，坐在餐車，跟一位乘警聊。因為某種原因，他對我很感興趣。我們在那用中文聊了整夜，隨著他畫畫、比劃雙手并動用他的面部表情，我逐漸地明白越來越多。

But what was really cool, was two weeks later, when people were talking Chinese around me, I was understanding some of this and I hadn't even made any effort to learn that.

但是真正有趣的是，兩個星期后，當人們在我周圍說中文的時候，我可以明白一些而且我并沒有為之付出任何努力。

 What had happened

發生了什么？

 I'd absorbed it that night on the train,

在火車的那晚我已經吸收了中文

which brings us to the third principle

也是我們要說的第三個原則。

When you first understand the message, then you will acquire the language unconsciously.

當你已經理解溝通的信息含義，接下來你將不知不覺下意識的獲得該語言。

And this is really, really well documented now, it's something called comprehensible input and there's twenty or thirty years of research on this. Stephen Krashen, a leader in the field has published all sorts of these different studies and this is just from one of them.

而且這是有充足的證據證明的，我們把它稱之為“可明白輸入”，而這個概念被研究了了研究二三十年。此領域的佼佼者史蒂夫·克拉申發布了各類不同的學術研究成果，而這些數據來自他的一個報告。

The purple bars show the scores on different tests for language.

條形圖里面的紫色部分顯示不同語言測試的成績。

The purple people were people who had learned by grammar and formal study, the green ones are the ones who learned by comprehensible input.

紫色代表那些通過正式學習和學習語法的人，綠色的代表那些通過可明白輸入學習的人。

So, comprehension works.

因此，可明白意思的輸入是有效的。