WHICH IS THE BEST LANGUAGE TO LEARN.docxVIP

WHICH IS THE BEST LANGUAGE TO LEARN?学习什么语言最好？Once a mark of the cultured, language-learning is in retreat among English speakers. It’s never too late, but where to start? Robert Lane Greene launches our latest Big Question ...学习外语曾被视为有识之士的标志，如今在英语母语群体中正逐渐式微。什么时候开始学习都不算晚，但是从哪里开始呢？罗伯特·雷恩·格林为我们必威体育精装版的“大问题”系列打头阵……From INTELLIGENT LIFE magazine, March/April 2012For language lovers, the facts are grim: Anglophones simply aren’t learning them any more. In Britain, despite four decades in the European Union, the number of A-levels taken in French and German has fallen by half in the past 20 years, while what was a growing trend of Spanish-learning has stalled. In America, the numbers are equally sorry. One factor behind the 9/11 attacks was the fact that the CIA lacked the Arabic-speakers who might have translated available intelligence. But ten years on, “English only” campaigns appeal more successfully to American patriotism than campaigns that try to promote language-learning, as if the most successful language in history were threatened.对语言爱好者来说，现实是残酷的：英语母语人士基本上都已不再学习外语了。尽管英国加入欧盟已经有40年，剑桥高级水准考试（注：英国高考）中选择法语和德语课程的人数在过去20年里跌了一半。而之前学习西班牙语的热潮也已停滞。在美国，这方面的数字同样堪忧。911事件背后的一个因素在于中情局缺少足够懂阿拉伯语的人来翻译一些获取的情报。但是10年之后，“只说英语”的活动比其它试图推广学习外语的活动更受美国人的爱国主义青睐，就好像历史上最成功的语言现在正处于濒危一样。Why learn a foreign language? After all, the one you already speak if you read this magazine is the world’s most useful and important language. English is not only the first language of the obvious countries, it is now the rest of the world’s second language: a Japanese tourist in Sweden or a Turk landing a plane in Spain will almost always speak English.为什么要学习一门外语呢？说到底，如果你在读这份杂志，那么你已经掌握了世界上最有用，也是最重要的语言。英语不仅仅在几个显而易见的国家内是第一语言，它现在也是世界上所有其它地方的第二语言：一位在瑞典的日本游客或是一位驾驶飞机在西班牙降落的土耳其人几乎逢人就讲英语。Nonetheless, compelling reasons remain for learning other languages. They range from the intellectual to the economical to the practical. First of all, learning any foreign language helps you understand all language better—manyAnglophones f