And you practice grammar drills and studied sentence syntax.

你練習文法習題，研讀句法。

You memorized conjugations for an endless lists of verbs.

背了無數個動詞變化。

I talk, you talk, she talks, we talk.

我說。你說。她說。我們說。

How fun was that?

這多有趣？

After all that effort, most students still struggle to speak comfortably with natives and don't have perfect pronunciation.

經過這麼多努力，許多學生還是無法自在地和外國人對話，也沒擁有完美發音。

I'm going to share with you the biggest insight into language learning that was discovered almost 50 years ago by doctor Paul Pimsleur, someone you could call the Einstein of learning language.

我要和大家分享一個 50 年前發現關於語言學習的重要領悟。這是由 Paul Pimsleur 博士發現的，他堪稱是語言學習方面的愛因斯坦。

Before written history, we had an oral history.

在成文史前，我們有口述歷史。

Most people, even kings and queens, couldn't write or read in ancient times.

古時候，大部分的人包括國王和皇后，都無法書寫或閱讀。

Even today, still 25 percent of the world's population of 7 billion can't read, which is about 2 billion people.

直至今日，七十億人口中，還是有百分之二十五的人不識字，這大約是二十億人口。

And these adults can function and interact normally with each other.

而這些人還是有能力生活，也能正常地和其他人互動。

But you look at the industrialized nations, which have a 97 percent literacy rate, one of the biggest challenges to learning another language is the fact that adults are able to read and write—at least initially

反觀那些工業國家，高達百分之九十七的識字率，他們學習另一種語言最大問題就是，他們能夠讀和寫，至少在初期是這樣的。

Let me explain what I mean.

讓我解釋一下我的意思。

Before we learned to read and write, we learned to speak.

在我們學會閱讀和書寫前，我們先學會說話。

And doctor Pimsleur discovered how adults can learn a language dramatically faster than children through a unique audio method that literally fools your brain into learning.

Pimsleur 博士發現了一個可以欺騙大腦學習的特殊聽力教學法，使大人學語言比小孩快速許多。

His whole approach to language learning can be summed up by the statement: "When you know what sounds right, everything else is easy."

他的語言學習方法簡而言之就是 「當你覺得聽起來對了，其他就簡單了」。

You first learn to speak by interacting with your parents.

你第一次學說話是藉由和父母互動。

And your brain is designed to learn a language through conversation.

你的大腦天生就是要用對話學習語言。

Here's proof.

以下就是證據。

If i tell you "I bread needs," you instantly know that my grammar is off and I should be saying "I need bread."

如果我跟你說 「我麵包要」，你立刻就會知道我的文法錯了，而應該要說 「我要麵包」。

You don't need to think analytically about verb conjugations, sentence syntax, and so forth.

你不用分析其中的動詞變化或語法等等。

That's all boring and unnecessary stuff.

這些都是無聊且不必要的。

To put it in another way: If you can't speak another language and you tried to learn before, you're probably doing something wrong.

換句話說，如果你想在能用另一種語言溝通前學會它，那你可能做錯了。

It's why you're nervous speaking with others; you have difficulty remembering vocabulary; you have thick accent perhaps.

這就是為什麼和別人對話時你會很緊張；背單字對你來說很困難；你可能有很重的口音。

You spent hours on end trying to memorize flashcards, and, when you ask a native a question, you can't understand anything that has being said back to you.

你花費很多時間記憶單字卡，但當你問母語人士問題時，你卻無法理解任何他們所說的話。

That's no way to learn.

這樣是沒辦法學會的。