So don't even bother trying.

所以，別再嘗試了。

So I'm this guy who has over a million followers here at YouTube.

我是一個在 YouTube 上擁有超過一百萬粉絲的人。

And I talk about the joys of language learning and how we can all learn and all this stuff.

我還談到了語言學習的樂趣，以及我們都可以如何學習等等。

But I have to confess that there are moments when I have my doubts.

但我必須承認，我也有懷疑的時候。

Is it really worthwhile learning languages?

學習語言真的值得嗎？

Can it be fun?

它能帶來樂趣嗎？

And I'm reminded of a story told to me by a friend of mine who was traveling.

我想起了我的一位朋友在旅行時給我講的一個故事。

He was in a, I can't remember whether it was Paris or Tokyo or Istanbul or Buenos Aires, but some city where they spoke a language other than English.

他當時在巴黎、東京、伊斯坦布爾還是布宜諾斯艾利斯，我記不清了，反正是在某個城市，那裡的人說著英語以外的語言。

And so he was, uh, at this cafe, he had his, uh, you know, he's going to review his social media or whatever.

於是他就在這家咖啡館，他有他的，呃，你知道，他要審查他的社交媒體或什麼的。

And he sits beside this, uh, attractive, uh, you know, girl and he starts staring at her.

他坐在這個迷人的女孩身邊 開始盯著她看

And then he kind of says to her in English, she says, you have a lovely smile, which he thought was a really good sort of, uh, pickup line, you know?

然後他用英語對她說："你笑起來很可愛。"他覺得這是很好的搭訕臺詞，你知道嗎？

And she looks at him in a very unfriendly way and mutters something in the local language.

她很不友好地看著他，用當地語言嘟囔了幾句。

So undeterred, he sort of whips out his iPhone and he speaks into his iPhone in English and the iPhone then speaks in the local language also saying, you have a lovely smile.

於是，他毫不氣餒，拿出自己的 iPhone，對著 iPhone 說英語，然後 iPhone 也用當地語言說："你笑起來很可愛。

At that point, the girl calls the waiter over and she's pointing in at the, at him and, and, you know, uh, obviously very unhappy and she has moved to another part of the cafe.

這時，那個女孩把服務員叫了過來，她指著服務員，你知道，她顯然很不高興，她已經走到了咖啡館的另一個地方。

So the moral of the story is to me, like, why bother?

對我來說，這個故事的寓意就是，何必呢？

Why bother learning a language?

為什麼要學習語言？

You know, he went to the trouble of, you know, using his iPhone to generate his pickup line there in, in the local language and he was still rejected.

他費盡周折，用 iPhone 用當地語言生成了搭訕臺詞，結果還是被拒絕了。

So yeah, I question therefore, why bother?

是以，我想問的是，何必呢？

Because learning a language, you know, has to be hard work.

因為你知道，學習一門語言必須付出艱辛的努力。

There is an expression, no pain, no gain.

有一種說法是，沒有痛苦，就沒有收穫。

And that's certainly true in language learning.

語言學習當然也是如此。

If you don't subject yourself to drills, to quizzes on things that you have hardly had a chance to get used to in the language, like the subjunctive in French or something, if you don't go to a class and sit there and, uh, maybe you have to read in front of other people and if you read well, then people are jealous and don't like you and if you read badly, they are, they laugh at you or they, it's they listen to you, so it's just not a good situation, but you have to do that.

如果你不去上課，坐在那裡，也許你必須在別人面前朗讀，如果你讀得好，別人就會嫉妒你，不喜歡你，如果你讀得不好，他們就會嘲笑你，或者他們會聽你的，所以情況並不好，但你必須這樣做。

You got to review, you know, stacks and stacks of flashcards and of course you keep forgetting them and, and it's just a lot of pain.

你得複習，你知道，一堆又一堆的閃存卡，當然，你會不斷忘記它們，而且，這只是一個很大的痛苦。

The whole process is quite painful, you know, and at the end of all this effort, are we going to just be rejected the way my friend was rejected?

整個過程是相當痛苦的，你知道，在所有這些努力的最後，我們會像我的朋友那樣被拒絕嗎？

I even hear of people who learn a language and go to the country where the language is spoken and they trot out whatever they're able to do in the language.

我甚至聽說，有些人學會了一種語言，到了使用這種語言的國家，他們就能用這種語言做任何事情。

Like, why should I even bother if you're not going to humor me when I try to use the language that I'm learning?

比如說，如果我試著使用我正在學習的語言時，你不打算逗我開心，那我為什麼還要費勁呢？

Uh, now there are people who say the opposite.

呃，現在有人說的正好相反。

There are people who say that in fact, learning can be fun, that the brain will get used to the language.

有人說，學習其實是一件很有趣的事情，大腦會慢慢適應這種語言。

The brain is designed to do that.

大腦就是為此而設計的。

Eventually with enough exposure, we're going to be able to start using even with some difficulty, as long as we are not afraid that gradually we will improve.

最終，只要有足夠的接觸，我們就能開始使用，即使有一些困難，只要我們不怕，我們就會逐漸提高。

You know, I often mentioned the fact that never has there been so much interesting content available to us in just about any language and never have there been so many people online helping us in the early stages of our learning of any given language.

你知道，我經常提到這樣一個事實：在我們學習任何一種語言的早期階段，從來沒有這麼多有趣的內容可供我們使用，也從來沒有這麼多人在網上幫助我們。

So the conditions have never been better.

是以，現在的條件是前所未有的好。

I hear this message and I personally have delivered this message here, uh, to encourage people, but is that realistic?

我聽到了這個資訊，我本人也在這裡傳達了這個資訊，呃，是為了鼓勵人們，但這現實嗎？

So today I'm having one of my darker moments and I'm saying, no, it isn't worth it.

所以，今天我有一個更黑暗的時刻，我說，不，這不值得。

You're probably not going to succeed.

你可能不會成功。

So don't even bother trying.

所以，別再嘗試了。

A lot of people pay lip service to the idea that they want to learn another language, my advice is don't bother.

很多人口口聲聲說要學習另一門語言，我的建議是別費勁了。

In the book that I wrote in 2003 about language learning, I mentioned the parable of the butterfly by Zhuangzi, Chinese Taoist philosopher of 2,500 years ago, where he imagined himself a butterfly and then when he awoke and he realized that he wasn't a butterfly, he was Zhuangzi, then he says, I don't know now whether in fact, I'm a butterfly that now thinks he's Zhuangzi or was I a Zhuangzi who imagined himself a butterfly.

在我 2003 年寫的一本關於語言學習的書中，我提到了 2500 年前中國道家哲學家莊子的蝴蝶寓言，他想象自己是一隻蝴蝶，當他醒來時，他發現自己不是蝴蝶，而是莊子，然後他說，我現在不知道事實上，我是一隻現在認為自己是莊子的蝴蝶，還是我是一隻想象自己是蝴蝶的莊子。

So using the parable of Zhuangzi and having exposed to you some of my dark thoughts about language learning, uh, I'm not sure now whether the Steve that questions the usefulness of language learning is the real Steve or whether I was just pretending to be that.

是以，借用《莊子》的寓言，並向你們揭露我對語言學習的一些陰暗想法，呃，我現在不確定質疑語言學習有用性的斯蒂夫是否是真正的斯蒂夫，還是我只是在假裝斯蒂夫。

And in fact, the Steve, the enthusiastic Steve is the real Steve.

事實上，熱情的史蒂夫才是真正的史蒂夫。

I leave it up to you to figure that out, but do try to bear in mind the fact that it is the 1st of April.

我把這個問題留給你們自己去解決，但請記住，今天是 4 月 1 日。