We have entire industries devoted to helping adults learn languages "the easy way".

我們甚至有整個產業，致力於幫助成人「輕鬆」學語言

I mean, never mind there isn’t an "easy" way for adults to learn language, and never mind that different people learn in very different ways,

我的意思是，先不論是否真有成人「輕鬆」學語言的方法

there are a hundred companies that’ll happily take your money.

也別管每人學習方式各有不同，事實是

I’ve tried a couple.

數以百計的公司樂意賺你的錢，我個人便嘗試過其中幾家，成效不如他們宣稱

They didn’t work all that well, and my French is just as stumbling as it was when I tried to learn it in school -- probably worse, given that I’ve forgotten half of what I had to learn then.

我的法語仍然不甚流利，比起在校時甚至更差當時花錢學的法語，如今已忘了大半

But young children just learn languages automatically, don’t they?

反觀幼童卻能自然而然地學會語言，對吧？ 讓他們置身於母語人士的環境

Surround them with language speakers, and they’ll just pick it up easily.

他們便很容易學會該門語言

Well, first of all, easily?

這有幾個問題，首先，這稱得上是「容易」嗎？ 嬰兒花費約一年時間不斷吸收語言

I mean, a baby spends about a whole year with nothing but input before it even starts producing any sort of coherent sound,

之後才能發出大家聽得懂的聲音

while an adult can concentrate for an hour or so and get a few basic sentences memorised.

而成人學習一小時便能記住一些基本句型

And that baby’s learning constantly, almost every minute it’s awake.

此外，幼童醒著時每分每秒都在學習，成人卻還有其他一堆事情要處理

Adults have a heck of a lot of other things to do, including communicating and thinking in the languages we already know.

像是以母語和他人互動、思考等

There is something called the "critical period hypothesis".

所謂的「關鍵期假設」，意思是

The idea is that for the first couple of years of life, the brain is particularly good at picking up languages.

人類出生後幾年內，大腦學習語言的能力特別強

Noam Chomsky proposed a "language acquisition device" in the brain that switched off as you got older.

杭士基也提出「語言習得機制」，這樣的大腦機制在年老時便會關閉

Now, that hypothesis is well-known enough to be taken as fact by the public at large, but linguists are still debating it.

如今這種假設已廣為大眾所接受

Chomsky moved away from his language acquisition device,

不過語言學家對此仍有疑慮

towards the idea that we steadily narrow down the parameters of the language we’re taught from a long, long list of possibilities.

杭士基後來再提出「語言參數」概念

And that theory is still getting a lot of criticism.

意指從後天環境習得參數，之後再加以限縮（目的在於加快學習效率），但仍遭致批評

In fact, if you ask the big question: "how do children acquire language",

事實上，若你問「孩童如何學習語言？」

then the answer is nobody really knows, but some linguists have really strong opinions on it.

答案是：沒人知道原因，但有些語言學家有不同看法

We know that language must be partly based on genetics, and partly based on surroundings.

我們都知道，習得語言取決於先天遺傳與後天環境

No matter how much you talk to a gorilla, it’s never going to be able to understand more than a few words,

不論如何和猩猩說話，牠都僅能了解幾個字詞

and there are serious questions about whether any of the great apes have actually managed that.

更有人質疑類人猿是否真的擁有此能力

Even the smartest animal, with the best tutor, will never be a conversation partner.

即使是最聰明的動物，受過最精良的訓練後

So there must be something fundamentally human about language.

仍然無法順利溝通對話，人類能夠學會語言必有其特別之處

But at the same time, there’s nothing genetic about which language you can speak.

不過，你能學會何種語言並非受到基因影響

If I’d been adopted at birth by French-speaking parents, I would be speaking and thinking in French,

若出生時被法語人士領養，你說話與思考時便會使用法語

there’s no gene for the English language.

而非英語

There is one thing that’s clear, though.

有件事非常清楚，我們生來便具備學習各種語言的能力

We’re born with the potential to speak any human language.

後來因為環境緣故，我們僅能接觸到特定幾種語言，甚至只有一種

But after a while, surrounded by just a few languages, or maybe just one, we work out what we need to listen for and we stop listening for anything else.

適應後我們便不再試著去聽其他語言

Many languages on the Indian subcontinent have a distinction between p and p(h).

印度次大陸有許多種語言，對於p與p(h)有著嚴格區隔

So, pa would be different from p(h)a. Hear the difference?

兩者發音完全不同，你聽出差別了嗎？第二個有氣音

The second one is aspirated, there’s a bit more air coming out my mouth. Pa versus P(h)a.

嘴巴必須要送氣，這便是Pa與P(h)a的差別，若你不會這類語言

If you don’t speak one of those languages, do you reckon you could hear a subtle difference like that, when there’s someone speaking at full speed?

若有人以正常速度說話，你能夠聽出其中細微差別嗎？

Do you reckon you could produce that difference, reliably, without thinking about it?

你能夠依照本能反應、不經思考便發出氣音嗎？

Millions of people, billions of people, can and do, and they learned it automatically, but try and pick that up as an adult, and it’s going to take you a long, long time.

數百萬、甚至數十億的人能夠辦到，他們是靠自然習得的但若是成年後才學習這類語言，必須要花很長時間才能學會

It’s called categorical perception.

這便是「類別知覺」：依據空氣氣壓改變，大腦接收各式特定的訊號

Our brain takes this strange input, these electrical signals based on changes in air pressure, and we look for particular categories within them.

並幫它們歸類

And once we’ve filed something into a category, the other details don’t matter.

訊號一旦歸類成功，細節便變得不再重要

But it’s not all over if your brain is too set in its ways, like mine is.

但這不代表成人大腦無法再學習新的事物，我便是如此

Adults are really quite good at learning vocabulary, the same way we’re good at memorising anything else.

成人學習字彙的能力極高，和我們記憶能力不相上下

Most of the language courses aimed at adults emphasise that they use flashcards and translation exercises, and don’t worry too much about getting production perfect.

大多數的成人語言課程，便經常運用單字卡與翻譯習題來教學別擔心你的發音不夠完美

You may never sound, or even think, like a native speaker, but that doesn’t mean you can’t at least make yourself understood.

或許你發音、思考無法像母語人士一樣但這不代表你溝通會有問題