I'm Rob.

我是 Rob。

Watashi no namae wa Neil desu.

（日語）私の名前は Neil です。

And that means 'my name's Neil'.

意思是「我的名字是 Neil。」

Neil, here's a question for you—can you speak any languages other than English, of course? I think you can!

Neil，我有個問題要問你，你會說英文以外的其他語言嗎？你可以對吧？！

Un poco de español that means a little bit of Spanish.

（西班牙語）Un poco de español，意思是「會說一點西班牙語。」

Some Japanese, which I tried at the beginning and also a bit of Czech language. Dobrý den. Jak se máš?

還會說一些我在節目開頭嘗試講的日語，還有一點捷克語，（捷克語）Dobrý den. Jak se máš? （你好嗎？）

Very impressive. So what tips can you give for learning to speak another language?

非常厲害。對於學習其他語言，你有什麼小撇步嗎？

Well, practise, practise, practise, and don't be afraid of making mistakes as I no doubt have.

就是不斷練習，還有不要怕犯錯，像我肯定也會犯錯。

Of course. Well, my aim this year is to master the Spanish language.

當然。我今年的目標是學習西班牙語。

Master means to learn thoroughly.

「Master」的意思是要學得徹底。

Muy bien! Well, you're not alone.

（西班牙語）Muy bien!（非常好！）不只是你喔。

A survey by the British Council found learning a language is a new year's resolution for about one in five Britons in 2018.

英國文化協會的一項調查發現，在 2018 年，學好一門語言是五分之一的英國人的新年新希望。

So learning Spanish is a good start, Rob.

所以 Rob，學習西班牙語是一個好的開始。

But do you know approximately how many languages there are in the world altogether?

但你是否知道世界上大約一共有多少種語言呢？

Are there... a) 70, b) 700 or c) 7,000?

是否有 a)70、b)700 或，c)7,000 種？

Well, I know there are many but surely not 7,000 so I'm going to say b) 700.

我知道有很多，但肯定不是 7000 種。所以我猜是 b)700 種。

But don't expect me to learn all of them.

但不要指望我全部都學會。

I won't, Rob. But I will give you the answer later.

我不會。正確答案稍後再公佈。

So, we all know learning another language is a good thing—it brings us many benefits.

所以，我們都知道學習另一種語言是件好事，它帶給我們很多好處。

Yes, we can communicate with people from other countries and when we're travelling, we can understand what signs and notices say, so we don't get lost.

是的，當我們去旅行時，可以跟其他國家的人交流；我們可以理解標誌和告示的內容， 就不會迷路了。

That's right, but many scientists also believe that knowledge of another language can boost your brainpower.

沒錯，但許多科學家也認為理解其他語言可以提升你的腦力。

A study of monolingual and bilingual speakers suggests speaking two languages can help slow down the brain's decline with age.

一項對單語者和雙語者的研究顯示，隨著年齡的增長，會說兩種語言可以幫助減緩大腦的衰退。

All good reasons. But Neil, learning another language is hard.

都是學語言的好理由耶。但是 Neil，學習另一種語言是很難的。

It would take me years and years to become fluent in say, Mandarin—by fluent, I mean speak very well, without difficulty.

我需要很多年才能變得講中文很流利。「Fluent」的意思是毫不費力的講得很好。

Well, this depends on your mother tongue.

這取決與你的母語了。

In general, the closer the second language is to the learner's native tongue and culture in terms of vocabulary, sounds or sentence structure, the easier it will be to learn.

一般來說，在詞彙、聲音或句子結構方面，第二語言越接近學習者的母語和文化就越容易學會。

But whatever the language, there is so much vocabulary to learn, you know, thousands and thousands of words.

但不管是什麼語言，有這麼多詞彙要學習的，有成千上萬的詞彙耶。

Maybe not, Rob. Professor Stuart Webb, a linguist from the University of Western Ontario, may be able to help you.

也許不是這樣喔。西安大略大學的語言學家 Stuart Webb 教授也許能幫到你。

He spoke to BBC Radio 4's More or Less programme and explained that you don't need to do that.

他接受 BBC 廣播四台的《More or Less》節目，並解釋不需要背下所有的單字。

For language learners in a foreign language setting, so for example, if you were learning French in Britain or English in Japan,

對於語言學習者身處在外語環境下，例如，如果你是在英國學習法語或在日本學英語，

students may often really struggle to learn more than 2,000, 3,000 words after many years of study.

經過郭年的學習，學生往往可能難以學到超過 2000、3000 字。

So for example, there was a study in Taiwan recently that showed that after nine years of study, about half of the students had still failed to learn the most frequent 1,000 words.

所以，比如說，最近臺灣有研究報告顯示，經過九年學習，約有一半的學生仍未學會最常使用的 1000 個字。

Now they knew lower frequency words but they hadn't mastered those most important words.

他們知道不常使用的字，但沒有學會那些最重要的詞彙。

So Rob, don't waste your time trying to learn every single word.

所以，Rob，不要浪費你的時間去學習每個詞彙。

Professor Webb spoke there about research that showed students knew lower frequency words, but weren't learning enough high frequency words.

Webb 教授表示研究表明，學生認識不常使用的字，但並沒有將最常使用的字學起來。

Right, and frequency here means the number of times something happens.

對，「frequency」指的是一件事情發生的次數。

So the important words to learn are the high frequency ones, and how many are there exactly?

需要學習的重要詞彙為常使用的，那確切有多少個？

Here's Professor Stuart Webb again.

聽聽 Stuart Webb 教授再次解釋。

For example, with English, I would suggest if you learn the 800 most frequent lemmas—which is a word and its inflections—that will account for about 75 per cent of all of the English language.

例如，對於英文，我建議你學習 800 個最常見的詞形變化，這將占大約 75% 的英語詞彙。

So that learning those 800 words first will provide the foundation for which you may be able to learn the lower frequency words.

因此，先學習這 800 個詞彙會為你學習不常用的詞彙打下基礎。

Fascinating stuff. And good to know I just need to learn about 800 words, or what he calls lemmas.

真有趣。很高興知道我只需要學習 800 個字，或他所說的詞位。

Yes, a lemma is the simplest form or base form of a word.

是的，「lemma」是一個單字最簡單的形式或基本形式。

And the inflection here refers to how the base word is changed according to its use in a sentence.

在這裡，「inflection」指的是基本詞根根據其在句子中的使用而進行的變化。

Knowing these things give you a foundation—that's the basics from which you language learning will develop. Simple!

了解這些知識可以為你打下基礎，也就是語言學習發展的基礎。簡單吧！

Thank goodness I am learning just one new language!

感謝上帝我現在只有學一門新語言。

But how many languages could you potentially be learning, Rob?

但 Rob，你有可能學習多少種語言呢？

Earlier I asked you, approximately how many languages there are in the world altogether?

早些時候我問過你，世界上大約一共有多少種語言？

Are there... a) 70, b) 700, c) 7,000?

是否有 ...a)70、b)700，c)7,000 種？

And I said 700. Was I right?

我說 700 種。我說的是對嗎？

No Rob, you were wrong. There are around 7,000 recognised languages in the world.

不對，你錯了。世界公認的語言大約有 7,000 種。

UNESCO has identified 2,500 languages which it claims are at risk of extinction.

UNESCO 已經確定有 2500 種瀕危語言。

A sobering thought, Neil.

這很發人深省。

Now, shall we remind ourselves of some of the English vocabulary we've heard today.

現在，我們要回顧一下我們今天聽到的一些英文詞彙。

Starting with master.

從「master（精通；掌握）」開始。

To master a new skill, in this context, means to learn thoroughly or learn well.

在這種情況下，要「掌握」一種新的技能，是指學習透徹或學好的意思。

Rob hopes to master Spanish before he starts a new job in Madrid.

Rob 希望能在馬德里開始新工作前學好西班牙語。

Really? That's news to me, Neil!

真的嗎？我怎麼不知道這件事！

But it would be good to be fluent in Spanish—or any language—or to speak it fluently—that's speaking it very well and without difficulty.

但能流利地掌握西班牙語或其他語言會很好，能流利地說一門語言表示能夠非常好地、毫不費力地用該語言講話。

Now our next word was frequency.

下一個詞是「frequency（頻率）」。

Here we are referring to high and low frequency words. So it means how often they occur.

這裡我們指的是常用的和不常用的詞。所以「frequency」的意思是它們出現的頻率。

Examples of a high frequency word are ''it', 'the' and 'and'.

常用的詞有 it、the 還有 and。

And our next word is inflections.

下一個詞是「inflections（詞形變化）」。

These are the changes to the basic form of words according to their function in a sentence.

「Inflections」是根據單詞在句子中的功能而對其基本形式進行的變化。

Such as adding an 's' to the end of a word to make it plural.

例如在字尾加一個「s」使之成為複數。

And don't forget lemma which is the simplest form or base form of a word before an inflection is added.

還有別忘了「lemma（詞位）」，它是一個單詞在添加變化之前的最簡單形式或基本形式。

And finally, foundation which means the basics your learning grows from.

最後是「foundation（基礎）」，指的是你的學習所建立的基礎。

That just leaves me to remind you that you can learn English with us at bbclearningenglish.com.

最後容我提醒各位，你可以在我們的網站 bbclearningenglish.com 學習英文。

That's it for today's 6 Minute English. We hope you enjoyed it. Bye for now.

以上是今天的《6分鐘英語》。希望你喜歡。再見。

Na shledanou! Hasta luego! Ja ne!

（捷克語）Na shledanou!（西班牙語）Hasta luego! （日語）じゃね（再見！）

And in English, goodbye.

還有用英語版的再見。

Goodbye.

再見。