So for the past 20 years,

過去 20 年以來，

I've been helping Malaysians and other Southeast Asians to speak better English.

我都致力於教導馬來西亞以及其他東南亞洲人把英文說得更好。

And through training thousands of Southeast Asians,

在這成千上百的教學經驗中，

I've discovered a very surprising truth.

我發現了一項非常令人意外的事實。

I've discovered that how well somebody communicates in English,

我發現一個人英語溝通能力的優劣，

actually has very little to do with their English level.

其實與他本身的英文程度並沒有太大的關係。

It has a lot to do with their attitude towards English.

而是與他們對英文的態度息息相關。

There are people out there who have a very very low level of English,

有些人的英文程度雖然差得可以，

and they can communicate very very well.

但他們卻能夠以英文與他人有效地溝通。

One of them that I remember was a student, a participant of mine, named Faizal.

我記得我有一位名叫費索的學生，

He was a factory supervisor -

他是一位工廠主管。

English level very very low,

費索的英文程度非常不好，

but this guy could just sit and listen to anybody,

但他懂得靜下來仔細聽別人說話，

very calmly, clearly, and then he could respond, absolutely express his thoughts beautifully.

並能夠毫不猶豫地用非常簡易的英文，

At a very low level of English.

充分表達出自己的想法。

So, today I want to share with you.

所以我今天想要跟大家分享，

What is so different about people like Faizal?

像費索這樣的人為何與眾不同？

How do they do it?

他們是怎麼做到的？

And second of all,

再者，

Why is it so important not only to you,

為何這種特質不只對你，

but to your children, to your community

也對你的下一代、你所處的社會，

and to the future of Malaysia?

還有馬來西亞未來的發展很重要？

And third of all,

以及，

What's one thing you can do, starting today,

有什麼事情是你可以從今天開始做的？

if you want to speak with that calm, clear confidence that people like Faizal has.

好讓你能像費索一樣自信又從容地說英文？

So first of all,

首先，

what is so different?

是什麼讓他與眾不同？

How do people like Faizal do it?

像費索這樣的人是怎麼做到的？

So to answer that question,

要回答這個問題，

I'm going to take you back about 10 years, okay?

我得從約十年前開始說起，好嗎？

So I was training staff at that time,

當時我的工作是負責公司的員工訓練，

and my daughter, at that time, was taking piano lessons.

而同一時期，我女兒正好在學鋼琴。

And I started to notice two really strong similarities

我開始注意到有兩項非常相似的特質，

between my daughter's attitude or thinking towards playing the piano

出現在我女兒對學習鋼琴的態度，

and a lot of Malaysians' thinking or attitude towards English.

以及馬來西亞人對說英文的態度之間。

Now first of all, I should tell you

有一件事我必須先聲明，

my daughter absolutely hated piano,

我女兒超級討厭鋼琴。

hated the lessons,

討厭上鋼琴課，

hated practicing.

也很討厭練琴。

This is my daughter practicing piano, okay?

這是我女兒練琴的照片。

This is as good as it got.

這大概是她狀態最好的時候。

This is the real thing.

她真的都這樣彈琴。

And she dreaded going to piano lessons.

她很害怕上鋼琴課。

Because to my daughter, going to piano lessons,

對我女兒來說，只要去上鋼琴課，

she was filled with this sort of dread.

害怕犯錯的恐懼感就會將她淹沒。

Because it was all about not screwing up, right?

因為演奏鋼琴就是講求準確，對吧？

Because like a lot of piano students,

對很多學習鋼琴的人，

to both my daughter and her teacher,

以及我女兒還有她的鋼琴老師而言，

her success in piano was measured by how few mistakes she made.

她在鋼琴上的成就是根據彈對了多少音符而決定的。

Now at the same time,

同時我也注意到，

I noticed that a lot of Malaysians went into English conversations,

很多馬來西亞人在使用英語交談時，

with the same sort of feeling of dread.

也展現了相同的恐懼。

This sort of feeling that they were going to be judged,

這是一種害怕受到批評的恐懼，

by how many mistakes they were going to make,

他們害怕說英文時可能會犯錯，

and whether or not they were going to screw up.

害怕自己可能會無法順利地與對方溝通。

Now, the second similarity that I noticed was to do with self- image.

另一個相似之處，是跟人的自我意象有關係。

You see, my daughter, she knew what good piano sounded like, right?

以我女兒為例。她聽得出什麼是「好的鋼琴演奏」，對吧？

Because we've all heard good piano.

因為我們都聽過好的鋼琴演奏應該是什麼樣子。

And she knew what her level was,

我女兒明白自己的水準，

and she knew how long she'd have to play for to play like that.

她知道自己還要花多少時間練習，才可能達到那種境界。

And a lot of Malaysians, I noticed,

接著我注意到有很多馬來西亞人，

had this idea of what good proper English is supposed to sound like,

他們對於「好的英文」也有這類的既定印象。

and what their...I see a lot of you nodding.

而他們...我看見很多人點頭了。

and what their English sounded like,

而他們也明白自己的水平，

and how far they have to go to get there.

知道自己還得付出多少努力才能把英文說得那麼好。

And they also felt like they were, like my daughter, just bad.

他們和我女兒一樣，都覺得自己不夠好。

Bad piano player, bad English speaker, right?

覺得自己彈不好鋼琴，說不好英文，對嗎？

My English not so good, lah. Cannot. Sorry, yah. Cannot. Ah -

我的英文不好啦...不行...抱歉...不會...呃...

So I could see these similarities,

我注意到這些相似的情緒，

but I still couldn't figure out.

但我當時還不明白其中的意義。

Okay, what is it about these people like Faizal, that are so different,

好，那究竟是什麼讓費索這樣的人如此與眾不同呢？

that can just do it smoothly, calmly, with confidence?

為什麼他們可以如此從容不迫又自信地用英文表達自己的意思？

One day, I discovered that answer, and I discovered it quite by chance.

有一天，我偶然發現了其中的奧秘。

It was a day when my computer broke down, and I had to go to a cybercafe.

那天我的電腦壞了，所以我只好去網咖。

Now, okay, it was my first time, and I discovered cybercafes are disgusting places, okay?

那是我第一次進網咖，然後我發現網咖真的是很噁心的地方。

They're really gross.

網咖環境真的很髒亂。

They're smelly, and they're filled with boys.

裡面有奇怪的味道，滿滿的都是小男生。

And they're all playing noisy, violent games.

他們都在玩很吵的暴力電玩。

They're just disgusting places.

網咖真的是很令人反胃的地方。

But I had to go there.

但為了用電腦我別無選擇。

So I sat down, and I started noticing this guy beside me.

我找了個位置坐下，接著我注意到坐在我旁邊的男生。

And I became very interested in this guy next to me.

然後這個人燃起了我的好奇心。

Now, this guy is playing this game that is basically, it's like shooting people until they die.

基本上他是在玩那種要一直開槍把人射死的遊戲。

And that's it.

就是這樣而已。

That's the game, right?

射擊遊戲就是這樣玩，沒錯吧？

And I'm noticing that this guy is not very good.

我注意到他玩得不是很好。

In fact, he's terrible, right?

老實說，他很爛。

Because I'm looking, and I'm seeing, like, a lot of shooting, and ... not much dying, right?

因為我看他開了超多槍...但是沒什麼人死掉，你懂嗎？

But what really interested me was, behind this lousy player were three of his friends, sort of standing there watching him play.

不過真正讓我感興趣的是那三個站在他後面，看他打遊戲的朋友。

What I really noticed was, even though this guy was terrible, even though his friends were watching him, there was no embarrassment.

我發現即使他的朋友看著他，他又打得這麼爛，空氣中也沒有尷尬的氛圍。

There was no feeling of being judged. There was no shyness. In fact, quite the opposite.

既沒有會被批評的顧慮，也沒有任何羞赧的情緒。一切正好相反。

This guy's totally focused on the bad guys, smile on his face.

他掛著笑容，全神貫注在殺敵。

All he can think about is killing these guys, right?

他腦中想的就只有如何幹掉對方。

And I'm watching him. And I suddenly realize: this is it.

看著這樣的他，我突然明白了。

This is the same attitude that people like Faizal have when they speak English, just like this guy.

他的態度和費索說英文時的反應一模一樣。

When Faizal goes into an English conversation, he doesn't feel judged.

費索在用英文與人溝通時，並不在意別人怎麼看他。

He's entirely focused on the person that he's speaking to and the result he wants to get.

他只專注在如何讓對方理解自己的意思。

He's got no self-awareness, no thoughts about his own mistakes.

費索沒有那種自我意識，他壓根就沒煩惱過自己講的英文是否正確。

Now I want to share with you a real, true example.

現在我想要跟大家分享一個真實案例。

To paint a picture, of somebody who speaks English like they are playing piano,

藉由此案例來演示，什麼是像彈鋼琴般害怕犯錯的英語使用者，

and someone who speaks English like they are playing a computer game.

什麼又是像打電玩般專注在達成目的的英語使用者。

And this is a true story.

這是一個真實的故事。

Happened to me.

就發生在我身上。

Um...A while ago, I was in a pharmacy. I had to buy omega; my doctor said I should get omega.

前陣子我到藥局去買魚油，因為我的醫生建議我多攝取一些多元不飽和脂肪酸。

And I go to the shelf, there's tons of omega.

我走到架前，發現上頭陳列著五花八門的魚油。

There's omega that's high in DHA, omega that's high in EPA, and I don't know which one to buy.

有的魚油標示富含 DHA，有的標示富含 EPA。我根本就不知道該買哪一種。

Now, the sales rep happened to be there.

店員剛好就在附近。

And I saw she's like this well-dressed, professional woman.

她是一名穿著得體，看起來很專業的女性。

I walk over to her, and I see this look as she sees me, this sort of - it's a look I recognize very well.

我走向她，然後我看見她也看向我。用那種...那個表情我記得很清楚。

Her eyes go all wide.

她的眼睛睜得好大。

It's sort of that panic:

從那雙眼流洩出的焦慮彷彿在說：

Oh my God! I've got to speak to a native speaker; she's going to judge me and notice my mistakes.

「完了！我要跟英文母語人士說話了，她一定會挑我的語病。」

I go up to her, and I explain my situation: which omega do I get?

我走到她面前，向她解釋我不知道該買哪種魚油。

And she starts explaining to me everything about DHA and EPA you could possibly imagine.

然後她開始長篇大論地解釋起任何你想得到的，跟 DHA 還有 EPA 相關的資訊。

She speaks very quickly, goes all around in circles.

她的語速非常快，內容一直鬼打牆。

And when she finishes,

等她好不容易解釋完了，

no idea what to buy.

我還是不知道要買哪種魚油。

So I turn to the girl behind the counter.

所以我決定找另外一位站在櫃台裡的店員。

Now, the girl behind the counter, I heard her before, her English level is very low.

那位站在櫃檯裡的女生英文很差，我進店裡時就有注意到。

But when I walk over to her, this girl, there's no fear.

但當我走向她，她並沒有驚慌失措。

In fact, she's just looking at me.

她就只是看著我。

You know that look?

你懂我說的那個表情嗎？

Like...Yeah? Okay...So, how?

就是像「怎樣？喔...所以？」

Yeah, I've been in Malaysia a long time.

你懂的，我在馬來西亞待很久了。

So, I go up to her and I explain the problem, EPA and DHA.

我走到她面前，然後解釋我不知道該買哪種魚油。

She looks at me, she says, "Okay, um. "

她看著我說：「好，呃...」

"Ah, EPA for heart." "DHA for brain."

「呃...EPA 給心臟，DHA 給腦。」

"Your heart okay or not?"

「妳的心臟，好？不好？」

So I said, "Yeah, yeah," I said my heart is really, I think it's pretty good.

我回：「嗯，很好。」我說我覺得自己的心臟挺好的。

She says, "Your brain okay or not?"

她接著說：「妳的腦，好？不好？」

I said, "No. No, my brain is not as good as it used to be."

我說：「不，我的腦筋沒有以前靈活了。」

She look, she said, "Okay lah, you take Omega DHA!"

然後她看著我說：「好啦，拿 DHA 的魚油。」

Problem solved, right?

這樣問題就解決了，不是嗎？

So we've got two different kinds of communicators.

從這裡我們可以看到兩種不同的對話者。

We've got the one who's got a high level,

一個英文程度很好，

but totally focused on herself and getting it right, and therefore, very ineffective.

但滿腦子只想著自己要怎麼把英文說對，結果無法有效地與人溝通。

We've got another one, low-level,

另一個英文程度不好，

totally focused on the person she's talking to and getting a result.

但卻能專注在傾聽問題與達成目的上。

Effective.

成就了有效地溝通。

And therein lies the difference.

這就是兩者的不同之處。

Now, why is this distinction so important not just to you, to your children, but to the future of Malaysia and countries like Malaysia?

那為何這種差異不只對你，也對你的後代、對馬來西亞，還有諸多像馬來西亞一樣的國家而言很重要？

And to answer that, let's take a look at who actually is speaking English in the world today, okay?

為了回答這個問題，我們要先來討論全世界到底有誰在使用英文。

So, if we looked at all of the English conversations in the whole world, taking place right now on planet Earth.

如果我們觀察現今全球使用英文的人口，

We would see that for every native speaker, like me, there are five non-native speakers.

會發現每六人之中僅有一人，像我一樣是英文母語人士。

And if we listen to every conversation in English on planet Earth right now,

若我們仔細聆聽這些全世界各地正在發生的對話，

we would notice that 96% of those conversations

就會發現在 96% 的對話中，

involved non-native English speakers.

皆有非英文母語人士參與。

Only 4% of those conversations are native speaker to native speaker.

僅有 4% 單純是英文母語人士之間的對話。

This is not my language anymore, this language belongs to you.

英文已經不再是其母語人士專屬的語言，它屬於所有正在使用它的你們。

It's not an art to be mastered. It's just a tool to use to get a result.

英文不是一門用來鑽研的學問，而是一種用以達成目的的工具。

And I want to give you a real-life example of what English is today in the world, real English today.

我想要跟大家分享一個真實生活案例，它展示了現代英文真正的樣子。

This is another true story.

這是我的另一個親身經歷。

I was at a barbecue a little while ago.

之前我參加了一場烤肉聚會。

This was a barbecue for engineers, engineers from all over the world.

烤肉會上有來自世界各地的工程師。

And they were making hot dogs.

當時他們正在烤熱狗。

Some of the hot dogs were regular hot dogs, and some were these cheese hot dogs, you know, with the cheese in the middle.

其中有些熱狗是一般純肉的熱狗，有些是起司熱狗。你知道，就是中間包起司的那種熱狗。

A French engineer is cooking the hot dogs, and he turns to this Korean engineer, and he says, "Would you like a hot dog?"

一名正在烤熱狗的法國工程師轉頭對一名韓國工程師說：「你要吃熱狗嗎？」

And the Korean guy says, "Yes, please!"

韓國工程師回答：「要，麻煩你！」

He says, "Do you want the cheese?"

法國工程師接著說：「你要起司嗎？」

And the Korean guy looks around at the table, and he says, "I no see cheese."

然後那個韓國人看了看桌面說：「我沒看到起司啊。」

The French guy says, "The hot dog is contains the cheese."

法國人就回答：「那個熱狗是包含起司。」

The Korean guy doesn't understand him, right?

韓國人聽不懂他的意思。

So the French engineer tries again:

所以法國工程師又試了一次：

"The hot dog is ... making from ... with the cheese."

「那個熱狗是...起司變...用起司做的。」

Korean guy still doesn't understand.

韓國人還是滿頭問號。

He tries again,

法國人又再試了一次。

he says, "The hotdog is coming from -

他說：「那個熱狗是從──」

No, the cheese is coming from the hot dog."

「不，那個起司是從熱狗出來的。」

Korean guy cannot understand.

韓國人就是有聽沒有懂。

Now there's a Japanese engineer who's been listening to this conversation,

接著，旁聽著這一切對話的日本工程師出場了。

turns to the Korean engineer and he says, "Ah! Cheese ... integrator!"

他看著韓國工程師說：「啊！起司...整合！」

He understands, okay?

韓國工程師秒懂。

Everybody understands.

現場每個人都聽懂了。

So, this is what English is today.

這就是英文現今的樣貌。

It's just a tool to play around with to get a result, like a computer game.

就像打電玩一樣，英文也只是個目的取向的工具。

Now, the challenge is that we know in schools all around the world, English is not really being taught like it's a tool to play with.

問題是在全世界的英文課程中，它並沒有真正被當成一種可活用的技能。

It's still being taught like it's an art to master.

而是仍然被當成一門需要死記硬背的學問。

And students are judged more on correctness than on clarity.

比起語意清晰與否，人們更介意文法的對錯。

Some of you might remember the old comprehension exam in school.

有些人可能還記得以前英文課的閱讀理解測驗。

Does anybody remember in school when you would get a question about a text that you read.

有人記得嗎？就是要閱讀文章回答問題。

You'd have to read through some text, right?

你要先讀一些短文，對吧？

And then answer a question to show that you understood the text?

接著回答問題，來決定你是否瞭解文章的語意。

And this may have happened to you that you showed you understood the text, but you got a big X because you made a little grammar mistake.

但你可能會發現，即使你的答案能證明自己理解文章語意，還是會因為一點文法錯誤而被劃上一個大叉。

Like this student.

好比說有一個學生。

This student clearly understood paragraph four.

這個學生完全瞭解文章的第四段的語意。

But no, not correct!

但不對，就是不對！

Because he left the letter N off the word "environment."

因為他的「environment」少拼了一個 n。

But in the real world, what would matter?

但在現實生活中，少一個 n 重要嗎？

In the real world, what would matter is did you understand the email,

在現實生活中，重要的是你能不能看懂別人寫的電子郵件，

or did you understand your customer so that you can go ahead and take action?

是你能不能理解客戶的需求，並為對方尋求解決之道？

Now, the problem that I see here, over and over,

我在這裡注意到相同的問題總是一再發生，

is that people take the attitude they developed about English in school, and they bring it into their adult life and into their work.

人們總把學校教的那一套帶入生活，帶入他們的工作。

And if you're in a stressful situation,

倘若你在一個充滿壓力的情境下，

and you're having a conversation,

需要用英文溝通，

and you're trying to give a result to someone and say it correctly,

你拘泥於如何以正確的文法回答對方的問題，

your brain multi-tasks, it cannot do two things at once.

你的大腦就會想要同時做很多事，但它其實無法一次處理這麼多資訊。

And what I see is the brain just shutting down, and you may recognize these three symptoms of the brain shutting down.

結局就是你的腦袋會打結，你可能會注意到以下三種症狀。

The first one is that your listening goes.

第一是你的聽力，

Someone is talking to you, and you're so busy thinking about how you're going to respond and express yourself correctly,

對方正在跟你說話，但你只想著要怎麼以正確的文法表達自己的想法，

you don't actually hear what the other person said.

你根本無法聽進對方到底說了些什麼。

And I can see a lot of nodding in the audience.

我看到很多觀眾在點頭了。

The second thing to go is your speaking.

第二就是你的表達能力，

Your mind sort of shuts down, and that vocabulary you do know just disappears, and the words don't come out.

你會覺得腦袋一片空白，那些你原本應該認識的單字突然就從腦中蒸發了。

The third thing to go is your confidence.

第三個就是你的自信。

The worst thing about this is you may only be [un]confident because you cannot express yourself clearly,

你因為自己語意不清而感到自卑就已經夠糟了，

but to the person talking to you, they may misunderstand this as a lack of confidence in your ability to do the job, to perform.