原創(chuàng)翻譯：龍騰網(wǎng) http://www.ltaaa.com 翻譯：翻譯加工廠 轉(zhuǎn)載請(qǐng)注明出處
-------------譯者：Oriri-審核者：wccvtv------------
Kevin D. Aslan Entrepreneur Author Podcaster upxed Jun 29
Because there are so few easy wins.
因?yàn)槟茌p松取勝的事少之又少。
When I started to learn Russian I was amazed. Two days in and I could read. Sure I didn’t understand anything and probably sounded like a slow-witted 8-year old (if that!) but I was reading!
在我學(xué)俄語的時(shí)候，令我感到驚訝的是，僅僅學(xué)了兩天我就能閱讀俄文了。當(dāng)然，我并非全部?jī)?nèi)容都看得懂，而且發(fā)音可能聽起來像個(gè)反應(yīng)遲鈍的8歲小孩一樣（如果這個(gè)比喻恰當(dāng)?shù)脑挘掖_實(shí)能讀出來了！
Better yet there were tons of words that instinctively made sense. Between Russian and French/English I could find tons of similarities in vocabulary. Cat is pronounced koht tiger is teegr day is dyen.
學(xué)習(xí)俄語很有優(yōu)勢(shì)的一點(diǎn)是，有大量的詞匯我能夠憑直覺去理解解。在俄語、法語和英語之間，我發(fā)現(xiàn)這三者的詞匯有很多相似處。cat（貓）的發(fā)音近似于koht，tiger(老虎)和day（天）在俄語中寫作teegr和dyen。
Little wins are what keep you going and motivated. You feel yourself making progress.
小小的成就激勵(lì)你使你有繼續(xù)學(xué)習(xí)下去的動(dòng)力，你能夠感覺到自己在慢慢進(jìn)步。
With Chinese it’s the exact opposite. The easy wins come when you’re already at an advanced-intermediate level - before that it’s just complete and painful slogging.
而學(xué)習(xí)漢語則正好相反。當(dāng)你已經(jīng)達(dá)到中上的水平時(shí)，才覺得自己小有所成——在那之前，漢語對(duì)你來說是復(fù)雜難懂的，學(xué)習(xí)過程十分漫長(zhǎng)痛苦。
Everything is just so… alien. First tones. Try as you might it’ll take you a few months to be able to do tones on command and full disclaimer you’re probably still going to fail to get 100% accuracy there.
關(guān)于漢語的每個(gè)方面都如——天書一般難懂。首先，聲調(diào)。任你怎樣努力嘗試，你都需要花費(fèi)幾個(gè)月的時(shí)間來學(xué)習(xí)聲調(diào)，即使如此，可能還是無法保證你能百分百準(zhǔn)確地發(fā)音。
Then the characters. Forget about reading for a very long time. If ever. Even today when I know and recognise ~3000+ characters reading the newspaper is an incredible effort. I might know most of the characters but I won’t know the combinations and hence the words they form.
接下來就是漢字。時(shí)間一長(zhǎng)，就容易忘記發(fā)音。當(dāng)然，前提是你曾經(jīng)記住過。即使是今天，我已經(jīng)認(rèn)得超過3000個(gè)漢字了，可完整讀完一篇新聞報(bào)道仍然要付出難以置信的努力。我或許能認(rèn)得大部分的漢字，但是我不懂它們組合起來也就是詞語的意思。
-------------譯者：wccvtv-審核者：lushanxq------------
And just when you think you’re getting comfortable you hit the chengyu wall. Essentially China has a multitude of 4 character idioms that make no sense unless you know the story behind them. For example: 愚公移山 － Mr. Yu Move Mountain. It’s based on the story of Mr. Yu who grew frustrated that travellers needed to go all the way around the mountain he lived on to get to the village. He therefore started to dig a passage through the mountain. His wife and neighbours tell him he’s crazy and he’ll never achieve it in his lifetime. He answers that if he doesn’t succeed his sons will. If they don’t their sons will.
當(dāng)你剛認(rèn)為學(xué)習(xí)漢語開始變得輕松之后，你就撞上了“成語”這座城墻?；旧现袊性S多四字組成的成語，除非你知道這成語背后的故事，否則這些成語對(duì)你來說毫無意義你一竅不通。舉個(gè)例子：愚公移山——這是一個(gè)關(guān)于一個(gè)姓愚的老頭想要移平山頭的故事。愚公想要把在他村莊前的那座山移平，好讓村外的旅行者不用費(fèi)力繞過大山才能通行。于是他就開始在山上挖通道。他的妻子和鄰居都認(rèn)為他瘋了，因?yàn)檫@件事情在他的有生之年是無法實(shí)現(xiàn)的。對(duì)此，他回答道，如果他的兒子也沒做到，那還有他的孫子呢。
Generations later a passage is dug through the mountain (or in the official version a god takes pity on Mr. Yu and moves the mountain). Mr. Yu Move Mountain: When there’s a will there’s a way.
歷經(jīng)幾代人的辛勤努力下，這條貫穿山體的通道終于完工了（或者官方的版本是：玉皇大帝被愚公（的舉動(dòng)）所打動(dòng)和憐憫，特派了神仙幫他移開了那座山）。愚公移山（意思是）：有志者事竟成。
Now imagine hearing your client tell you that Mr. Yu Move Mountain without knowing the story. You look bewildered and ask: “Who’s Mr. Yu?”
現(xiàn)在想象一下，如果你不知道愚公的故事，當(dāng)你的客戶跟你用到這個(gè)成語時(shí)，你會(huì)一臉迷惑地問道“愚公是誰?。俊?br>
That being said once you break through the first few walls Chinese gets much MUCH easier. Grammar is incredibly simple (no conjugation!) and words begin to make a ton of sense once you know the characters (e.g. Butter = 黃油 ＝ yellow oil).
話雖如此，當(dāng)你越過學(xué)習(xí)漢語中的第一道門檻兒之后，事情就變得簡(jiǎn)單多了。漢語的語法非常簡(jiǎn)單（沒有動(dòng)詞的各種變位），并且你一旦知道了解了漢字（例如Butter=黃油=黃色的油），詞匯就開始變得有意義了。
No idea how you’d call this though.
不知道你們把這個(gè)叫做什么。
But when you start? Oh God. It does look scary.
但是當(dāng)你開始（學(xué)習(xí)漢語）了，（你會(huì)感慨：）哦，上帝，這么看起來（漢語的確）是門可怕的語言。
Edit: Max D Lee kindly pointed out that Mr. Yu is actually incorrect and that the Yu in this case means more a “Foolish Old Man”. Just goes to show the last point about Chinese: the more you learn the more you realize there’s so much more out there that you still don’t know ^^
編輯：感謝Max D Lee慷慨指出，愚公（這種叫法）實(shí)際上是不正確的，在這個(gè)成語故事的背景里，愚公更象征意味著“愚蠢的老人”。這表現(xiàn)了漢語的最后一個(gè)特點(diǎn)：你學(xué)的越多，越意識(shí)自己還有很多東西并不了解學(xué)習(xí)之路還很漫長(zhǎng)。
-------------譯者：花開花落花滿天-審核者：lushanxq------------
Paul Denlinger Have lived in China Taiwan and Hong Kong; fluent in Mandarin (written spoken) Answered Jun 23
Because Chinese is not a language you can pick up “for fun”.
因?yàn)闈h語不是你單純“為了找樂子”而學(xué)習(xí)的一種語言。
It is something you need to have a serious interest in are willing to work hard at it over long stretches of time and are willing to deal with multiple points of frustration over and over.
（學(xué)習(xí)漢語）這是一件你需要認(rèn)真對(duì)待、并且愿意花長(zhǎng)時(shí)間努力學(xué)習(xí)，不斷克服（學(xué)習(xí)中出現(xiàn)的重重）挫折的事。
Even when you have done all that you will still run into situations where you can read the characters but you are not sure about what is going on. Or you will run into new slang which you just don’t get and have to spend time to research and understand.
即使你做到了以上的一切事，你仍然會(huì)遇到一些情況——即你可以看得懂那一個(gè)個(gè)漢字，但你仍不知道它在講什么內(nèi)容。或者你會(huì)遇到一些你不懂的俚語，不得不花時(shí)間去研究和理解它的意思。
This is why there are so many non-Chinese who give up.
這就是為什么有那么多非中國人放棄（學(xué)中文）的原因。
The non-Chinese who do spend time are likely to spend a lot of time in China marry Chinese and for all practical purposes become Chinese and disappear into the big Chinese cauldron over time.
那些花時(shí)間在中國的外國人很可能會(huì)花很多時(shí)間去了解中國、中國人結(jié)婚，他們所有的實(shí)際目的就是成為中國人，并隨著時(shí)間融入進(jìn)中國這個(gè)大環(huán)境里。
Xiao Haifeng Answered Jul 11
When you heard some songs of a chinese pop singer who named Jay ChouI think you will know why.Because as a Chinese I even can not hear clear what he says.
當(dāng)你聽到一個(gè)叫周杰倫的中國流行歌手唱的歌時(shí)，我想你會(huì)知道為什么（中文是門可怕的學(xué)不來的語言）的。因?yàn)橥瑸橹袊?，連我都不能完全聽清他在唱什么。
-------------譯者：風(fēng)起云團(tuán)-審核者：lushanxq------------
陳康 Answered Jun 25
我喜歡上一個(gè)人。
There are four meanings to this sentence:
1.I like someone.
2.I like to fuck someone.
3.I like the previous one.
4.I like to be alone.
“我喜歡上一個(gè)人?！?br>這句中文一共有四個(gè)意思：
1.我喜歡某人。
2.我喜歡“干”某人。
3.我喜歡我的前任（之前那個(gè)人）。
4.我喜歡獨(dú)自一人。
William Poy Lee Professor of English Lecturer on American Society at Beijing Foreign Studies University (2015-present)
Answered Jun 23
I teach at the Beijing Foreign Language Institute China’s premier foreign language and culture university. The other day I talked to an Australian student who majors in Chinese language but at Tsinghua U. Maddy said that at first Chinese writing seemed incomprehensable just a bunch of weird random symbols. But over time like coding for apps she figured it out. And from our brief exchange in Chinese she has obviously mastered the 5-tone Mandarin Chinese. I’m sure she’s more fluent than me an ABC whose grandparents are Cantonese!
我在中國首屈一指的關(guān)于外語和文化的大學(xué)——北京外國語學(xué)院任教。有一天我跟一位來自澳大利亞，在清華大學(xué)主攻漢語的學(xué)生麥蒂聊天，她說她第一次看見漢字時(shí)，（漢字）對(duì)她來說簡(jiǎn)直是一堆令人無法理解的奇異符號(hào)。但是隨著時(shí)間推移，她發(fā)現(xiàn)漢字就像程序的編碼一樣。從我們的簡(jiǎn)短交流中，我得知她顯然完全掌握了漢語里的五個(gè)音調(diào)。我敢肯定她的漢語要比我這個(gè)有廣東籍祖父母的美籍華人流暢得多。
We both also agreed that learning a languge outside the Latin based alphabet languages is difficult for Westerners. She specifically pointed out that Arabic writing still strikes her as initially incomprehensible. I pointed out Russian writing Cyrillic strikes me as initially daunting. But we both agreed that if we really wanted to we could learn either of them for sure.
我們都認(rèn)為對(duì)西方人來說，學(xué)習(xí)一門并非基于拉丁字母語系的語言是十分困難的。她特別指出她覺得阿拉伯文字仍舊令人費(fèi)解令她備受打擊。我也表示俄羅斯文字——西里爾字母同樣讓我望而卻步。但我們都認(rèn)同如果我們真的一心想學(xué)這兩種語言的話，我們最后肯定都能學(xué)會(huì)。
So Chinese like learning any other language not in your root civilizational orbit is challenging. But as Maddy and the numbers of Westerners here at BFSU and throughout China demonstrate it’s more than doable for the focused student.
所以學(xué)中文跟你學(xué)習(xí)其他非母語系的語言一樣，都是一個(gè)巨大的挑戰(zhàn)。但正如麥蒂和其他許多在北外乃至全中國學(xué)習(xí)的西方學(xué)生都證明了一點(diǎn)，那就是對(duì)于一個(gè)專注學(xué)習(xí)的人來說，（學(xué)好漢語）是完全可行的。
-------------譯者：風(fēng)起云團(tuán)-審核者：龍騰翻譯總管------------
Tom O'Connor Lived in China for 2 years. upxed Oct 25
I’ve read a number of times that to read a Chinese newspaper you need to master between 2500 to 3000 characters. You won’t recognize every character but you can fully comprehend the meaning.
我已經(jīng)閱讀（中文報(bào)紙）很長(zhǎng)時(shí)間了，要想能夠讀懂中文報(bào)紙你需要掌握大約2500到3000的詞匯量。你不必搞懂每個(gè)字的意思只需要理解它的大致意思就可以了。
My trouble is that I am married to a Shanghainese woman and I am (slowly) trying to learn Mandarin. Without fail my wife will speak Shanghainese instead of Mandarin at every occasion even though I ask her and her family and friends to please speak Mandarin. They start off with Mandarin but within 2 minutes they automatically switch. I personally consider the two different languages not dialects and I close my ears to the conversation. I honestly think that after 12 years of marriage to a Chinese woman if I only heard Mandarin I would be able to speak it well enough to carry on a conversation.
我的問題是，我的老婆是個(gè)上海人且我正在（緩慢進(jìn)行）學(xué)習(xí)普通話。我的太太不論在任何場(chǎng)合都必定會(huì)使用上海話來代替普通話，甚至就算我請(qǐng)求她和她的家人以及朋友說普通話都不行。就算她們一開始說的是普通話，但兩分鐘過后她們就（會(huì)把普通話）自動(dòng)換回（上海話）了。我個(gè)人認(rèn)為這是兩種不同的語言而不是方言，所以就閉上耳朵不聽（她們的）談話內(nèi)容。說實(shí)話，我覺得如果我跟一個(gè)說普通話的女人結(jié)婚12年，那我的（中文）口語可以流暢到與人自如交流了。
Susan Correll Foy works at University of Delaware English Language Institute Answered Jun 25
My son had the choice of studying Chinese or Japanese in high school. Both are very different from English but I encouraged him toward Japanese for two reasons. First the Japanese writing system is phonetic at least the initial one and hence much easier for a foreigner to learn. Second Japanese has no tones and Chinese does. These are two very intimidating features of Chinese that make English speakers avoid studying it unless they are very motivated.
我兒子在高中時(shí)有機(jī)會(huì)選擇選學(xué)漢語或是日語。兩者都是十分難學(xué)的語言，不過出于以下兩個(gè)原因我鼓勵(lì)他學(xué)日語。一是日語的書寫方式至少在初期時(shí)是（拼音）式的，這樣對(duì)外國人來說更容易入門些，其次日語沒有音調(diào)而漢語有。中文的這兩個(gè)特征就夠讓英語國家的人排斥學(xué)漢語了，除非他們能有足夠的動(dòng)力去學(xué)習(xí)。
