There are over 6,000 languages in the world. Some are more important than others, not better or more advanced, just more important. Why? Because they are spoken by more people, in more countries. That does not mean that Finnish is not important to the Finns, and Maori is not important to the Maoris. It is just that these languages are not so important to the rest of us.

On the other hand, Mandarin Chinese is spoken by over one billion people. Chinese origin words account for 60% of Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese vocabulary. Knowing Chinese will help you learn these languages too. It helped me. Chinese culture has influenced the world for thousands of years with its art, philosophy, technology, food, medicine and performing arts. Today China’s economy is booming. Chinese seems well worth learning.

Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese are essentially dialects of the same language. If you learn one, you can learn the others. I did. If you learn Spanish, you open the door to the culture, music, history and possible business dealings with 800 million people in 60 countries, including the US and Canada.

If you get ambitious you could try Russian, as I have been doing for the last two years. Once you have Russian you can probably communicate with other Slav speakers.

But hold it here! Before getting carried away, let’s look at the present situation of language teaching. According to one Canadian survey, after 12 years of daily French classes, only one high school graduate out of 147 (0.68%) achieved “intermediate” proficiency. Another survey of immigrants learning English in the US showed that “classroom instructional hours” had little impact on progress.

If we cannot teach our own official languages in North America, what hope is there for other languages like Chinese or Spanish, let alone Russian, Arabic or Hindi?

As a speaker of 10 languages I know the benefits of speaking more than one language. We simply have to change the way we go about teaching languages. To start with we need to dispel seven common misconceptions about language learning.

1. Language learning is difficult

It is only difficult to learn a language if you don’t want to. Learning a language takes time, but is not difficult. You mostly need to listen and read. Believe me, it is that simple. I have done it many times. Soon you feel the satisfaction of understanding another language. Before you know it you start speaking. It is the way languages are usually taught that makes language learning hard to like.

2. You have to have a gift for learning languages

No you don’t. Anyone who wants to, can learn. In Sweden and Holland most people speak more than one language. They can’t just all be gifted at languages. Foreign athletes in North America usually learn to speak English faster than people in more formal learning environments. In language learning it is attitude, not aptitude, that determines success.

3. You have to live where the language is spoken

Some immigrants to North America never learn to speak more than halting English. Yet we meet people in other countries who speak flawless English. In 1968, I learned to speak Mandarin fluently while living in Hong Kong, where few people spoke it. With the Internet, language content is available to anyone with a computer, and you can download it to your iPod and listen. Where you live is not an obstacle.

4. Only children can learn to speak another language well

Recent brain research has demonstrated that our brains remain plastic well into old age. Adults who lose their eyesight have to learn a new language, braille, for example. Adults have a wide vocabulary in their own language and are better language learners than children. I have learned 4 languages since the age of 55. Adults only need the child’s willingness to experiment and desire to communicate, without the fear of ridicule.

5. To learn a language you need formal classroom instruction

This is the crux of the problem. Classrooms may be economical to run and a great place to meet others. They have the weight of history and tradition behind them. Unfortunately, a classroom is an inefficient place to learn a language. The more students in the class, the more inefficient it is. Languages cannot be taught, they can only be learned. Theoretical grammatical explanations are hard to understand, hard to remember, and even harder to use. Drills and exercises are annoying to most people. A majority of school kids graduate unable to communicate in languages that they study for 10 or more years.

6. You need to speak in order to learn (and I have nobody to speak to)

Speaking the language is usually the goal of language learning, but speaking can wait. Once you have acquired the language, you will find the opportunity to speak. When you are learning the language it is more important to listen. Trying to just pick up a few “handy” phrases to say is likely to just get you into trouble. If you meet a native speaker, you will inevitably spend most of your time listening unless you already know the language. You do not need to speak in order to learn, you need to learn in order to speak.

7. I would love to learn but I don’t have the time

How about the time you spend waiting in line, commuting, doing things around the house, going for a walk? Why not use that time to listen to a language on your iPod? Once you get started, even 10 or 15 minutes a day will soon grow to 30 minutes a day, or one hour. If you believe you will achieve significant results, and if you enjoy doing it, as I do, you will find the time.

世界上有六千多種語言。其中有一些語言要比另一些更重要，不是更好或更高級(jí)，但是卻更重要。為什么呢？因?yàn)橹v這些語言的人和國家相對(duì)更多。這不是說芬蘭語對(duì)芬蘭人不重要，毛利語對(duì)毛利人不重要。只是這些語言對(duì)于我們其他人來說不那么重要。

另一方面，有超過十億人講漢語。日語、朝鮮語和越南語中，起源于漢語的詞匯占到六成。了解漢語對(duì)學(xué)習(xí)這些語言很有幫助。我就是受益者。中國文化通過其藝術(shù)、哲學(xué)、技術(shù)、食品、醫(yī)藥和表演藝術(shù)，影響了世界幾千年。今天的中國經(jīng)濟(jì)日益繁榮。漢語也成了非常值得學(xué)習(xí)的一門語言。

西班牙語、法語、意大利語和葡萄牙語本質(zhì)上是起源于相同的語言。如果學(xué)會(huì)其中一種，你也就學(xué)會(huì)了其他幾種。我就是這樣。如果學(xué)會(huì)了西班牙語，你就向包括美國和加拿大在內(nèi)的六十個(gè)國家，八億人口的文化、音樂、歷史甚至可能商業(yè)貿(mào)易，打開了大門。如果你有雄心壯志，還可以試試學(xué)俄語，就像我兩年來一直做的一樣。一旦學(xué)會(huì)了俄語，你差不多也可以同其他講斯拉夫語的人交流了。

但是到此為止！在你對(duì)此入迷之前，我們先看看現(xiàn)今的語言教學(xué)形勢(shì)。根據(jù)加拿大的一項(xiàng)調(diào)查，經(jīng)過十二年天天上法語課，147名高中畢業(yè)生中才有一名（0.68%）可以達(dá)到中級(jí)精通水平。另一項(xiàng)關(guān)于在美移民學(xué)習(xí)英語的調(diào)查顯示，“課堂教學(xué)課時(shí)”對(duì)提高英語水平幾乎沒有任何效果。

如果在北美連我們自己的官方語言都教不好，還有什么指望教授其他語言比如漢語或西班牙語呢？更別說俄語、阿拉伯語和印地語了。

作為一個(gè)可以講十種語言的人，我知道會(huì)多種語言的好處。只是我們需要改變當(dāng)前教授語言的方式。在此之前，我們需要消除學(xué)習(xí)語言的7種常見錯(cuò)誤觀念。

1. 學(xué)習(xí)語言很難

除非你不想學(xué)習(xí)語言，才會(huì)覺得困難。學(xué)習(xí)語言確實(shí)需要花點(diǎn)時(shí)間，但是并不困難。你差不多只需要聽和讀。相信我，就是那么簡(jiǎn)單。我已經(jīng)這么做過很多次了。很快你就能體會(huì)到理解另一種語言的滿足感。還沒理解就開始說，這就是通常的語言教學(xué)方式，這樣使人很難喜歡學(xué)習(xí)語言。

2. 學(xué)習(xí)語言需要天賦

不，不需要。任何人想要學(xué)都可以學(xué)。在瑞典和荷蘭，大多數(shù)人都會(huì)不只一種語言。不可能他們?nèi)�都具有語言天賦。在北美的外國運(yùn)動(dòng)員學(xué)習(xí)講英語一般比那些在比較正規(guī)學(xué)習(xí)環(huán)境的人要快。在語言學(xué)習(xí)上，是態(tài)度決定成敗，而不是天資。

3. 需要住在講那種語言的國家

有些北美的移民者一直英語說得磕磕巴巴。但是在其他國家，我們可以見到英語說得異常完美的人。1968年住在香港期間，我學(xué)會(huì)了流利的漢語普通話，而那里是很少人說普通話的。有了互聯(lián)網(wǎng)，任何人都可以使用電腦獲得外語資料，你可以下載到iPod然后收聽。你住在哪里都沒有妨礙。

4. 只有兒童才能學(xué)好說外語

最近的大腦研究表明，直到老年，我們的大腦都是非常具有可塑性的。失去視力的成年人不得不學(xué)習(xí)新的語言，例如盲文。成年人有廣泛的母語單詞量，因此相比兒童是更好的語言學(xué)習(xí)者。從55歲開始，我已經(jīng)學(xué)習(xí)了四種語言。成年人需要的僅僅是兒童的那種不怕嘲笑，樂于試驗(yàn)的意愿和交流的欲望。

5. 學(xué)習(xí)語言需要正規(guī)的課堂教學(xué)

這是問題的關(guān)鍵。課堂教學(xué)可能很經(jīng)濟(jì)，也是接觸他人的好地方。課堂教學(xué)背后有著厚重的歷史和傳統(tǒng)。可不幸的是，課堂不是學(xué)習(xí)語言的好地方。教室學(xué)生越多，效率越低下。語言不是教出來的，而是學(xué)出來的。對(duì)語言理論上的語法上的解釋很難理解，不易記憶，更難以應(yīng)用。對(duì)于大多數(shù)人來說，訓(xùn)練和練習(xí)很讓人厭煩。大部分的孩子在學(xué)習(xí)了某種語言10年或更長(zhǎng)時(shí)間后，畢業(yè)了還不能用這種語言進(jìn)行交流。

6. 只有說才能學(xué)語言（而我找不到人說）

通常學(xué)習(xí)語言的目的就是說，但是說可以先放一放。一旦你學(xué)會(huì)了一種語言，你就能找到說的機(jī)會(huì)的。當(dāng)你學(xué)習(xí)語言時(shí)，更重要的是聽。想挑出幾個(gè)“巧妙”的短語說一說，可能只是給你自己添麻煩。如果見到一個(gè)母語是外語的人，毫無疑問大部分時(shí)間你都是在聽，除非你已經(jīng)很熟悉這門語言。不是必須說才能學(xué)，而是必須學(xué)然后才能說。

7. 我很想學(xué)語言可是沒時(shí)間

這些時(shí)間應(yīng)該有吧——排隊(duì)等待的時(shí)間、乘車的時(shí)間、在屋子周圍忙的時(shí)間、外出散步的時(shí)間？為什么不利用這些時(shí)間聽iPod里面的外語資料。一旦開始，時(shí)間會(huì)從一天10到15分鐘，很快長(zhǎng)到每天30分鐘甚至一小時(shí)。如果相信自己可以取得顯著的成果，并且喜歡這樣做，就像我一樣，你就會(huì)找到時(shí)間。