视界丨澳大利亚人前赴后继学中文，为哪般？,我去澳洲微信公众号文章

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written and translated by Jennifer Zhao (RMIT University)

“Ni Hao! Xie Xie!”

“你好！谢谢！”

The Chinese words for “hello” and “thank you” are well-known and widely spoken all over the world – not just by Chinese people, but by learners from all kinds of backgrounds. It is estimated that 178 million people across the globe are currently learning Mandarin, making it one of the most popular foreign language choices of all (after English and Arabic, with 430 and 236 million respectively).

这就是中国人怎么说“Hello”和 “Thank you”。这两个词已经在全球都非常耳熟能详了，不光是中国人每天把它们挂在嘴边，就连世界各地各种肤色的人也在学习并使用中文。据统计当下全球有1.78亿人正在学习汉语。中文已经成为最热门的外语语种之一（仅次于英语和阿拉伯语，分别有4.30亿和2.36亿）。

It's certainly admirable that so many people are giving it a try. It goes without saying that Mandarin Chinese is insanely complicated and hard to master, given its complex writing system and tonal phonetic rules. It is much easier for English speakers to have a decent grasp of “Romance” languages, such as Spanish and French; Chinese, by comparison, requires you to know thousands of characters to be able to read, and even a tiny mispronunciation of a single tone can change the whole meaning of a sentence.

如此多人尝试学习汉语肯定是让人钦佩的，因为毋庸置疑，中文是非常难学的一门语言，它有着复杂的汉字书写系统和拗口的语音语调，想要完全熟练运用它就更是难上加难了。相比之下，对于以英语为母语的人来说，想要掌握罗曼语系的语言，比如西班牙语、法语等就要容易多了。而中文呢，不仅需要你认读上千个汉字，而且一个小小的音调错误就可能使句意大相径庭。

Working as a part-time Chinese teacher in a local school in Melbourne, Australia, I cannot help but constantly wonder why so many people pick arguably the hardest language in the world. There are more than 200,000 Mandarin speakers in this country, many of whom are non-native learners twisting their tongues and brains around almost torturous concepts of tone, grammar and characters. I interviewed some of my own students to find out what their motivations were – and what they think drives the popularity of Mandarin down under.

作为一名墨尔本当地的中文老师，我时常在想为什么老外要选择学习这个很可能是世界上最难的语言呢？在澳大利亚有超过20万的普通话使用者，其中很多人的母语并不是普通话。他们绞尽脑汁地学习中文繁冗的语法、方块字和像绕口令一般的四种声调究竟是出于什么原因呢？我采访了我的几名学生，我们来听听他们觉得是什么让中文如此之热吧！

Winning important contracts
赢得重要商业伙伴

Benjamin Robinson is an Australian wine exporter; he has been learning Mandarin for 2 years.

本杰明是一名澳大利亚红酒出口商人，他学中文已经两年了。

“With China’s ascendency in the global economy, it means anyone doing export business is likely to encounter a Mandarin speaker”, Ben observes. The booming Chinese economy has also caused a surge in wine consumption. Mr. Robinson said China is at the forefront of every smart winery's and wine-seller's mind. He reckons that even a few courtesy words of Mandarin might land you a more lucrative deal.

“随着中国经济在世界的腾飞，任何一个做出口生意的人都很有可能和说中文的人打交道。”中国经济的快速增长也促进了中国人的红酒消费。本杰明说每个聪明的红酒商都时刻紧盯中国这块大市场，有时候几句简单的客套中文说不定就能帮红酒商在生意上多赚一笔呢。

Understanding the culture (and the in-laws!)
了解中国文化（及中国家人）

Jonathan Nichols is learning Mandarin for a very different reason. Happily married to his Chinese wife, he told me that only by learning her language can he truly understand the Chinese way of living. Jonathan is not the only one who is learning for the in-laws: Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, has been doing something similar since marrying Priscilla Chan. He recently admitted that studying Mandarin not only helps him to understand the culture, but gives him the key to the next global superpower.

乔纳森·尼克斯学汉语则是为了一个完全不同的原因。他有一位中国太太。他告诉我们只有学汉语他才能真正了解中国人的生活方式。其实为了中国家人和亲戚学习汉语的可不仅仅是乔纳森一个哦，就连脸书的创始人马克·扎克伯格也为了他的中国太太（普利希拉·陈）加入了学汉语的热潮中。他有一次接受在中国的访问时表示汉语不仅帮助他更好地了解中国文化，更为他在中国这个正在崛起的经济强国里带来无限商机。

Preparing for tomorrow
为明天做准备

As Australia is embracing the “Asian Century” – an incentive by former PM Julia Gillard to provide access to major Asian languages in schools – more students, even at prep level, are being introduced to the rich language of China in their classrooms. I interviewed Catharine Andrews, a Year 11 student who has been learning the language since the start of this year. When asked why she wanted to take up Mandarin along with all her other demanding subjects in the penultimate year of high school – quite a commitment! – she replied that Mandarin would open more doors for her, and that it stands out as her extra-curriculum on the resume.

澳大利亚前总统朱丽娅·吉拉德号召澳大利亚人民积极迎接“亚洲世纪”的到来。她也建议澳大利亚应在中学甚至学前班开设中文等亚洲语言课程，因而更多青少年正受到中文浓厚文化底蕴的熏陶。我还采访了凯瑟琳.安德鲁。她是一位高二的学生，她学习中文快一年了。当我问她在课业繁重的高二为什么还要学习汉语呢，她说汉语将来能为她开启更多大门，而且如果课余爱好中有汉语这一项也会让她从同龄人中脱颖而出。

Other Mandarin students also revealed their intentions to work or travel in China. There was one constant amongst all of them: they believed that learning a foreign language, especially a very challenging one like Mandarin, would allow them to take advantage of what the other side of the world has to offer. Such a healthy attitude being shown by a cross-section of Australian society can only be a positive thing.

我采访的其他学生也表达了他们以后想去中国学习或工作的想法。他们一致认为学习一门外语，特别是像汉语这样极具挑战性的语言能让他们领略到世界另一边的精彩。在一个像澳大利亚一样文化多元的社会中，这样健康积极地迎接未来挑战的态度无疑是一件使人欣喜的事。

Names in this article have been changed to ensure confidentiality.

＊文中受访人姓名均为化名＊

本文系转载，鼎墨诚意推荐，FROM：看东西 kandongsee