高中英语 Unit 2 Language 背景知识拓展 译林牛津版必修3

Unit 2 Language

USA Language

What do you call someone who speaks three languages? Trilingual. What do you call someone who speaks two languages? Bilingual. What do you call someone who speaks one language? An American.

To people in many countries, being America. Foreign languages are so commonly used in some ethnic neighborhoods that visitors might think they are in another country!

美国语言

你如何称呼能说三种语言的人?三声带。能讲两种语言的人又如何称呼?双声带。那么，只会一bilingual or even trilingual is a way of life. But since the mother tongue of most Americans is English—a language widely spoken around the world—they often don't feel the need to learn a foreign language. Moreover, people who live in the heartland of America have little contact with other linguistic groups, making foreign language skills irrelevant.

Actually, though, this "land of immigrants" has always had people of many different nationalities and languages. The 1990 census indicates that almost 14% of Americans speak a non-English language at home. Yet only 3% reported that they spoke English "not well" or "not at all." That means that slightly more than one out of 10 Americans could be considered bilingual. Besides that, many high school and college students and even some elementary school students are required to take a foreign language as a part of their curriculum. In addition to old standbys like Spanish, German and French, more and more students are opting for Eastern European and Asian languages. Of course, not all students keep up their foreign language abilities. As the old saying goes, "If you don't use it, you lose it."But still, a growing number of Americans are coming to appreciate the benefits of being multilingual.

Ethnic enclaves, found particularly in major metropolitan centers, have preserved the language and culture of American immigrants. Some local residents can function quite well in their native language, without having to bother learning English. Regions such as southern Florida and the Southwest have numerous Spanish-speaking neighborhoods. In fact, Spanish speakers numbering over 17 million compose the largest non-English linguistic group in America. But Chinese, Vietnamese, Italian, Polish and many other ethnic groups add to the linguistic flavor of

种语言的人呢?美国人。

对许多国家的人而言，说两种或三种语言，是家常便饭。但在美国，由于大多数人的母语为英语——一个世界上广泛通用的语言——因此美国人都不觉得有必要学习外语。此外，居住于美国大陆内地的人，较少与其他语言族群接触，因此外语能力更显得无关紧要。

事实上，在美国这块“移民之地”，一直住着来自不同国籍、说不同语言的人口。1990年的人口普查显示，几乎百分之十四的美国人，在家里不讲英语。只有百分之三的人宣称他们英语“说得不好”或“根本不会说”。这表示十分之一的美国人可视为双声带。此外，许多中学生、大学生，甚至小学生在校的学科都必须加修一门外语。除了西班牙文、德文与法文等常选的第二语言外，越来越多的学生选修东欧和亚洲语言。当然，并非所有学生都能够学以致用。套句老话：“不用就会丢掉。”尽管如此，越来越多的美国人已经开始意识到会说多种语言的好处。

主要在大都市里，有许多族群居住的社区，都还保存着移民的文化传统和语言。有些当地人在生活上只讲母语就够了，根本不需要学英语。佛罗里达州南部以及美国西南部等区，有许多说西班牙语的社区。事实上，说西班牙语的人口超过一千七百万，是美国最大的非英语系族群。不过，还有中国、越南、意大利、波兰与其他很多种族的族群，更使美国语言增色不少。在许多外来民族的后裔社区里，由于外语的广泛使用，甚至会使访客有身置异国的感觉。