中文难学
The Hardships of Learning Chinese
Winston Liu （11岁），翻译：北美老牛(2007-04-04 上午12:37),
{http://www.chinesenewsgroup.com/SMPApp/design/article.jsp?cate=7&artId=3508 }
译序：为了能让孩子坚持学中文，华人父母不知花费了多少精力，“胡萝卜”也好，“大棒”也罢，费尽了九牛二虎之力，结果似乎总是不尽人意；但即使如此，依然有相当多的父母和孩子们都在咬牙坚持着。本文是小牛在春假期间写的一篇英文文章，简单回顾了他在加拿大学中文的经历，他认为的中文难学的原因，以及他不想放弃学中文的理由。
I was born in 1995 in Beijing, China. When I was only five years old my mom and I left for Toronto via Vancouver, where my dad was waiting for us. Of the five years I lived in China, two were spent in “Six One Kindergarten”, one of the best kindergartens in Beijing at that time. The sponsorship for that kindergarten was a premium price of twenty thousand Chinese Yuan. Thus I learned many Chinese words, poems and many songs. I still remember leaving the kindergarten, turning around to look back at my former classmates who were staring out the window at me. Little did I know then that this event would change my life forever.
我1995年出生在中国北京。当我仅仅五岁时，妈妈和我经由温哥华抵达多伦多，爸爸已经在那里等我们了。在中国的五年中，两年是在“六一幼儿院”渡过的。（译注：可能是历史的原因和全托的关系，该幼儿园中文名称为“六一幼儿院”。）“六一幼儿院”在那时是北京最好的幼儿园之一，额外的赞助费是两万元人民币；因而我学会了许多中文单词、诗歌和儿歌。我依然记得我离开幼儿院那天，转身再看看我的小伙伴们时，他们都透过窗户盯着我。那时我根本不知道这一走将永远改变我的生活。
English and French are the official languages of Canada, so learning English is extremely easy. But learning Chinese in a mostly English environment is considerably difficult, considering the fact that Chinese is harder than English. Even remembering Chinese words is hard. That is why after I came to Canada my Chinese skills went into a rapid downfall.
英文和法文是加拿大的官方语言，所以学英文非常容易。但考虑到中文比英文难的事实，在几乎完全是英文的环境中学中文是相当的困难。哪怕是记忆中文单词也难。这就是为什么我来到加拿大后，中文水平一落千丈的原因。
When I landed on this country my parents enrolled me in a public Chinese class. When they looked in near the end of the class, they found me at the front leading the rest of the kids in a reading exercise. They found out later that then my Chinese pronunciation was more professional than the teacher’s. However, a few years after that, my Chinese, as my dad once said, was no better than a Grade One’s in China. For example, many poems like the “Seven-step Poem” that I learned in “Six One Kindergarten” were forgotten in Canada. Also many words I learned in China like “Fresh” (The left side is “Fish” and the right side is “Sheep”), I forgot in Canada; many songs I learned also faded from my memory. I think the main reason I forgot all that stuff was because of lack of usage, or in plain English, they were forgotten because I didn’t need them in this environment.
我登陆这个国家后，我的父母将我注册到一个公立中文班。当他们在教室后面朝里看时，发现我在最前面领着其他孩子朗诵。他们随后发现那时我的中文发音比老师的更标准。可是几年后，如我爸爸所说，我的中文比不上中国的一年级学生。举例来说，在“六一幼儿院”学的许多诗，如“七步诗”，在加拿大就忘了；在中国学的许许多多的单词，如“鲜”（左边是鱼，右边是羊），在加拿大我也忘了；我学过的好多首儿歌，也从我的记忆中消失了。我认为我忘掉这些东西的主要原因是用得少；或者简单地说，就是在这个环境中我不需要它们，就被忘记了。
After I moved to Canada my parents immediately sent me to the public Chinese school, and later a private Chinese school in Toronto. Few years ago when we moved back to Mississauga my parents sent me back to the public Chinese school again. Then the Peel Education Board made a really dumb rule concerning public Chinese school. It was that whatever grade you were in English school is what grade you are in Chinese school. This particular rule caused frustration to many teachers and inconvenience to many students, including me. I was in Grad 4 in English school, so I had to go to grade 4 in Chinese school; but the problem was I had already studied grade 4 Chinese in the private school. In fact I had finished Grade 5. My dad wanted me to go into grade 6 but the registration people wouldn’t let me. Finally after my dad bombarded the board with dozens of emails, letters and phone calls I was allowed to enter grade 5 Chinese. But that wasn’t the end of the problems, because of the board’s rule, even grade 5s who didn’t know a single word of Chinese were put in grade 5 Chinese class. Some classmates didn’t pay attention in class. When the teacher’s back was turned they threw paper balls and paper airplanes at each other; they called this game “nuclear-war”. I hardly learned anything in public Chinese school.
来到加拿大后，我的父母马上将我送到一所公立中文学校，后来到多伦多的一所私立中文学校。几年前当我们搬回密西沙加时，我的父母又将我送回公立中文学校。那时皮尔教育局对公立中文学校制定了一个相当傻的规定，就是英文学校上几年级，在中文学校必须上几年级。这条特殊的规定给很多老师造成了困惑，也给很多学生，包括我，造成了麻烦。那时我是英文四年级，所以我必须上中文四年级。但问题是我在私立中文学校已经学过四年级了；其实我已学完了五年级。我爸爸想让我上六年级，但注册的人员不让。最后在我爸爸连续发了或打了几十份电子邮件、信件和电话后，我被允许进入中文五年级。但问题并没有解决，因为教育局的规定，即使不认识一个中文字的英文五年级学生，也在中文五年级。一些同学在课堂上不集中精力。当老师转过身时，他们互相扔纸球和纸飞机。他们称这种游戏为“核战争”。我在公立中文学校几乎学不到什么。
A few weeks later my parents decided that I wasn’t learning anything and took me out of the Chinese school. Then they put me into a private Chinese school that is where I learn today. Every week I learned new words, but a few weeks later I would forget them. The only way I could learn new words is to repeat them, once in a while and keep on repeating them even after I have been tested on them. Learning Chinese in Canada is really hard because without the environment to unknowingly repeat the new vocabulary, I would have to restart all over again. Assuming if I would meet a street sign that says a word I’m trying to learn, it would force me to repeat the word in my mind. That would increase my chances of memorizing it.
几个星期后，我的父母感到我学不到什么就将我退出了中文学校。随后他们将我送到一所私立中文学校，这就是我现在学习的地方。每周我学一些新单词，但几周后我会忘掉它们。学新单词的唯一办法是重复它们；时不时重复它们，即使是这些单词我已经考试过。在加拿大学中文真的很难，因为没有环境去不知不觉地重复新词汇，这样我不得不反复去记它们。假设如果我遇到写有中文的街名，上面有我正在学的一个单词，它就会强迫我在心里重复这个单词；这将增加我记忆这个单词的机会。
Even though learning Chinese is very hard I do not plan on quitting. This is because of what my Chinese teacher and my parents have told me, that China is becoming a major industrial nation and that knowing Chinese would help boost your chances of getting hired by a company that imports materials from China. Compared with a few of my friends I’m pretty lucky. Some of my friends didn’t go to Chinese school until it was too late, or learned at home. Learn at home isn’t effective because most people lack the long term determination and self discipline to keep learning. One of my friends is an example of this. He tried learning at home, but his attempts were fruitless; now he has to attend a beginner grade 6 in public Chinese school. Another friend didn’t go to Chinese school, now he speaks only English. Once my dad asked him what his Chinese name was. He tried to say it many times. In the end my dad still didn’t know his name.
即使学中文很难，我并不打算放弃。这是因为如同我的中文老师和我的父母告诉我的，中国正在成为一个工业大国，会中文能提高被从中国进口材料的公司的雇佣机会。和我的几个朋友相比，我很幸运。我的一些朋友直到很晚才去中文学校，或者在家学中文。在家学中文不是很有效，因为大多数人缺乏长远的决心和自制能力继续学习中文。我的一个朋友就是一个例子。他试着在家学中文，但没有任何结果；现在他不得不在公立中文学校上六年级初级班。另外一个朋友没有去中文学校，现在他只说英文。一次我爸爸问他的中文名字叫什么。他试着说了好几次，最后我爸爸仍然不知道他的名字。
Learning Chinese is very difficult. It will probably take a long time for my Chinese to be very good. Right now my Chinese is not praiseworthy, that is why I am writing this article in English.
学中文是很难的。可能要花很长的时间，我的中文才会很好。现在我的中文不值一提，这也就是为什么我用英文写这篇文章的原因。
[枫园感怀
Living in Canada]
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The Hardships of Learning Chinese
Winston Liu （11岁），翻译：北美老牛(2007-04-04 上午12:37),
{http://www.chinesenewsgroup.com/SMPApp/design/article.jsp?cate=7&artId=3508 }
译序：为了能让孩子坚持学中文，华人父母不知花费了多少精力，“胡萝卜”也好，“大棒”也罢，费尽了九牛二虎之力，结果似乎总是不尽人意；但即使如此，依然有相当多的父母和孩子们都在咬牙坚持着。本文是小牛在春假期间写的一篇英文文章，简单回顾了他在加拿大学中文的经历，他认为的中文难学的原因，以及他不想放弃学中文的理由。
I was born in 1995 in Beijing, China. When I was only five years old my mom and I left for Toronto via Vancouver, where my dad was waiting for us. Of the five years I lived in China, two were spent in “Six One Kindergarten”, one of the best kindergartens in Beijing at that time. The sponsorship for that kindergarten was a premium price of twenty thousand Chinese Yuan. Thus I learned many Chinese words, poems and many songs. I still remember leaving the kindergarten, turning around to look back at my former classmates who were staring out the window at me. Little did I know then that this event would change my life forever.
我1995年出生在中国北京。当我仅仅五岁时，妈妈和我经由温哥华抵达多伦多，爸爸已经在那里等我们了。在中国的五年中，两年是在“六一幼儿院”渡过的。（译注：可能是历史的原因和全托的关系，该幼儿园中文名称为“六一幼儿院”。）“六一幼儿院”在那时是北京最好的幼儿园之一，额外的赞助费是两万元人民币；因而我学会了许多中文单词、诗歌和儿歌。我依然记得我离开幼儿院那天，转身再看看我的小伙伴们时，他们都透过窗户盯着我。那时我根本不知道这一走将永远改变我的生活。
English and French are the official languages of Canada, so learning English is extremely easy. But learning Chinese in a mostly English environment is considerably difficult, considering the fact that Chinese is harder than English. Even remembering Chinese words is hard. That is why after I came to Canada my Chinese skills went into a rapid downfall.
英文和法文是加拿大的官方语言，所以学英文非常容易。但考虑到中文比英文难的事实，在几乎完全是英文的环境中学中文是相当的困难。哪怕是记忆中文单词也难。这就是为什么我来到加拿大后，中文水平一落千丈的原因。
When I landed on this country my parents enrolled me in a public Chinese class. When they looked in near the end of the class, they found me at the front leading the rest of the kids in a reading exercise. They found out later that then my Chinese pronunciation was more professional than the teacher’s. However, a few years after that, my Chinese, as my dad once said, was no better than a Grade One’s in China. For example, many poems like the “Seven-step Poem” that I learned in “Six One Kindergarten” were forgotten in Canada. Also many words I learned in China like “Fresh” (The left side is “Fish” and the right side is “Sheep”), I forgot in Canada; many songs I learned also faded from my memory. I think the main reason I forgot all that stuff was because of lack of usage, or in plain English, they were forgotten because I didn’t need them in this environment.
我登陆这个国家后，我的父母将我注册到一个公立中文班。当他们在教室后面朝里看时，发现我在最前面领着其他孩子朗诵。他们随后发现那时我的中文发音比老师的更标准。可是几年后，如我爸爸所说，我的中文比不上中国的一年级学生。举例来说，在“六一幼儿院”学的许多诗，如“七步诗”，在加拿大就忘了；在中国学的许许多多的单词，如“鲜”（左边是鱼，右边是羊），在加拿大我也忘了；我学过的好多首儿歌，也从我的记忆中消失了。我认为我忘掉这些东西的主要原因是用得少；或者简单地说，就是在这个环境中我不需要它们，就被忘记了。
After I moved to Canada my parents immediately sent me to the public Chinese school, and later a private Chinese school in Toronto. Few years ago when we moved back to Mississauga my parents sent me back to the public Chinese school again. Then the Peel Education Board made a really dumb rule concerning public Chinese school. It was that whatever grade you were in English school is what grade you are in Chinese school. This particular rule caused frustration to many teachers and inconvenience to many students, including me. I was in Grad 4 in English school, so I had to go to grade 4 in Chinese school; but the problem was I had already studied grade 4 Chinese in the private school. In fact I had finished Grade 5. My dad wanted me to go into grade 6 but the registration people wouldn’t let me. Finally after my dad bombarded the board with dozens of emails, letters and phone calls I was allowed to enter grade 5 Chinese. But that wasn’t the end of the problems, because of the board’s rule, even grade 5s who didn’t know a single word of Chinese were put in grade 5 Chinese class. Some classmates didn’t pay attention in class. When the teacher’s back was turned they threw paper balls and paper airplanes at each other; they called this game “nuclear-war”. I hardly learned anything in public Chinese school.
来到加拿大后，我的父母马上将我送到一所公立中文学校，后来到多伦多的一所私立中文学校。几年前当我们搬回密西沙加时，我的父母又将我送回公立中文学校。那时皮尔教育局对公立中文学校制定了一个相当傻的规定，就是英文学校上几年级，在中文学校必须上几年级。这条特殊的规定给很多老师造成了困惑，也给很多学生，包括我，造成了麻烦。那时我是英文四年级，所以我必须上中文四年级。但问题是我在私立中文学校已经学过四年级了；其实我已学完了五年级。我爸爸想让我上六年级，但注册的人员不让。最后在我爸爸连续发了或打了几十份电子邮件、信件和电话后，我被允许进入中文五年级。但问题并没有解决，因为教育局的规定，即使不认识一个中文字的英文五年级学生，也在中文五年级。一些同学在课堂上不集中精力。当老师转过身时，他们互相扔纸球和纸飞机。他们称这种游戏为“核战争”。我在公立中文学校几乎学不到什么。
A few weeks later my parents decided that I wasn’t learning anything and took me out of the Chinese school. Then they put me into a private Chinese school that is where I learn today. Every week I learned new words, but a few weeks later I would forget them. The only way I could learn new words is to repeat them, once in a while and keep on repeating them even after I have been tested on them. Learning Chinese in Canada is really hard because without the environment to unknowingly repeat the new vocabulary, I would have to restart all over again. Assuming if I would meet a street sign that says a word I’m trying to learn, it would force me to repeat the word in my mind. That would increase my chances of memorizing it.
几个星期后，我的父母感到我学不到什么就将我退出了中文学校。随后他们将我送到一所私立中文学校，这就是我现在学习的地方。每周我学一些新单词，但几周后我会忘掉它们。学新单词的唯一办法是重复它们；时不时重复它们，即使是这些单词我已经考试过。在加拿大学中文真的很难，因为没有环境去不知不觉地重复新词汇，这样我不得不反复去记它们。假设如果我遇到写有中文的街名，上面有我正在学的一个单词，它就会强迫我在心里重复这个单词；这将增加我记忆这个单词的机会。
Even though learning Chinese is very hard I do not plan on quitting. This is because of what my Chinese teacher and my parents have told me, that China is becoming a major industrial nation and that knowing Chinese would help boost your chances of getting hired by a company that imports materials from China. Compared with a few of my friends I’m pretty lucky. Some of my friends didn’t go to Chinese school until it was too late, or learned at home. Learn at home isn’t effective because most people lack the long term determination and self discipline to keep learning. One of my friends is an example of this. He tried learning at home, but his attempts were fruitless; now he has to attend a beginner grade 6 in public Chinese school. Another friend didn’t go to Chinese school, now he speaks only English. Once my dad asked him what his Chinese name was. He tried to say it many times. In the end my dad still didn’t know his name.
即使学中文很难，我并不打算放弃。这是因为如同我的中文老师和我的父母告诉我的，中国正在成为一个工业大国，会中文能提高被从中国进口材料的公司的雇佣机会。和我的几个朋友相比，我很幸运。我的一些朋友直到很晚才去中文学校，或者在家学中文。在家学中文不是很有效，因为大多数人缺乏长远的决心和自制能力继续学习中文。我的一个朋友就是一个例子。他试着在家学中文，但没有任何结果；现在他不得不在公立中文学校上六年级初级班。另外一个朋友没有去中文学校，现在他只说英文。一次我爸爸问他的中文名字叫什么。他试着说了好几次，最后我爸爸仍然不知道他的名字。
Learning Chinese is very difficult. It will probably take a long time for my Chinese to be very good. Right now my Chinese is not praiseworthy, that is why I am writing this article in English.
学中文是很难的。可能要花很长的时间，我的中文才会很好。现在我的中文不值一提，这也就是为什么我用英文写这篇文章的原因。
[枫园感怀
Living in Canada]
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如果你对本文的有任何评论请发邮件，或传真至416-504-4928
