在中国的大城市中，外国移民和游客越来越多，除了全球通用语英语之外，他们似乎对简单中文的掌握越来越厉害，要知道我们汉语可不是吃素的。

还有比中文更难学的语言?

最近，一位法国男士写了一篇文章。

他在中国生活了六年，坚持学中文，在我们开放包容的环境中骄傲地生存下来。

另一方面，他慢慢发现，在法国却不能像在中国一样，学到可以基本交流的法语。这是因为......?

以下是GlobalTimes (Metro Shanghai)近期刊登的一篇评论，部分配有中文翻译:

China is more open toforeignlanguages thanFrance

Ilivedin Shanghai for six years before moving back to my home country, France, so I know how difficult it can be to live in a foreign country where you do not speak the language. When I first arrived in Shanghai, I thought I would never be able tograspChinese nor the stranger sounding local dialects.

我在上海住了六年才回到法国，所以我很清楚在一个语言不通的国家生活是多么的困难。当我第一次来到上海时，我觉得我永远都学不会中文，更不要说各地奇奇怪怪的方言。

Thanks to my knowledge ofFrench,German andEnglish,I am able to decipher some Mediterranean and Eastern European languages. But Chinese characters looked like Egyptian hieroglyphs to me and seemed utterly unreadable.

幸好我懂法语、德语和英语，因此可以辨认一些地中海和东欧语言。但对我来说，汉字就像埃及的象形文字，根本无法读懂。

一起来感受一下中华文化的博大精深~

今天骑车上街滑了一跤，

我一把把把把住了。

把:我有什么错???

Putonghua and Hanzi shared no common basis with any other language I knew.I was lost and I had to start learning from scratch. Surprisingly, however, I started picking up some basic daily vocabulary such as nihao, xiexie and bukeqi.

普通话和汉字与我所掌握的其他语言没有共同的基础，我只能从头开始学习，比如一些基本的日常词汇，像“你好”，“谢谢”，“不客气”之类。

Some French friends here who had also previously struggled with Putonghua and Shanghainese shared some useful language tips. Soon I discovered the existence of pinyin and the quasi-nonexistence of conjugation (grammar), both which were game-changers for me. Suddenly, the Chinese language did not seem so crazy difficult.

我的一些法国朋友也曾煎熬地学过普通话和上海话，所以他们给我分享了一些技巧。很快我就发现了拼音以及中文语法，这些对我来说不过只是改变语言游戏中的规则。突然之间，中文似乎不再如我想象中那么难学了。

Iconvinced myself to take a one-hour lesson everyday after work for six months, which cost only 100 yuan ($15.45) per hour. Eventually I mastered the language! Actually, that's not true. But I learned what I call "survival Chinese," and for the next six years I was able to guide a taxi to the former French concession, book a table at a restaurant and follow very basic conversations.

我说服自己每天下班后上一个小时的语言课，每小时只需100元(15.45美元)，并且告诉自己一定要坚持六个月。课程结束后，我以为我学会了中文，可把我激动坏了!但是这其实是假象。至少我学会了我称之为“可以维持生存的汉语”，然后在接下来的六年里，我能够给出租车司机指路去一些小资地段，在餐厅提前预定，进行一些非常基本的对话与交流。

Although we have many more immigrants inParis,(about four times in percentage), our city seems to be made only for those who speak French. Except for some signs on public transport, nothing here has been translated into English.

虽然在巴黎有很多外来移民，但巴黎似乎只适合会说法语的人生存。除了一些公共交通标志，在巴黎很少有其他东西会被翻译成更多人能理解的英文。

有网友表示:

法国没有英文，法国人也不愿意说英文。

但是!在巴黎的中国人太多了，尤其是旅游景点，三个里有一个是中国游客，逮到一个算一个...这也不是不可以喔

If you are a tourist and have no basic notion of French, I first wish you welcome, then I wish you good luck. Be ready for a crash course at your hotel, otherwise you will soon be lost in our big busy city. It is only now, after my experiences in Shanghai, that I realize how difficult it is for a foreigner to visit or - worse - live inFrance.

如果你只是一个游客，不懂一点法语，那我首先欢迎你来浪漫之都旅行，其次我要祝你好运【坏笑脸】。因为你要做好心理准备，很有可能你得在旅馆上法语速成课，否则很快你就会在巴黎这个繁忙的大城市迷路。直到现在，我待在上海一段时间后，我才意识到，一个外国人去法国旅游是多么困难的事，更难想象的，是去法国生活。

Foreigners require many months of active learning and real-world practice before they will ever grasp "survival French." The reason for this is, while French people tolerate an approximate pronunciation, there are no real alternatives to make yourself understandable to us. Just try mixing some English words into your French sentences and see what happens.

外国人需要数月的主动学习和亲身实践，才能真正掌握“可以维持生存的法语”。原因可能有，虽然法国人能接受一些近似的发音，但这并不代表能让自己说的话被当地人理解。试试在说法语时混杂一些英语单词，然后看看会发生什么奇妙的事吧【再次坏笑脸】。

French people - and I am allowed to say this because I am French - apparently have problems with foreign languages. My English is good, but only because I had the chance to live in the US for two years; but most of my former classmates who studied English at school for over a decade can barelygraspit. All Hollywood movies and TV shows screened here are dubbed into French. China at least shows the original English version with Chinese subtitles.

法国人--我这么说是因为我就是法国人--显然在外语方面有些问题。我英语很好，只是因为我有机会在美国生活了两年。但我的很多同学，即使以前在学校学了十多年英文，他们也很难自如运用好这门语言。所有在法国放映的好莱坞电影和电视节目都会被译成法语。但是至少在中国，会引进并放映一些英文原版电影，即使带着中文字幕。

在法国举行的24届沃苏勒亚洲国际电影节上，王小帅导演的作品宣传海报部分内容也直接翻译成了法语:

Indeed, in Shanghai I always had the feeling that thenewgenerations of Chinese were finally opening up their minds to the English language, as their overall level of English seemed to increase year-on-year. And not just because they were confronted daily by foreign tourists and expats such as myself, but because Chinese schools emphasize English as a compulsory course.

事实上，我总觉得在上海，中国的年轻一代开始非常乐意接触英文世界，他们的整体英语水平似乎在逐年提高。不仅是因为他们每天都要面对像我这样的外国人，另一方面，英语在各个学校都是必修课。

Yes, Paris has more foreign immigrants than Shanghai, but this seems to have made our nation all the more xenophobic towardforeignlanguages. I must admit that when I test my French niece'sEnglishlevel I am frightened to realize thatshecan hardly speak a proper sentence despite having spent the past three years in junior high school studying it.

比起上海，巴黎有更多的外国移民，但这似乎使我们国家对外语更加排斥。我必须承认，当我想试试我侄女的英语水平时，我被吓到了，因为即使她在初中三年一直学习英语，可她几乎不会说一个完整的正确的句子。

Inow understand how hard it must be for my Chinese wife, who moved toPariswith me last year, tolivein a large metropolis where everyone speaks only their own native language. Hang in there honey (and keep working on yourFrench!).

我现在明白我的中国妻子是多么煎熬，她去年搬到巴黎和我一起住，但是那里的每个人都只说自己的母语。坚持住，亲爱的(继续学法语!)

煎熬并甜蜜着!!!

原文:Cyril Saidah

翻译:Li Yangyichuan

图:Lu Ting、网络

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