It would be difficult for all people in the world to have one official language. Who would say what that language must be? How would we decide? Who would “own” the language?

如果让全世界所有人都使用同一种官方语言的话，那将会很困难。谁能说一定是哪种语言？我们怎样决定呢？谁会“拥有”那种语言呢？

Most people today speak only their one national language. This is especially true with native English speakers. They observe that many people in other countries try to speak English. So they think they do not need to learn any other language. It appears to be a gift from their God that they were born ready for international communication. Perhaps, unlike others in the world, they do not have to walk half the distance to communicate with other cultures. Perhaps English IS the place everyone else must come to. Perhaps…. All others are unlucky by birth. But perhaps there is more to the story…

现在大多数人只会说一种本国语言。特别对于以母语为英语的人士来说，更是如此。他们注意到许多其他国家的人努力学说英语，因此他们认为自己不需要再学习其他语言了。这仿佛是上帝赐予他们的天赋，使他们自出生就具备了进行国际交流的条件。或许，与世界上的其他人不同，为了与其他文化进行交流，他们不需要付出努力。或许，每个人都确实需要学习英语。或许…其他所有人生来就不走运。但是或许事情并没那么简单…

It does seem English has won the competition of global communication. Although it used to give people an edge in international business, one observer now states it this way:

“It has become a new baseline: without English you are not even in the race.”

看起来英语赢得了国际交流语言的竞争。虽然过去使用英语的人在国际商务中占有优势，但是现在一个观察家这样说道：

“它已经成为一个新的基准，不会说英语的人甚至都没有成功的机会。”

So now the competition is over. No other language could be more successful now. Why is that?

所以现在竞争结束了。英语比其他任何语言都更为成功。这又是为什么？

The high situation of English is now recognized because communication is now global, and happens in one second.

英语的强势地位之所以为人们所认可是因为目前人们之间的沟通都是全球性，也是瞬时性的。

There have been periods in history where one language seemed to have worldwide acceptance. But, in all these periods, the “world” covered by one of these languages was not the whole planet.

在历史上的不同时期，某种语言似乎得到了全世界的承认。但是，在所有这些历史时期中，这些语言所覆盖的“世界”并不是全球。

Chinese was not known to Greeks in the time of the Roman Empire. The hundreds of Australian languages were not known to Europeans when they settled there. Japanese people did not learn and speak French in the 18th century.

罗马帝国时期的中国人并不知晓希腊语。当欧洲人移居澳大利亚时并不知道当地的上百种语言。18世纪时的日本人也没有学习说法语。

Then, much communication was a matter of time and distance. Now, for the first time, communication has no limits on our Earth. 200 years ago it took more than six months to get a message from Auckland, New Zealand, to London. In our global world, a message goes from Auckland to London in less than a second.

那时，大量的交流受到时间和空间的阻碍。而现在，世界上所有人之间的交流首次没有了限制。200年前，从新西兰的奥克兰捎个信到伦敦都需要超过半年的时间。在我们全球化的世界中，从奥克兰发送一条消息到伦敦只需要不到一秒钟。

As Marshall McLuhan said in his book The Guttenberg Galaxy, this world is now just the size of a village – a “global village.” In a village, all people communicate in the language of the village. All nations now accept English as the communication for our global village.

正如马歇尔·麦克卢汉在他的《谷登堡星汉璀璨》一书中所说：现在的世界就犹如一个村庄——一个“地球村”。在一个村庄里，所有人都用村庄的语言进行交流。现在所有的国家都认可英语作为我们地球村的交流用语。

Some people dislike that fact a lot. They want to keep their language, and even to avoid English. And, there are people who do not care at all, and they do not see what is happening or what it means.

有些人很不喜欢接受这个事实。他们想要保留自己的语言，甚至要避免使用英语。而且还有人根本就不在乎，他们并不知道世界正在发生什么变化，也不知道这意味着什么。

Finally, there are people who accept it, and even benefit from it. Many Chinese, Spanish and German people realize their language is not global and so they are learning English. They speak about their wonderful culture in English but they also continue to speak their first language.

最终，人们接受了这一事实，甚至还从中受益。许多中国人，西班牙人，和德国人意识到他们的语言不是全球通用的，所以他们学习英语。他们用英语谈论自己灿烂辉煌的文化但同时他们仍然使用自己的第一语言。

We can be very confident this situation will not change. With all the people now learning English as a second language, and there will be no need to change. As in the past, people will speak more than one language as children.

我们可以坚信这种情况将不会改变。既然现在所有的人都将英语作为第二语言来学习，那么也不需要再做改变。正如过去一样，人们从孩童时代开始就会说不止一种语言。

Leading economic powers, such as China, Brazil, India, Russia, and Japan will have many people speaking English. No one is going to win markets now with military battles.

世界主要经济大国，如中国，巴西，印度，俄罗斯，和日本，将会有许多人说英语。现在没有人会通过发动军事战争来赢得市场。

And no one will need to change languages, as used to happen. Now nations will try to win hearts and minds with their better, less expensive products. It is a new world now, and maybe a better one.

而且人们也不需要像以前那样改变语言。现在所有的国家都试图用更好更便宜的产品来赢得人心。今天的世界已经不同了，或许它会变得更好。

To communicate worldwide, these people will use varying qualities of English. But once they master “a reasonable amount” of English they will not want or need to require others to use their mother tongue. So English will certainly continue to be the most important international language. The economic winners today or tomorrow will use their English well enough so that they don’t need anything else. This “common ground” is what everybody will continue to agree on…

在与全世界进行交流的时候，人们将会使用各式各样的英语。但是只要他们掌握了“合理数量”的英语，就会不希望也不需要其他人使用他们的母语。因此英语将仍然是最重要的国际语言。今后商界的精英们将能相当好的使用英语以至于不再需要其他辅助。每个人都将会继续在这个“共同点”上达成一致……

Everyone in this meeting will then agree to change back to English, because everyone there will have acceptable English.

到那时会议上的所有人都会同意换回英语，因为每个人都有一定的英语能力。

Still, many people will continue to learn Chinese or Spanish or Russian. They will do this to understand other cultures. But it will be of less help in doing worldwide business. In an international meeting anywhere, there will always be people who do not speak the local language.

汉语是当今世界上使用人数最多的语言，其次是印地语，之后是西班牙语。所有这三种语言的使用者都比英语的使用者要多。但是印地语母语人士在与汉语母语人士交流时说的是英语，而西班牙语母语人士也是通过英语和日语母语人士交流的。

They cannot use their own languages so they must use the most international language to do current business. That is why English is now locked into its important position the world over.

他们不能使用自己的语言，所以他们必须用最国际化的语言来做生意。这就是为什么英语会在世界范围内居于如此重要的地位。

Sometimes we wonder if it is good that English won the language competition. We could argue that it is not the right language. It is far too difficult, with far too many words (615,000 words in the Oxford English Dictionary…and they add more each day.)

有时我们怀疑英语赢得了竞争对我们来说是否是件好事。我们可以争论说英语并不是合适的语言，英语太难了，还有那么多的单词（牛津英语大词典收录了615,000个单词，而且每天都在增加。）

Too many irregular verbs. The grammar is too difficult. And most importantly, English does not have good links between the written and the spoken language. Why do the letters “ough” have four different pronunciations (“cough, tough, though, through”) Why is a different syllable stressed in photograph, photography and photographer? And why is there not a stress mark? Why doesn’t “Infamous” sound like “famous?” or “wilderness” like “wild?” Why isn’t “garbage” pronounced like “garage”, or “heathen” like “heather”?

英语有太多的不规则动词，语法也很难。然而最重要的是，英语口语与书面语的联系没有规律可循。为什么“ough”这几个字母有四种发音？（“cough, tough, though, through ”）为什么photograph与photography和photographer的重音不同？为什么单词没有重音符号？为什么“Infamous”和“famous”还有“wilderness”和“wild”听起来一点都不像？为什么“garbage”和“garage”还有“ heathen”和“ heather”读起来也不像？

English was never expected to make sense to the ear. Pronunciation in English is a horrible experience when you have not been born into that culture. Yet it appears to sound natural to native English speakers.

英语一直以来都不是那么容易听懂的。如果你不是生下来就会说英语，那么学习英语的发音是非常痛苦的。然而这对于英语母语人士来说却很自然。

Some languages, like Italian, German, and Japanese, can match written words to the way they are spoken. So it may appear unlucky for us that one of them did not win it all. Italian, for example, is a language where every letter, and every group of letters, is always pronounced the same way. When you are given an Italian document, you can pronounce it once you understand a limited number of fixed rules. In English you have to learn the pronunciation of every word.

有些语言，如意大利语，德语，和日语的书写和读音是相匹配的。所以对我们来说这些语言没有赢得竞争可能是不幸的。例如，意大利语中的每个字母及每组字母的发音总是相同的。如果你手里有一份意大利语的文件，只要你掌握了数量有限的几个固定规则，那么你就可以读出这份文件。但如果是英语的话，你就必须学习每个单词的发音。

Many English words are borrowed from other languages, and they sometimes keep their old pronunciation and sometimes not. English words cannot be written so the stressed syllables are shown. All non-native English speakers know that they may have to sleep without clothes if they try to buy “pajamas.” Where is the mark to show what we stress in “pajamas?” So, the borrowed word “pajamas” would be better written as pa-JA-mas. In English you must learn exactly which syllable gets the stress, or no one understands you.

英语中的许多词语都是外来词，有的保留了原来的发音而有的却没有。英语词汇的书写方法并没有突出重音的位置。所有的非英语母语人士都知道如果他们想要去买“pajamas”的话，他们晚上可能就要光着身子睡觉了。那个显示“pajamas”重音的符号在哪里呢？那么如果将外来词“pajamas”写成pa-JA-mas就更好了。你在学习英语时必须清楚地知道哪个音节要重读，否则没人能够听懂你说的话。