Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg recently surprised Chinese students when he spoke to them in Chinese. In a talk at Tsinghua University in Beijing, Zuckerberg spoke Chinese for about 30 minutes. Although his Mandarin was far from perfect, students and faculty cheered his effort.
近来， Facebook（脸书）的创始人马克·扎克伯格用汉语与中国学生进行交谈时，是中国学生感到非常惊讶。在北京清华大学的一次讲座中，他用汉语讲了大概 30分钟。尽管他的普通话讲的不是很好，但是学生和老师还是为他的努力鼓掌喝彩。
Clayton Dube is the head of the U. S. - China Institute at the University of Southern California. He praises Zuckerberg’s effort and thinks more American CEOs should learn foreign languages.
克莱顿·杜布是南加利福尼亚大学中美学院的院长，他赞赏扎克伯格做出的努力，而且认为美国更多的 CEO应该学习外语。
“ To speak Chinese means you begin to think as Chinese people do. You begin to understand how Chinese speakers have the world organized, how they perceive things. And that is a vital step if you’re going to be culturally competent.”
“讲汉语意味着你开始像中国人一样思考，你开始了解中国人看待世界，理解问题的方式。如果你想要有文化竞争力，了解中国人的想法是非常重要的一步。”
Zuckerberg’s talk raises a larger question: is Chinese the language of the future? Could it replace English as the world’s international language? Mandarin Chinese already has the most native speakers of any language. And, China may soon pass the United States as the world’s largest economy.
扎克伯格的讲话提出一个更大的问题：汉语会是未来的语言吗？汉语会取代英语成为全球通用语言吗？讲普通话的人数比其它任何一种语言的人数都要多。而且，中国也许会超过美国成为世界最大的经济体。
The study of the Chinese language is increasing in the United States and around the world. In 2009, about 60,000 American college students were studying Chinese. That is three times as many as in 1990.
在美国以及全世界范围内，对汉语的研究不断增长。 2009年，大约有 6万美国大学生学习中文，这一人数是 1990年的三倍。
A small but growing number of American parents are even sending their children to bilingual Chinese immersion schools. Leianne Clements has no cultural connection to China, but her children are learning Chinese at the YuYing Public Charter School in Washington D. C. Every other day, classes at this school are 100 percent in Chinese. Ms. Clements thinks knowing Chinese could give her children a competitive advantage.
少数美国家长把他们的孩子送到双语学校就读，而这些家长人数在不断增长。莱恩·克莱蒙特跟中国没有什么文化联系，但是她的孩子在华盛顿特区的育英公立特许学校学习中文。每隔一天，学校就全讲汉语。克莱蒙特认为懂得一门汉语可以给她孩子增加竞争优势。
“ So far, English has kind of been the universal language, but more and more, with Chinese businesses and just the amount of industry that they have there it seems that that would be, you know, logical thing that could be happening or it seems like it would make you a valuable employee if you also spoke Chinese.”
“目前，英语是全球通用语言，但是在世界各地越来越多的中国企业和产业，如果你也能讲汉语的话，那么很有可能你会成为一个有价值的员工。”
Clayton Dube thinks Chinese will grow in importance, especially for people who want to work and do business in China. But he does not think Chinese will overtake English any time soon.
克莱顿·杜布认为汉语的地位会越来越重要，特别是对于想要在中国工作和做生意的人来说更是如此。但是他不认为汉语会很快取代英语。
“ As China rises you can anticipate that more people will adopt the language. But is China going to replace English? I don’ t think so - - certainly not in my lifetime, probably not in the next two, three, four generations.”
“随着中国经济实力的增长，可以想到会有更多的人学习汉语、使用汉语。但是汉语会取代英语吗？我不这么认为——至少在我这一代不可能，也许在未来的两代、三代、四代都不太可能发生。”
English rose to prominence through the British Empire in the nineteenth century. American dominance in the twentieth century spread the language even further. Dube says American pop culture is one reason for English’s popularity as a foreign language.
通过 19世纪的大英帝国，英语的使用范围才凸显出来。 20世纪，美国使英语进一步扩大其使用范围。杜布说美国的流行文化是英语作为一门外语受欢迎的原因。
“ American movies, music, television, video games have wide audiences… So far China’s success in this realm has been very limited. Chinese films, Chinese television shows, Chinese music doesn’ t have a huge following outside of China.”
“美国的电影、音乐、电视节目、视频游戏拥有很多观众，而中国在这些领域取得的成就非常有限。中国的电影、电视节目和音乐在国外的收视观众较少。”
Andres Martinez is the editorial director at Zocalo Public Square and a professor of journalism at Arizona State University. He says that he respects Chinese culture and expects the language to grow. But he says English, with its association with freedom, will remain the global language.
安德烈斯·马丁内斯是 Zocalo Public Square的编辑部主任兼亚利桑纳州立大学新闻系教授。他说他尊重中国文化，希望汉语能够不断扩大影响范围。但是英语更加自由，仍会是全球的通用语言。
“ You don’ t have anybody on the Internet stifling speech in English, censoring speech in English. And most of the dominant English-language countries internally also have a tradition of freedom of speech.”
“在互联网上用英语发表言论，不会感到压抑，也不会审查言论。大多数英语是第一语言的国家，言论都比较自由。”
Martinezsays that English is seen as a more neutral language than Chinese. Unlike Chinese, it is not associated with one country. He says even the ideas of equality are built into English grammar.
马丁内斯说，相比汉语，英语是个更中立的语言，不像汉语与整个国家相连。甚至平等的概念都引入到英语语法中了。
“ If you study German, if you study Spanish, if you study Russian, there are many languages where the“ you” form and how you conjugate verbs is very different depending on whether you’re talking to a grandparent or a boss versus one of your children or an employee or a close friend… If I’m talking to President Obama or if I’m talking to my closest friend or my son, its‘ you.’”
“如果你学习德语、西班牙语、或者俄语，很多语言里的 you有很多形式， you跟什么动词搭配取决于 you的谈话对象，跟爷爷奶奶、老板、你的孩子、员工或者一个亲密的朋友…搭配， you的搭配使用的动词、 you的形式也不尽相同。如果我跟奥巴马总统谈话或者跟亲密朋友或儿子谈话，那只要用 you就可以。”
Chinese is also a more difficult language to learn. The U. S. Foreign Service Institute estimates it would take a native English speaker 2,200 hours to reach professional fluency in Chinese. That is four times longer than it would take to reach the same level in Dutch, French, or Spanish. While Chinese grammar is much simpler, Chinese has a tone and writing system that is more difficult for adult learners to master.
汉语是门难学的语言，美国外交事务研究所估计一个母语是英语的人要想把汉语达到专业流利的水平，需要练习 2200个小时。如果达到同等水平，学习汉语所花的时间是学习荷兰语、法语或者西班牙语时间的 4倍多。汉语的语法更简单，汉语的语调和写作体系对于成年学习者来说，更难掌握。
A recent survey by Gallup showed that only one in four Americans is multilingual, or able to speak more than one language. And most multilingual Americans are immigrants or the children of immigrants. For most Americans, Brits, and Australians, learning a foreign language is a choice, not a necessity. China Daily estimates that 400 million Chinese are studying English. That means China has more English learners than the U. S. has English speakers.
最近，盖洛普民意测验的一项调查显示：四分之一的美国人会多种语言或者能够说至少两种语言。大多数会说多种语言的美国人都是移民或者是移民的孩子。对大多数美国人、英国人和澳大利亚人来说，学习一门外语不是必须要学，而是一种意愿选择。《中国日报》统计大概有 4亿中国人学习英语，也就是说中国的英语学习人数比美国讲英语的人数还要多。
Last month, China hosted the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in the capital city of Beijing. But the meeting was not in Chinese– or any Asian language. The official language of APEC is English.
上个月，中国在北京召开亚太经济合作会议，会议中使用的语言不是汉语，也不是其它亚洲的语言，亚太经合组织的官方语言是英语。
