我6歲的孩子覺得我像一個小寶寶，至少是當我說普通話的時候。最近，她對我說：“我喜歡你說中文，你的中文有點笨笨的，像一個嬰兒。我喜歡嬰兒。”

By Erik Nilsson

My 6-year-old thinks I’m a baby — at least when I speak Mandarin.
我6歲的孩子覺得我像一個小寶寶，至少是當我說普通話的時候。

“I like it when you speak Chinese,” she recently told me.
最近，她對我說：“我喜歡你說中文”。

“It’s a little awkward. It’s like a baby. And I like babies.”
“你的中文有點笨笨的，像一個嬰兒。我喜歡嬰兒。”

Chinese is the blonde, blue-eyed girl’s first language. Lily, who was born in Beijing, started to speak English later, after mixing the two tongues. (Her mother isn’t Chinese.)
中文是這個金發碧眼小女孩的母語。Lily生在北京，以前總是會把兩種語言混在一起說，之后才開始說英語。（她的媽媽不是中國人）

“Baba (Daddy) eats jirou (chicken). Baba looks at xiongmaode (the panda’s) hand."
“爸爸eats雞肉。爸爸looks at大熊貓的hand。”

By age 3, she’d separated the languages.
直到3歲，她才能區分兩種語言。

Her 2-year-old brother recently acquired his first several words — nearly all Chinese.
而Lily兩歲的弟弟最近也學會說話了——說的幾個詞幾乎都是中文。

He nai (drink milk), baobao wo (hug/hold me), jiejie ku (sister is crying).
“喝奶，抱抱我，姐姐哭。”

He uses both “ball” and its Chinese equivalent, “qiu”.
他會說英語里的“ball”和中文里的“球”。

“No” is one of his few — and favorite — English words. It’s worth noting, Chinese doesn’t have a direct equivalent to “yes” and “no” but uses other grammatical constructions to affirm and negate.
“No”是他會的為數不多的幾個英文單詞，也是最喜歡的一個。值得一提的是，中文里沒有和“yes”、“no”對應的詞匯，而是用其他語法結構來表達肯定和否定。

My Chinese is perhaps less like a toddler’s and more like an immigrant’s (a concept my daughter hasn’t developed. She must soon to explain her parents.)
也許，我的中文說得并不像小孩，而更像是外來的移民。移民這個概念我的女兒還不清楚，不過她肯定很快就能替父母解釋了。

I’m certified as intermediate in reading and writing, since I passed the national Chinese Proficiency Test’s Level 4 before Lily was born. (Level 6 is the highest.)
在Lily出生之前，我就通過了全國漢語水平四級考試，達到了中級讀寫水平。（六級為最高等級。）

And my spoken Chinese is multiplications better than my character proficiency.
我的中文口語能力比書面表達能力好太多。

I can converse about, say, (basic) economics but with grammatical flubs, tone errors and a funny accent. The second two are common among native Chinese with less-than-perfect Putonghua (standardized Mandarin).
我可以談論基本的經濟學，但是有語法錯誤，聲調錯誤，口音滑稽。而后面兩個問題在普通話不標準的中國人中也很常見。

There’s a theory that language shapes how we perceive the world.
有一種理論認為，語言決定了我們看待世界的方式。

I’ve observed, for instance, that after using only Chinese for a period, two things happen.
比如說，我發現，在講中文一段時間后發生了兩件事。

First, I start to think simple thoughts in Chinese. I notice because I sometimes talk to myself. Say I’m traveling and haven’t spoken English in days — I’ll mutter “Wode shouji zai nali?” rather than “Where’s my phone?”.
第一是我開始用中文來表達一些簡單的想法。因為我有時會自言自語，所以注意到了這點。比如我在旅行時幾天沒說英語了，我會嘟囔著“我的手機在哪里？”而不是“Where is my phone”。

Second, I think about the world differently in such ways as, in my mind’s eye, “opening” rather than turning on the light — a direct translation into English that retains the Chinese language’s conceptualization of the phenomenon.
第二，我開始用不同的角度感知世界，比如，我會想到“opening”而不是“turning on”電燈，這就是直譯成英文，保留了中文語言對開燈這一動作的概念。

I was wondering how this works for Lily, since she’s a native speaker of both but acquired Chinese first.
我想知道Lily是不是也有這種感受，因為中英文都是她的母語，只是她先學會了中文。

She says she only thinks in English and translates in her head.
她說她只用英文思考，然后在腦子里翻譯出來。

She claims to never dream in Chinese, which I sometimes do.
她說自己從來不會做說中文的夢，而我有時候會這樣。

That seems counterintuitive.
這似乎和直覺相悖。

She told me in English the other morning: “I’m not afraid of the cold. I’m afraid of being hot.”
某天早上，她用英語告訴我：“I'm not afraid of the cold. I'm afraid of being hot.（我不怕冷，我怕熱）。”

This is a direct translation into English. Chinese typically conveys an aversion to temperature extremes using the word for fear (pa), rather than a synonym for dislike.
這句話是直譯成英文的。中文中通常用“怕”這個詞傳達對極端溫度的厭惡，而不是用“不喜歡”之類的同義詞。

And I’ve noticed how our family mixes the languages at home.
而且我注意到我們在家里也會混合兩種語言。

I’ll ask my wife: “Mind if I kai (open) the kongtiao (air conditioner)? Did you mai (buy) the piao (tickets)?”
我會問我的妻子：“Mind if I開空調？Did you買票？”（介意我開空調嗎？你買票了嗎？）

My daughter only calls me Baba— never Daddy — whichever language or mix we’re using.
不過，不論我們用哪種語言交流或是混合使用，我的女兒只叫我“爸爸”，從來不會叫“Daddy”。

That said, I’m still a baby to her.
雖說如此，和她相比，我的中文依然是嬰兒水平。

Perhaps I am —in the way of rediscovering the world like children do, through another language. It’s like “opening” the light that illuminates a new perspective.
或許我現在就如小孩一般，通過另一種語言重新認識這個世界。就像是“開”了盞燈，照亮一個全新的視角。

英文來源：“CHINA DAILY”微信公眾號
翻譯：王嘉騰（實習）
編審：丹妮 董靜
音頻編輯：唐曉敏

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Broadcaster

Erik Nilsson is an American journalist who has worked in China for over 10 years. His work has won various honors, including the Chinese Government Friendship Award - the highest honor the country bestows on foreigners. He has traveled to every provincial-level jurisdiction except Chongqing and Guangdong, covering such stories as the Wenchuan and Yushu earthquakes, nomadic communities’ development and civil society.