新加坡前總理李光耀先生精通英語(yǔ)、馬來(lái)語(yǔ)、普通話、客家話、日語(yǔ)等多門(mén)語(yǔ)言。他在Keeping My Mandarin Alive: Lee Kuan Yew's Language Learning Experience(中文版書(shū)名：《學(xué)語(yǔ)致用：李光耀華語(yǔ)學(xué)習(xí)心得》)一書(shū)中介紹了自己學(xué)習(xí)語(yǔ)言的心得。
1. 英語(yǔ)再好，不練習(xí)都會(huì)退步
How many Mainland Chinese can learn English to the level that we can? A very small percentage. They are using Mandarin all the time, they will lose their English. I will give you an example. I used to meet the Taiwanese ministers, the older generation - all Harvard PhDs. In other words, they wrote their theses in English but worked in Taiwan in Mandarin. When I went to Taiwan, I spoke to them in Mandarin, first two days (my Mandarin was) very stiff. At the end of the week, I was more fluent. They came here to meet people from our ministries, first two days their English was halting, at the end of the week they became more fluent。在大陸，有多少中國(guó)人的英語(yǔ)能和我們說(shuō)的一樣好?(李光耀受英語(yǔ)教育，以優(yōu)異成績(jī)從劍橋大學(xué)法學(xué)專業(yè)畢業(yè)。)非常少。他們每天都使用中文，英文水平就會(huì)降低。我舉個(gè)例子。我見(jiàn)過(guò)臺(tái)灣一些老一輩的部長(zhǎng)們，都是哈佛的博士。他們的畢業(yè)論文是用英文寫(xiě)的，但在臺(tái)灣工作時(shí)，他們使用中文。我去臺(tái)灣的時(shí)候，我和他們說(shuō)中文，開(kāi)始的一兩天，我的中文非常生硬。差不多一周后，我說(shuō)的更流利了。當(dāng)他們來(lái)新加坡和我們的部長(zhǎng)會(huì)面時(shí)，最初一兩天他們的英文說(shuō)的磕磕巴巴，但差不多一個(gè)禮拜就流利多了。
2. 流利比詞匯量更重要
Learn young, never mind the standard, capture the fluency, capture the way you speak it, capture the grammar, never mind if your vocabulary is limited, you can expand it later on。從小學(xué)起，別在意是否標(biāo)準(zhǔn)，努力說(shuō)的流暢，學(xué)會(huì)表達(dá)方式，正確使用語(yǔ)法，不要在乎詞匯量太少，以后會(huì)擴(kuò)大的。
3. 多開(kāi)口才能活學(xué)活用
You need to spend the time and effort. You must have the interest. At the end of the day, it must be a live language. Apart from watching it on the TV or reading the newspapers, you must meet people and talk. Then it is a live language. 你要花時(shí)間和精力。一定要有興趣。歸根結(jié)底，必須在生活中使用語(yǔ)言。除了看電視和讀報(bào)，你必須和人們交談。這才是活的語(yǔ)言。
4. 從小學(xué)語(yǔ)言記得更牢
Language is heard and spoken long before people learn to write and to read. The more frequently one uses a language, the easier it is to express one's thoughts in it. The younger one learns to speak a langugae, the more permanently it is remembered。人們學(xué)會(huì)讀寫(xiě)一種語(yǔ)言之前很久就會(huì)聽(tīng)說(shuō)。一個(gè)人使用一種語(yǔ)言越頻繁，就越容易用它來(lái)表達(dá)思想。學(xué)習(xí)語(yǔ)言的年紀(jì)越小，就越不會(huì)忘記。
5. 西學(xué)為體，中學(xué)為用
I may speak the English language better than I speak the Chinese language because I learnt English early in life. But I'll never be an Englishman in a thousand generations and I have not got the Western value system inside me; it's an Eastern value system with the western value system superimposed。我的英文大概比中文好，因?yàn)槲覐男【蛯W(xué)習(xí)英文。但無(wú)論再過(guò)多少年，我都不會(huì)是個(gè)英國(guó)人，我并沒(méi)有接受西方價(jià)值觀。我的價(jià)值觀是帶有西方色彩的東方價(jià)值觀。
