Have you ever held a question in mind for so long that it becomes part of how you think?

你是否曾經(jīng)把一個(gè)問(wèn)題留在心中很久， 結(jié)果它已經(jīng)成為你的一種思路？

Maybe even part of who you are as a person?

甚至可能已經(jīng)成為你自己的一部分？

Well I've had a question in my mind for many, many years and that is: how can you speed up learning?

我思考了一個(gè)問(wèn)題很多很多年，就是：你怎樣才能加快自己學(xué)習(xí)的速度？

Now, this is an interesting question because if you speed up learning you can spend less time at school。

那么，這是一個(gè)很有趣的問(wèn)題，因?yàn)槿绻憧梢约涌熳约旱膶W(xué)習(xí)的速度，你就可以花更少時(shí)間在學(xué)校里。

And if you learn really fast, you probably wouldn't have to go to school at all.

如果你真的可以學(xué)習(xí)得特別快，你可能根本就不用去上學(xué)。

Now, when I was young, school was sort of okay but I found quite often that school got in the way of learning so I had this question in mind: how do you learn faster?

在我小時(shí)候，上學(xué)還湊合，但我常常發(fā)現(xiàn)上學(xué)會(huì)阻礙學(xué)習(xí)，因此在心里面我有了這樣一個(gè)問(wèn)題：怎樣才能學(xué)得更快呢？

And this began when I was very, very young. When I was about eleven years old I wrote a letter to researchers in the Soviet Union, asking about hypnopaedia, this is sleep learning, where you get a tape recorder, you put it beside your bed and it turns on in the middle of the night when you're sleeping, and you're supposed to be learning from this.

(這個(gè)想法)在我很小時(shí)候已經(jīng)開(kāi)始了，大約我11歲的時(shí)候，我給前蘇聯(lián)的研究者寫(xiě)了一封關(guān)于睡眠學(xué)習(xí)的信， 所謂“睡覺(jué)學(xué)習(xí)”，就是拿一個(gè)磁帶錄音機(jī)放在你床邊， 等你入眠后機(jī)器開(kāi)始播放磁帶，(然后)目的是通過(guò)這種方式來(lái)學(xué)習(xí)。

A good idea, unfortunately it doesn't work.

一個(gè)好主意，不幸的是它行不通。

But, hypnopaedia did open the doors to research in other areas and we've had incredible discoveries about learning that began with that first question.

但睡眠學(xué)習(xí)確實(shí)打開(kāi)了研究其他領(lǐng)域的大門(mén)，并且我們從研究這個(gè)問(wèn)題開(kāi)始已經(jīng)有了一些驚人的發(fā)現(xiàn)。

I went on from there to become passionate about psychology and I have been involved in psychology in many ways for the rest of my life up until this point.

從那開(kāi)始我對(duì)心理學(xué)充滿熱情，直到現(xiàn)在我已經(jīng)投入了幾十年的時(shí)間從事心理學(xué)相關(guān)的不同研究和工作。

In 1981 I took myself to China and I decided that I was going to be native level in Chinese inside two years.

1981年，我來(lái)到了中國(guó)，并且我決定在兩年內(nèi)我的漢語(yǔ)要達(dá)到像中文母語(yǔ)者一樣的水平。

Now, you need to understand that in 1981, everybody thought Chinese was really, really difficult and that a westerner could study for ten years or more and never really get very good at it.

吶，你需要明白的是在20世紀(jì)80年代初，所有人都認(rèn)為漢語(yǔ)是真的很難學(xué)，一個(gè)西方人可能學(xué)習(xí)10年或以上也未必能學(xué)好。

And I also went in with a different idea which was: taking all of the conclusions from psychological research up to that point and applying them to the learning process.

還有，我?guī)е环N不同的想法，就是把心理學(xué)對(duì)這個(gè)問(wèn)題研究所得的全部結(jié)論運(yùn)用到我學(xué)習(xí)的過(guò)程當(dāng)中。

What was really cool was that in six months I was fluent in Mandarin Chinese and took a little bit longer to get up to native.

特別棒的是我在六個(gè)月內(nèi)能說(shuō)流利的中文，不久后，我達(dá)到了中文母語(yǔ)者的水平。

But I looked around and I saw all of these people from different countries struggling terribly with Chinese, I saw Chinese people struggling terribly to learn English and other languages, and so my question got refined down to: how can you help a normal adult learn a new language quickly, easily and effectively?

但我看到周?chē)切﹣?lái)自不同國(guó)家的人在為學(xué)習(xí)中文苦苦掙扎，中國(guó)人在為學(xué)習(xí)英文或其他語(yǔ)言苦苦掙扎，因此我的問(wèn)題便細(xì)化到：怎樣幫助一位正常的成年人更快、更容易和有效地學(xué)會(huì)第二門(mén)語(yǔ)言。