双语阅读之为什么说英语母语者退休后会更贫困.doc

Why speaking English can make you poor when you retire为什么说英语母语者退休后会更贫困Could the language we speak skew our financial decision-making, and does the fact that youre reading this in English make you less likely than a Mandarin speaker to save for your old age?语言是否会影响我们的金融决策？正在读这篇文章的英语读者会比中文读者较少的为老年期储蓄，这是事实吗？It is a controversial theory which has been given some weight by new findings from a Yale University behavioural economist, Keith Chen.这是耶鲁大学的行为经济学家陈基思日前提出的最新理论，这条极富争议性的理论引起了广泛重视。Prof Chen says his research proves that the grammar of the language we speak affects both our finances and our health.陈教授称他的研究表明，我们讲的语言的语法会影响我们的储蓄状况和健康水平。Bluntly, he says, if you speak English you are likely to save less for your old age, smoke more and get less exercise than if you speak a language like Mandarin, Yoruba or Malay.坦白说，他称，比较讲英语的人群和讲中文，约鲁巴语，马来语等语言的人群，前者较少可能为老年期储蓄，吸烟会更多，并且较少锻炼Future-speak未来时态Prof Chen divides the worlds languages into two groups, depending on how they treat the concept of time.陈教授依据对时间概念的掌控把世界上的语言分为两类。Strong future-time reference languages (strong FTR) require their speakers to use a different tense when speaking of the future. Weak future-time reference (weak FTR) languages do not.强未来时间参考语言（强FTR）的使用者在提到未来时会使用不同的时态。而弱未来时间参考语言（弱FTR）的使用者不会这样做。If I wanted to explain to an English-speaking colleague why I cant attend a meeting later today, I could not say I go to a seminar, English grammar would oblige me to say I will go, am going, or have to go to a seminar.“如果我想和一个讲英语的同事解释为什么我不能参加今天晚些时候的会议，我不能说我要去听研讨会，在英语语法中我必须说“我将要去听研讨会”。If, on the other hand, I were speaking Mandarin, it would be quite natural for me to omit any marker of future time and say I go listen seminar since the context leaves little room for misunderstanding, says Prof Chen.反之，讲中文时省略将来时态直接说“我要去听研讨会”对我而言是很自然的，因为这样说不会产生误解，陈教授说。Even within European languages there are clear grammatical differences in the way they treat future events, he says.即使在欧洲的语言体系中阐述未来时也有清晰的语法差异，他说道In English you have to say it will rain tomorrow while in German you can say morgen regnet es - it rains tomorrow.“在英语中，你得说”明天“将”会下雨，而在德语中，你可以说morgen regnet es - 明天会下雨”Disassociating the future分割未来Speakers of languages which only use the present tense when dealing with the future are likely to save more money than those who speak languages which require the use a future tense, he argues.在阐述未来时仅使用现在时态的语言使用者有可能比使用未来时态的语言使用者节省更多的钱，他说。Strong FTR languages: Chaha, English, French, Fula, Gamo, Hausa, Igbo, Italian, Moore, Russian, Tigrinya, Tamil强FTR语言：查哈语，英语，法语，富拉语，西班牙语，豪萨语，伊博语，意大利语，摩尔语，俄罗斯语，提格里尼亚语，泰米尔语Weak FTR languages: Amharic, Dyula, Estonian, German, Malay, Mandarin, Oromo, Sidamo, Yoruba弱FTR语言：阿姆哈拉语，迪尤拉语，爱沙尼亚语，德语，马来语，中文，奥罗莫语，西达摩语，约鲁巴语So how does a mere difference in grammar cause people to save less for their retirement?那么，简单的语法差异是怎么造成在退休后的储蓄上的差异呢？The act of savings is fundamentally about understanding that your future self - the person youre saving for - is in some sense equivalent to your present self, Prof Chen told the BBCs Business Daily.“储蓄的行为归根结底是理解未来的你 - 你为之储蓄的对象 - 在某种意义上等同于现在的你”陈教授告诉BBC的商业日报。If your language separates the future and the present in its grammar that seems to lead you to slightly disassociate the future from the present every time you speak.“如果你的语言在未来和现在时态的语法上有所差异的话，那将导致你每次讲话的时候都会轻微的分割未来和现在。That effectively makes it harder for you to save.“这实际上令储蓄对你而言变得困难。”Even more controversial, is Prof Chens assertion that language differences underpin wider differences in peoples behaviour.更饱受争议的是陈教授提出，语言的差异会造成更广泛的人们行为的差异。In his research paper, he says that compared to speakers of languages which use a future tense, speakers of languages with no real future tense are:他在研究报告中称相比使用将来时态的语言者，不使用将来时态的语言者：Likely to have saved 39% more by the time they retire退休时的储蓄可能会高39%31% more likely to save in a year在一年中储蓄的机率高31%24% less likely to smoke抽烟的机率小24%29% more likely to be physically active运动的机率高29%13% less likely to be obese肥胖的几率小13%Far-fetched?牵强？Not surprisingly, Prof Chens findings have been criticised by both economists and linguists.理所当然，陈教授的研究结果受到了来自经济学家和语言学家的批评。They argue there are number of cultural, social, or economic reasons why different language speakers behave differently.他们论述说导致不同语言的人产生不同行为的原因有多种，包括文化，社会或经济方面的原因。It is a point Prof Chen acknowledges, saying I completely agree, it seemed far-fetched to me when I started doing this research as well.陈教授承认这点：“我完全同意，当我开始做这个研究时我也觉得这似乎太牵强了。”But he says his research has controlled for all these factors, by concentrating on nine multi-lingual countries: Belgium, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Estonia, DR Congo, Nigeria, Malaysia, Singapore, and Switzerland.不过他称已经在研究中控制了这些因素，把研究焦点集中在9个多语种国家：比利时，布基纳法索，埃塞俄比亚，爱沙尼亚，刚果民主共和国，尼日利亚，马来西亚，新加坡，瑞士。You can find families that live right next door to each other, have exactly the same education levels, exactly the same income and even exactly same religion.“你可以找到一些比邻而居的家庭，具有完全相同的教育水平，完全相同的收入，甚至完全相同的宗教。Yet the family that speaks a language that doesnt distinguish between the future and the present will save dramatically more, he says.“然而，使用的语言不区分未来和现在时态的家庭，储蓄相对高的多，”他说。In Nigeria, for example, Hausa has multiple future tenses, while Yoruba does not.例如在尼日利亚，豪萨语有多个将来时态，而约鲁巴语没有。You can find Nigerians who speak Hausa and Yoruba who live next to each other and yet have radically different savings behaviour.“你在尼日利亚会发现比邻而居的两家人分别讲豪萨语和约鲁巴人语，但具有完全不同的储蓄行为。”But Morten Lau, director of Durham Universitys Centre for Behavioural Economics, says the factors which affect how much people save have little to do with language.但达勒姆大学行为经济学中心的主任莫滕.刘称影响人们储蓄行为的因素中语言的影响是非常微小的。In my own work with savings, it is interest rates that determine savings behaviour.“以我自己关于储蓄的研究而言，决定储蓄行为的是利率。”Prof Lau says there are often significant differences within language groups, and just using the average of these results in analysis can prove problematic.刘教授称说同一种语言的人群往往存在显着差异，只是在分析中使用这些结果的平均值会产生问题。You have to be careful the inferences you make from correlations like these. It is very difficult to control for multiple factors.“做出像这样的相关性推论一定要足够谨慎，会存在非常多难以控制的因素。”For instance, in our own research in Denmark, we found that male smokers wanted a higher interest rate on their savings than did non-smokers. But that this did not apply to women smokers.“例如在丹麦的研究中我们发现，男性吸烟者比不吸烟者希望的储蓄利率更高，但是这并不适用于女性吸烟者。”A tempting idea“一个诱人的想法”Linguist John McWhorter, of Columbia University, says any influence a languages structure has on the way its speakers see their world is extremely subtle.哥伦比亚大学语言学家John McWhorter说，语言的结构对使用者看待世界的影响是相当微弱的。The extent to which the language shapes the thought is tiny. Were talking about milliseconds of reaction.“语言对思维的影响是非常微弱的，基本可以忽略不计。Language has very little effect on the way we think, say lingusts语言对思维的影响非常微弱，lingusts称None of it has ever been proven to have anything to do with how people see the world or experience life.“从来没有迹象表明语言对于人们看待世界的方式或人生经历有任何影响。Its a tempting idea that simply doesnt make any sense.“这是一个诱人的想法，但是没有任何意义。”Also, he says, some languages have been wrongly classified, thus undermining the statistical correlations.此外，他称由于一些语言归类错误，从而破坏了统计相关性。Russian, and languages like it, are a lot more like Mandarin than Keith Chen thinks.“俄罗斯语之类的语言，比基思陈认为的更靠近中文。”Despite his critics, Prof Chen insists his findings are robust.然而尽管受到争议，陈教授坚持认为他的研究结果是可靠的。Whats remarkable, is when you find correlations this strong and that survive so many aggressive sets of controls, its actually hard to