中文学校China Path的创始人麦康伟（Ken McEvoy）与中文老师翟乃刚在课前交流。
学习中文：普通话真棒!
摄影：大中报记者埃里克-爱民-伍德（Eric Emin Wood）
The China Path普通话学校的一份广告写道：“他们在美国的投资金额超过了一万亿美元。他们生产出我们每天使用的各种产品。他们主要语言的使用人数占世界总人口的约20%。难道你不认为有必要了解他们在说什么吗？”
“They have over one trillion dollars invested in the United States. They manufacture a variety of products we use everyday. Their major language is spoken by approximately 20 percent of the world. Don’t you think you should know what they’re saying?” says one advertisement for Mandarin school the China Path.
另一份广告写道：“为什么要学普通话？”下面就用汉字加上英文列出了如下原因：“为了旅游？为了商业目的？为了打听那位可爱同事的电话号码？”
Another asks, “Why learn Mandarin?” Then, using Chinese characters with English answers: “To travel? For business? To ask for that cute co-worker’s phone number?”
这两个广告都不是在华人媒体上刊登的，而是在TTC地铁列车上出现的，其目标人群就跟那些国外的英语学校是一样的。
Neither of these ads ran in Chinese media. They both appeared on TTC subway cars, targeting the same demographic one might expect from an English school overseas.
The China Path创办人、爱尔兰裔加拿大人麦康伟说：“起初，（学校的）广告主要针对的是由于旅游或商务原因而想要学普通话的英语母语者。”另一个原因是恋爱关系——“学生中很多人的配偶都是讲普通话的，所以他们就想学。”
“The marketing was originally geared towards native English speakers who wanted to learn Mandarin for travel or business reasons,” says Ken McEvoy, the Irish-Canadian who founded the China Path. Another reason is relationships – “a lot of people in the class have partners who are Mandarin speakers and want to learn the language.”
麦康伟以电脑程序员作为自己的正业，并经营一家规模较小的医疗软件公司。他是“10年到15年前”从中国出差回来后开始学的普通话。
In his day job, Mr. McEvoy is a computer programmer, running a small medical software company. He began studying Mandarin “between 10 and 15 years ago” after a business trip to China.
他说：“就我们的产品来说，中国是一个巨大的潜在市场。第一次访华时，我去了台湾和香港，让我十分着迷。”
“China is an enormous potential market for our product,” he says. “I went to Taiwan and Hong Kong on my first trip, and I was fascinated.”
在上课之余，麦康伟开发了一些软件工具来帮助自己学中文。
While taking lessons, Mr. McEvoy developed a number of software tools to help himself learn the language.
他说：“作为一名学普通话的学生，我所看到过的很多教材——我在很多地方都上过课——对于教那些以英语为母语的人来说，它们编得并不怎么好。我经常会想到一些问题，然而这些教材似乎都没有给出答案。”
“As a student of Mandarin, a lot of material I’d seen – and I’d taken classes from a variety of sources – wasn’t written particularly well for teaching native English speakers,” he says. “There were questions that I kept coming up with that didn’t seem to get answered.”
在一位中国朋友的帮助下，他设立了一套共6级的课程——“假如我还是一个学生的话，这个课程会很适合我”——并于2007年开办了The China Path学校。
With help from a Chinese friend, he designed a six-level curriculum “that I felt would have been suitable for me as a student,” and opened the school in 2007.
麦康伟说：“我告诉学生们，普通话是一门学起来很容易的语言，这是有多种原因的。汉语没有性的语法范畴，没有单数复数之分，没有时态，没有动词变位。”
“I tell students that Mandarin is a very easy language for several reasons,” Mr. McEvoy says. “There’s no genders, there’s no singulars, there’s no plurals, there’s no tenses, there’s no conjugation.”
他继续说：“（普通话）难的地方在于，没有很好的一对一的词语对应。如果英文里某个单词，那么法语和德语也会存在表示相同意思的单词。但在普通话和英语之间，有很弱的对称性。”
“What makes it difficult is you don’t have good word to word mapping,” he continues. “If you’ve got a word in English, there’s a word for it in French or a word for it in German, but between Mandarin and English you get very loose boundaries.”
他举例说，普通话的音节“在”可以指“位于某处”，但也可用来构成几乎任何动词的进行式的时态。“我在看书”和“我在银行”用的是同一个“在”字，其含义取决于后面是动词还是名词。
One example, he says, is the Mandarin syllable “zai,” which can mean to be located somewhere, but can also form the progressive tense of nearly any verb. “I am reading,” and “I am at the bank,” would use the same character, its meaning changed depending on whether it was followed by a verb or noun.
麦康伟说：“对以英语为母语的人来说，这种语法结构是具有挑战性的，因为其跟英语的使用模式不相符。只能通过对上下文的反复接触和阅读，你才能慢慢地把握好这些情况。”
“These types of constructs can be a challenge to native English speakers, because they don’t correspond to use patterns in English,” Mr. McEvoy says. “It’s only through repeated exposure to context and reading that you get a handle on how these things work.”
麦康伟的课程是以识字、阅读为重点。第一节课就要布置一份阅读作业：唐代诗篇《静夜思》。
Mr. McEvoy’s program emphasizes literacy. The very first class includes a reading assignment: the Tang dynasty-era poem ‘Jing Ye Si.’
麦康伟说：“我们之所以教这首诗，是因为只有20个汉字，并且它能表明，中文演变得如此缓慢，以至于即使是1300年前的文学作品还能为现代人所了解。在说英语的人中，大多数人都无法看懂早于莎士比亚时代的英文作品；而且，1300年前，英语本身根本不存在。”
“We use that because it’s only a 20-character poem, and an illustration that the language has changed slowly enough that Chinese literature, even if it’s 1300 years old, is still accessible,” Mr. McEvoy says. “I don’t think the average English speaker can understand English older than Shakespeare’s, and the language itself didn’t even exist 1300 years ago.”
他说，在第二节课中，学生们就开始学习儿童诗歌和儿童故事，“这些（比《静夜思》）要容易得多”。”
In the second class, students move onto children’s poems and stories, “which are a lot easier,” he says.
麦康伟承认，对英语为母语的人来说，课程内容并非简单。他说：“我告诉他们说，‘如果你希望进步的话，你必须下工夫做些课外的家庭作业。”
Mr. McEvoy admits the material may be challenging for native English speakers. “I tell them, ‘if you want to progress, you have to do some real homework outside of class,” he says.
每周的课包括40个生词，供学生练习说话。在每一节结束之前，他们还对两个汉字进行详细分析，包括其写法和发音。
Each weekly lesson includes 40 vocabulary words, which students practice speaking. At the end of each class, they also analyze two Chinese characters in detail, including writing and pronunciation.
麦康伟没有自己教课，但课程内容是由他亲自设计的。他说：“我雇佣的教师都是以普通话为母语的人，是他们赋予课程以生命。”
Mr. McEvoy doesn’t teach the classes himself, but designed the curriculum. “I hire native language speakers, and they bring the material to life,” he says.
标准中文学校主任常青表示，英语母语者报名参加普通话语言课程并非最近才有的现象。
Native English-speakers enrolling in Mandarin-language programs are nothing new, says Jennifer Chang, head of the Toronto Mandarin School.
她说：“有的人想学普通话的原因是因为他们对中国文化感兴趣。父母希望自己的孩子学（普通话），是因为他们想为孩子的未来提供一个良好的开端。学生们中间有很多人都是大学生，还有年轻的专业人士，他们认为（学普通话）对自己的职业生涯会有帮助。”
“Some of them want to start Mandarin because they’re interested in Chinese culture,” she says. “Parents want their kids to learn because they want to give their kids a head start in their future. Many of them are university or college students, or young professionals who think it’s going to help with their career.”
标准中文学校的课程中，有一门课是针对非普通话母语的学习者而设计的，该课程主要以谈话技巧为重点。
The Mandarin School includes a program for non-Mandarin speakers that emphasizes conversation skills.
常女士说：“不管你的年龄是多少，如果你能够理解这种语言并与他人进行沟通，这就会激励你学习的欲望。”
“No matter how old you are, what motivates you to learn is if you understand the language and can talk to people,” Ms. Chang says.
她说：“对于年轻的学生来说，是挺不容易的。我们还设有一个幼儿园……只要把他们放到这种环境中来，你可以向他们介绍文化、阅读、诗歌——他们会把这些全都吸收了。”
“For younger learners it’s different,” she says. “We have a nursery school… Put them in that environment, you can introduce the culture, the reading, the song – they can absorb everything, all at the same time.”
标准中文学校甚至还设有一个很受欢迎的“家长及幼儿课程”，参加该课程的人几乎全是加拿大本地人家庭，包括“白人的混血家庭”，以及来自香港、 新加坡、韩国、日本、菲律宾等国家和地区的移民。常女士说：“父母不会讲普通话，他们的孩子也不会讲普通话，所以他们要一起学习。”
The Mandarin School even has a popular “parent and tot” program that is “overwhelmingly” attended by Canadian families, including “Caucasian mixed families,” plus immigrants from Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea, Japan and the Philippines, Ms. Chang says. “The parents don’t know Mandarin, their kids don’t know Mandarin, so they will be learning together.”
The China Path学生凯西•林奇告诉大中报，她之所以报名参加学校的初级普通话课程，是因为她即将到中国旅游，并认为自己不妨学一些基本短语。
China Path student Kathy Lynch tells Chinese News that she enrolled in the school’s introductory Mandarin program because she’s visiting China soon and “thought I might learn a few phrases.”
她的一个朋友在地铁上看到了学校的广告，并建议她去报名参加。
She was referred to the school by a friend who saw an ad on the subway.
她说：“学普通话是种享受。学普通话是很难的。它和英语是截然不同的。但这是一个很好的挑战。”
“I’ve enjoyed it. Mandarin is very difficult,” she says. “It’s so different from English. But it’s a good challenge.”
The China Path学校位于布鲁尔西街180号500室。第一级的课程是以“能付多少钱，就付多少钱”的方式提供的。下一期课程于7月17日开课。
The China Path is located at 180 Bloor St. West, suite 500. Level one classes are offered on a pay-what-you-can basis. The next set begins on July 17.
标准中文学校的网站为：http://torontomandarinschool.com。
The Toronto Mandarin School’s website: http://torontomandarinschool.com
编注：英翻中：马特-杜鲁门编译。Translator (English to Chinese): Matt Trueman. 如果你对本文有任何评论，请到096.ca的“特别报道”栏目下、此文的论坛里发表评论。如果你有任何社区、社会和生活问题需要大中报回答或调查，请将你 的评论或问题细节以电话留言（416-504-0761 转215分机），或传真（416-504-4928），或电邮（[email protected]），或电邮给Eric Emin Wood([email protected]）。你可以匿名为本报提供调查线索，但调查线索应包括当事人的联系电话或地址、 发生问题的时间及地址等信息。
学习中文：普通话真棒!
摄影：大中报记者埃里克-爱民-伍德（Eric Emin Wood）
The China Path普通话学校的一份广告写道：“他们在美国的投资金额超过了一万亿美元。他们生产出我们每天使用的各种产品。他们主要语言的使用人数占世界总人口的约20%。难道你不认为有必要了解他们在说什么吗？”
“They have over one trillion dollars invested in the United States. They manufacture a variety of products we use everyday. Their major language is spoken by approximately 20 percent of the world. Don’t you think you should know what they’re saying?” says one advertisement for Mandarin school the China Path.
另一份广告写道：“为什么要学普通话？”下面就用汉字加上英文列出了如下原因：“为了旅游？为了商业目的？为了打听那位可爱同事的电话号码？”
Another asks, “Why learn Mandarin?” Then, using Chinese characters with English answers: “To travel? For business? To ask for that cute co-worker’s phone number?”
这两个广告都不是在华人媒体上刊登的，而是在TTC地铁列车上出现的，其目标人群就跟那些国外的英语学校是一样的。
Neither of these ads ran in Chinese media. They both appeared on TTC subway cars, targeting the same demographic one might expect from an English school overseas.
The China Path创办人、爱尔兰裔加拿大人麦康伟说：“起初，（学校的）广告主要针对的是由于旅游或商务原因而想要学普通话的英语母语者。”另一个原因是恋爱关系——“学生中很多人的配偶都是讲普通话的，所以他们就想学。”
“The marketing was originally geared towards native English speakers who wanted to learn Mandarin for travel or business reasons,” says Ken McEvoy, the Irish-Canadian who founded the China Path. Another reason is relationships – “a lot of people in the class have partners who are Mandarin speakers and want to learn the language.”
麦康伟以电脑程序员作为自己的正业，并经营一家规模较小的医疗软件公司。他是“10年到15年前”从中国出差回来后开始学的普通话。
In his day job, Mr. McEvoy is a computer programmer, running a small medical software company. He began studying Mandarin “between 10 and 15 years ago” after a business trip to China.
他说：“就我们的产品来说，中国是一个巨大的潜在市场。第一次访华时，我去了台湾和香港，让我十分着迷。”
“China is an enormous potential market for our product,” he says. “I went to Taiwan and Hong Kong on my first trip, and I was fascinated.”
在上课之余，麦康伟开发了一些软件工具来帮助自己学中文。
While taking lessons, Mr. McEvoy developed a number of software tools to help himself learn the language.
他说：“作为一名学普通话的学生，我所看到过的很多教材——我在很多地方都上过课——对于教那些以英语为母语的人来说，它们编得并不怎么好。我经常会想到一些问题，然而这些教材似乎都没有给出答案。”
“As a student of Mandarin, a lot of material I’d seen – and I’d taken classes from a variety of sources – wasn’t written particularly well for teaching native English speakers,” he says. “There were questions that I kept coming up with that didn’t seem to get answered.”
在一位中国朋友的帮助下，他设立了一套共6级的课程——“假如我还是一个学生的话，这个课程会很适合我”——并于2007年开办了The China Path学校。
With help from a Chinese friend, he designed a six-level curriculum “that I felt would have been suitable for me as a student,” and opened the school in 2007.
麦康伟说：“我告诉学生们，普通话是一门学起来很容易的语言，这是有多种原因的。汉语没有性的语法范畴，没有单数复数之分，没有时态，没有动词变位。”
“I tell students that Mandarin is a very easy language for several reasons,” Mr. McEvoy says. “There’s no genders, there’s no singulars, there’s no plurals, there’s no tenses, there’s no conjugation.”
他继续说：“（普通话）难的地方在于，没有很好的一对一的词语对应。如果英文里某个单词，那么法语和德语也会存在表示相同意思的单词。但在普通话和英语之间，有很弱的对称性。”
“What makes it difficult is you don’t have good word to word mapping,” he continues. “If you’ve got a word in English, there’s a word for it in French or a word for it in German, but between Mandarin and English you get very loose boundaries.”
他举例说，普通话的音节“在”可以指“位于某处”，但也可用来构成几乎任何动词的进行式的时态。“我在看书”和“我在银行”用的是同一个“在”字，其含义取决于后面是动词还是名词。
One example, he says, is the Mandarin syllable “zai,” which can mean to be located somewhere, but can also form the progressive tense of nearly any verb. “I am reading,” and “I am at the bank,” would use the same character, its meaning changed depending on whether it was followed by a verb or noun.
麦康伟说：“对以英语为母语的人来说，这种语法结构是具有挑战性的，因为其跟英语的使用模式不相符。只能通过对上下文的反复接触和阅读，你才能慢慢地把握好这些情况。”
“These types of constructs can be a challenge to native English speakers, because they don’t correspond to use patterns in English,” Mr. McEvoy says. “It’s only through repeated exposure to context and reading that you get a handle on how these things work.”
麦康伟的课程是以识字、阅读为重点。第一节课就要布置一份阅读作业：唐代诗篇《静夜思》。
Mr. McEvoy’s program emphasizes literacy. The very first class includes a reading assignment: the Tang dynasty-era poem ‘Jing Ye Si.’
麦康伟说：“我们之所以教这首诗，是因为只有20个汉字，并且它能表明，中文演变得如此缓慢，以至于即使是1300年前的文学作品还能为现代人所了解。在说英语的人中，大多数人都无法看懂早于莎士比亚时代的英文作品；而且，1300年前，英语本身根本不存在。”
“We use that because it’s only a 20-character poem, and an illustration that the language has changed slowly enough that Chinese literature, even if it’s 1300 years old, is still accessible,” Mr. McEvoy says. “I don’t think the average English speaker can understand English older than Shakespeare’s, and the language itself didn’t even exist 1300 years ago.”
他说，在第二节课中，学生们就开始学习儿童诗歌和儿童故事，“这些（比《静夜思》）要容易得多”。”
In the second class, students move onto children’s poems and stories, “which are a lot easier,” he says.
麦康伟承认，对英语为母语的人来说，课程内容并非简单。他说：“我告诉他们说，‘如果你希望进步的话，你必须下工夫做些课外的家庭作业。”
Mr. McEvoy admits the material may be challenging for native English speakers. “I tell them, ‘if you want to progress, you have to do some real homework outside of class,” he says.
每周的课包括40个生词，供学生练习说话。在每一节结束之前，他们还对两个汉字进行详细分析，包括其写法和发音。
Each weekly lesson includes 40 vocabulary words, which students practice speaking. At the end of each class, they also analyze two Chinese characters in detail, including writing and pronunciation.
麦康伟没有自己教课，但课程内容是由他亲自设计的。他说：“我雇佣的教师都是以普通话为母语的人，是他们赋予课程以生命。”
Mr. McEvoy doesn’t teach the classes himself, but designed the curriculum. “I hire native language speakers, and they bring the material to life,” he says.
标准中文学校主任常青表示，英语母语者报名参加普通话语言课程并非最近才有的现象。
Native English-speakers enrolling in Mandarin-language programs are nothing new, says Jennifer Chang, head of the Toronto Mandarin School.
她说：“有的人想学普通话的原因是因为他们对中国文化感兴趣。父母希望自己的孩子学（普通话），是因为他们想为孩子的未来提供一个良好的开端。学生们中间有很多人都是大学生，还有年轻的专业人士，他们认为（学普通话）对自己的职业生涯会有帮助。”
“Some of them want to start Mandarin because they’re interested in Chinese culture,” she says. “Parents want their kids to learn because they want to give their kids a head start in their future. Many of them are university or college students, or young professionals who think it’s going to help with their career.”
标准中文学校的课程中，有一门课是针对非普通话母语的学习者而设计的，该课程主要以谈话技巧为重点。
The Mandarin School includes a program for non-Mandarin speakers that emphasizes conversation skills.
常女士说：“不管你的年龄是多少，如果你能够理解这种语言并与他人进行沟通，这就会激励你学习的欲望。”
“No matter how old you are, what motivates you to learn is if you understand the language and can talk to people,” Ms. Chang says.
她说：“对于年轻的学生来说，是挺不容易的。我们还设有一个幼儿园……只要把他们放到这种环境中来，你可以向他们介绍文化、阅读、诗歌——他们会把这些全都吸收了。”
“For younger learners it’s different,” she says. “We have a nursery school… Put them in that environment, you can introduce the culture, the reading, the song – they can absorb everything, all at the same time.”
标准中文学校甚至还设有一个很受欢迎的“家长及幼儿课程”，参加该课程的人几乎全是加拿大本地人家庭，包括“白人的混血家庭”，以及来自香港、 新加坡、韩国、日本、菲律宾等国家和地区的移民。常女士说：“父母不会讲普通话，他们的孩子也不会讲普通话，所以他们要一起学习。”
The Mandarin School even has a popular “parent and tot” program that is “overwhelmingly” attended by Canadian families, including “Caucasian mixed families,” plus immigrants from Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea, Japan and the Philippines, Ms. Chang says. “The parents don’t know Mandarin, their kids don’t know Mandarin, so they will be learning together.”
The China Path学生凯西•林奇告诉大中报，她之所以报名参加学校的初级普通话课程，是因为她即将到中国旅游，并认为自己不妨学一些基本短语。
China Path student Kathy Lynch tells Chinese News that she enrolled in the school’s introductory Mandarin program because she’s visiting China soon and “thought I might learn a few phrases.”
她的一个朋友在地铁上看到了学校的广告，并建议她去报名参加。
She was referred to the school by a friend who saw an ad on the subway.
她说：“学普通话是种享受。学普通话是很难的。它和英语是截然不同的。但这是一个很好的挑战。”
“I’ve enjoyed it. Mandarin is very difficult,” she says. “It’s so different from English. But it’s a good challenge.”
The China Path学校位于布鲁尔西街180号500室。第一级的课程是以“能付多少钱，就付多少钱”的方式提供的。下一期课程于7月17日开课。
The China Path is located at 180 Bloor St. West, suite 500. Level one classes are offered on a pay-what-you-can basis. The next set begins on July 17.
标准中文学校的网站为：http://torontomandarinschool.com。
The Toronto Mandarin School’s website: http://torontomandarinschool.com
编注：英翻中：马特-杜鲁门编译。Translator (English to Chinese): Matt Trueman. 如果你对本文有任何评论，请到096.ca的“特别报道”栏目下、此文的论坛里发表评论。如果你有任何社区、社会和生活问题需要大中报回答或调查，请将你 的评论或问题细节以电话留言（416-504-0761 转215分机），或传真（416-504-4928），或电邮（[email protected]），或电邮给Eric Emin Wood([email protected]）。你可以匿名为本报提供调查线索，但调查线索应包括当事人的联系电话或地址、 发生问题的时间及地址等信息。
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