Now this is a really, really important question in today's world.

要強調的是，在今天的世界里這是一個非常非常重要的問題。

We have massive challenges with environment. We have massive challenges with social dislocation, with wars, all sorts of things going on and if we can't communicate we're really going to have difficulty solving these problems.

我們需要面對大量的(有關)環保問題的挑戰，我們需要面對很多社會混亂和戰爭的挑戰，各種各類事情在發生，如果我們不能溝通那我們將難以解決這些問題。

So we need to be able to speak each other's languages. This is really, really important.

因此，我們需要能夠說對方的語言。這真的非常重要。

The question then is how do you do that？ Well, it's actually really easy.

接下來的問題是，怎樣做到？這實際上是很容易的。

You look around for people who can already do it, you look for situations where it's already working and then you identify the principles and apply them.

看看你周圍那些已經做到的人，尋找在什么情況下，它是有效的，識別這些原則后好好利用它們。

It's called modeling and I've been looking at language learning and modeling language learning for about fifteen to twenty years now.

這是一種高科技模仿，而我已經用這種方法研究語言學習 大約15到20 年了。

And my conclusion, my observation from this is that any adult can learn a second language to fluency inside six months.

接著多年的觀察，我得到的結論是，任何一個成年人能在6個月內把任何外語學得流利。

Now when I say this, most people think I'm crazy, this is not possible. So let me remind everybody of the history of human progress, it's all about expanding our limits.

吶，當我說成年人能在6個月內學會任何一種外語，大多數人都認為我瘋了，這是不可能的。因此，先讓我提醒在座各位關于人類歷史的進展，所有人類歷史都是在擴展我們的極限。

In 1950 everybody believed that running one mile in four minutes was impossible and then Roger Bannister did it in 1956 and from there it's got shorter and shorter.

在20世紀50年代，所有人都相信跑出4分鐘1英里的成績是不可能的，后來羅杰·班尼斯特在1965年做到了，而從那開始跑1英里的時間變得越來越短 。

100 years ago everybody believed that heavy stuff doesn't fly。

100年前，每個人都相信重的物體不能飛。

Except it does and we all know this. How does heavy stuff fly?

它不但可以飛，而且我們大家都知道這個事實。那么，重物是怎樣飛的呢？

We reorganize the materials using principles that we have learned from observing nature, birds in this case.

我們觀察大自然的原理，在此是鳥飛行的原理，，根據這些我們重新組織材料來使重物可以飛。

And today we've gone ever further, so you can fly a car. You can buy one of these for a couple hundred thousand US dollars.

如今，我們甚至走得更遠，你可以駕駛一輛會飛的汽車。你可以花幾十萬美元購買一輛這樣的汽車。

We now have cars in the world that can fly.

我們現在有了會飛的汽車了。

And there's a different way to fly that we've learned from squirrels.

在能飛的松鼠的身上我們學會了另一種不同的方式來飛。

So all you need to do is copy what a flying squirrel does, build a suit called a wing suit and off you go, you can fly like a squirrel.

你只要做的是去復制一只飛鼠如何飛的原理，建造一套翼服，你就可以像一只飛鼠那樣可以在天空中飛翔。

Now, most people, a lot of people, I wouldn't say everybody but a lot of people think they can't draw.

那么，大多數人，很多人，我不會說所有人，但很多人認為他們不會畫畫。

However there are some key principles, five principles that you can apply to learning to draw and you can actually learn to draw in five days.

然而這里有一些重要的原則，5個原則你可以利用來學習畫畫并且實際上你可以在5天內學會。

So, if you draw like this, you learn these principles for five days and apply them and after five days you can draw something like this.

如果你平時畫成這樣，那么你學習5天這些原則然后應用它們，5天后，你可以畫成這樣。

Now I know this is true because that was my first drawing and after five days of applying these principles that was what I was able to do.

我知道這是真的，因為那是我第一次畫的，5天后我應用了這些原則，我可以做到這樣。

And I looked at this and I went ‘wow,' so that's how I look like when I'm concentrating so intensely that my brain is exploding.

當我看著這個，我“哇”了一聲，那就是我非常強烈的，專注到我大腦快要爆炸的樣子呀！

So, anybody can learn to draw in five days and in the same way, with the same logic, anybody can learn a second language in six months.

因此，任何人都能夠用5天時間學會畫畫，同樣地，用同樣的方式和邏輯，任何人都可以在6個月內學會一門外語。