全球化時代的單語天花板 Monoglot ceiling

When Isabelle Allen joined KPMG in 1991, she says, the professional services group valued, promoted and rewarded those people who had deep expertise.

伊莎貝爾阿朗(Isabelle Allen) 1991年加入了畢馬威(KPMG)，她表示，當時這家專業服務集團看重那些擁有高超專業知識技能的人，給予他們晉升和獎勵。

“We were looking for people who were master of a task and getting better at doing the same task year on year,” says the French executive, who is now global head of sales and markets at KPMG.

“那時我們想要的是精通一項工作的人，並能通過年復一年從事同樣的工作越做越好，” 這名法國籍高管表示。她現在是畢馬威全球銷售和市場主管。

These days, the company is looking for breadth as well as depth, seeking staff “who thrive on change, people who are comfortable with ambiguity — solvers of problems that didn’t even exist two years ago”.

如今畢馬威既想要通才又想要專才，他們希望員工“面對變化如魚得水，能自如地應對模棱兩可的事務——能夠解決那些兩年前甚至都不存在的問題”。

Having studied the latest research into the cognitive benefits of Ms Allen wonders whether knowledge of foreign languages may be one hidden signpost pointing towards those future stars.

瞭解了掌握多門外語的認知優勢的最新研究以後，阿朗想知道掌握外語是否可能是那些未來之星的一個隱藏屬性。

“The multilingual brain might actually be better at doing business than the monolingual brain,” says Antonella Sorace, professor of developmental linguistics at the University of Edinburgh.

“比起只會一種語言的人，會多種語言的人事實上或許更擅長處理商務活動，” 愛丁堡大學(University of Edinburgh)發展語言學教授安東內拉∠拉切(Antonella Sorace)表示。

Multinational companies have long recognised the functional benefits of multilingualism as a bridge between business cultures. Not speaking other languages may even be a block to promotion these days, according to early findings from the British Academy’s Born Global research into language policy in the UK.

跨國公司很早就認識到多語能力作爲不同商業文化間橋樑的實用好處。根據英國社會科學院(British Academy)“生爲國際人”(Born Global)項目對英國語言政策的研究，如今不會一門外語甚至可能阻礙晉升。

“We are being told that there’s a ‘glass ceiling’ developing for monoglots within global businesses,” says Richard Hardie, who chairs UBS in London and heads the Born Global steering committee. Staff will not get into “the more rarefied atmosphere” of the senior ranks unless they have had “overseas experience, cultural awareness and probably have [another] language”.

“我們被告知，在跨國企業中，針對只會一種語言的人的‘玻璃天花板’正在形成，”瑞銀(UBS)倫敦業務主管、“生爲國際人”項目指導委員會主席理查德哈迪(Richard Hardie)表示。除非員工有“海外經歷和文化認知，並很可能掌握（另一種）語言，否則他們很難進入最高層的‘小圈子’”。

Increasingly, though, there are other ways to achieve operational efficiency in foreign languages. Google Translate and other machine applications seem to be eroding one justification for learning languages, by performing — adequately, if not perfectly — some of the basic functions of translation. Native English speakers can simply take advantage of the rest of the world’s desire to learn the lingua franca of international business. Even non-English speakers can avoid the wearying long route to fluency in English and take a short-cut to Globish, a system that teaches a basic working vocabulary of 1,500 words.

儘管如此，也有越來越多的實用方法能夠有效地跨越語言障礙。Google翻譯和其他機器程序在翻譯一些基本用語時的表現，就算不夠完美，也足夠好了，這似乎削弱了人們學習外語的一個理由。英語是國際商務活動中的通用語言，非英語國家的人們都想要學習這門語言，母語爲英語的人們可以直接利用這一點。即使是母語非英語的人，也可以避開精通英語要走的漫長而艱苦的學習之路，走捷徑學習全球語(Globish)——這是一門由1500個基本常用單詞組成的語言。

If they do so, however, they may potentially miss out on the cognitive advantages of learning and speaking other languages, according to much recent scientific research.

不過，根據最新的科學研究，如果他們這麼做，他們很可能會錯失學習和使用外語帶來的認知優勢。

Researchers at Barcelona’s Pompeu Fabra University found, for instance, that people seem to make more rational decisions in their second language — possibly because it distances them from the decision. Other benefits could include a greater ability to negotiate — because multilingual people can see others’ perspectives more easily — improved capacity to switch between tasks, and a greater focus and ability to set priorities.

比如，巴塞羅那泊普法布拉大學(Universitat Pompeu Fabra)的研究者們發現，人們在使用第二語言的時候似乎能夠做出更多理性的決策——這可能是因爲外語讓人們與決策之間拉開了距離。其他優勢還包括談判能力更強（因爲會外語的人更容易理解別人的想法），任務間切換能力更好，更專注、更會按照輕重緩急安排事情。

It makes no difference whether the second language is widely spoken, such as English or Hindi, or a less common language such as Gaelic, says Italian-born Prof Sorace, who is also founder of Bilingualism Matters, set up to spread science-based information about languages and language-learning.

出生於意大利的索拉切教授表示，不論第二種語言是像英語或者印地語那樣廣泛使用的語言，還是像蓋爾語這樣的小語種，其效果都一樣。她還是語言中心“雙語很重要”(Bilingualism Matters)的創始人，該中心的設立宗旨是傳播有關語言和語言學習的有科學依據的信息。

Languages acquired later in life can have the same effect. As well as hiring more multilinguals, companies should devote more time to training language skills, work with universities to promote the research, and support the workforce in raising multilingual families, says Prof Sorace.

索拉切教授表示，成年後學習語言也可能收到一樣的效果。在僱傭更多掌握多門語言員工的同時，公司應該投入更多時間來培訓員工的語言技能，和高校合作推進研究，並且爲組建多語家庭的員工提供支持。

Sending English-speakers to foreign postings, she points out, “is a wonderful opportunity for the children to learn languages, rather than being protected in an English-only environment”.

她指出，把說英語的人派駐到海外，“提供了一個極好的機會讓小孩學習語言，而不是自在地待在沒有語言學習壓力的純英語環境中”。

It still takes time, though, to get fluent enough in a language to find it useful in business — and linguistic ability is not a catch-all way of overcoming cultural differences in business.

即使如此，人們依然需要花費時間才能將一門語言說得足夠流利，能夠在商務活動中派上用場，語言能力也不是克服商務往來中文化差異的萬金油。

When Jo Dawson, who studied German and Swedish at Cambridge university, went to work in financial services, friends said, “You’re not using your languages — you’ve given up. Why did you bother studying?” Now an executive coach with The Alexander Partnership, she notices that senior managers with English as a second language still cannot “read” a room of native English-speakers or uncover others’ hidden agendas. They do not know “what people are really saying”, she says.

喬匠森(Jo Dawson)在劍橋大學(University of Cambridge)學習了德語和瑞典語，當她在金融服務業就業時，朋友們說，“你以後不會用你學的語言了——你放棄了。你當初是爲什麼要學它們呢？” 現在她是The Alexander Partnership的一名高管教練，她注意到以英語爲第二語言的高管們依然不能“解讀”一屋子英語母語人士的所思所想，也不能發現其他人未明說的意圖。她說，他們不明白“人們到底在說什麼”。

Cultural blindness such as this may not have much to do with whether executives speak another language, says KPMG’s Ms Allen: “I’ve met a lot of people who are totally monolingual and can’t read a room.”

畢馬威的阿朗表示，這樣的文化失明症可能與高管們會不會另一種語言沒多大關係，“我見過很多不能解讀一屋子人的情緒的純單語人士”。

A more serious concern is that time spent learning a language could be better spent acquiring other skills, some of which — such as learning to play a musical instrument — also offer proven benefits for the brain.

一個更嚴重的問題是，把學習語言花費的時間花在掌握其他技能上可能更好，已經證實學習另一些技能也對大腦有好處——比如學習彈奏一種樂器。

Bill Anderson, a senior vice-president at Pearson English, which recently hosted, with the Financial Times, a discussion on bilingualism’s challenges and opportunities, warns that tight annual operating budgets do not allow for long-term language-learning goals. Make a “short-term commitment [to language courses] and you will get very short-term benefits”, he says.

培生英語(Pearson English)最近和英國《金融時報》舉辦了一次有關雙語的挑戰和機會的討論會。培生英語高級副總裁比爾褠德森(Bill Anderson)警告稱，每年緊張的運營預算無法支持語言學習方面的長遠目標。“短期參與（語言課程），你也只能獲得非常短期的收益”，他說。