手機版
Although Tom and I have known each other for 16 months, we still haven't had what you might call a decent chat. I've tried to initiate conversation countless times, but he always seems more interested in playing games, singing songs or hiding. It's good to talk, I tell him, but he doesn't reply. I'm beginning to get frustrated.
盡管我和Tom彼此已經認識了16個月，但是我們至今為止還是沒有進行過一次正經八百的交談。我曾無數次地試圖展開一次對話，但是他似乎總是對玩游戲，唱歌，捉迷藏更感興趣。雖然我告訴他，說話是很棒的事，可是他沒理我。我于是開始感到挫敗起來。
It's not necessarily Tom's fault. I'm pretty confident he does want to talk to me; he just doesn't know how. He doesn't speak my language. Unfortunately he doesn't speak any other languages either. If he did, I'm sure we'd have found some way to communicate by now, even it was one of those clicking languages from southern Africa. If he was a parrot from southern Africa we'd have made more progress. If he was a dolphin he could do the clicks. But Tom's problem is more fundamental than simply being a different species.
這并不能算是Tom的錯。我很肯定他不是不想與我交談，而是他不知道如何交談，因為他不會說我的語言。不幸的是，他也不會說其他任何一種語言。如果他會的話，到現在為止，我敢肯定我門已經找到一些方式來交流了，哪怕是用南非的咂舌音。如果他是一只南非的鸚鵡，我們或許已經有所進展了；如果他是一只海豚，他可以發吸氣音。然而Tom的問題可比簡單地作為另一個物種深入多了！
The thing is, he's a baby. He was born in May last year and he isn't yet physically capable of speech. His modest brain isn't quite up to speed and even if it was, he has very little control of his tiny tongue. Although occasionally cute, baby humans are virtually useless. He can't even walk, let alone forage for food or sleep beyond 6am.
問題在于，他是一個嬰兒。他于去年5月出生，在生理上他對說話還無能為力。他不太強大的腦子還不太跟得上速度，就算能跟上，他對自己的小舌頭也只有微弱的控制力。盡管有時候人類嬰兒很可愛，但是他們實際上沒有用。他甚至不會走路，更別說自己覓食或是撐到下午6點以后睡覺了。
But Tom can now do some things. He can slither down from a sofa, pick up peas and point wildly at anything that catches his bright blue eyes. And while not particularly useful as a single manoeuvre, that level of co-ordination means he's more than ready to communicate, if only I knew how to encourage him. It's really me who is being slow.
但是Tom現在可以完成一些事。他能從沙發上滑下來，撿起豌豆，并且能激動地指著任何能吸引他那明亮的藍眼球的東西。盡管這些簡單的移動還不能發揮具體作用，但這種配合表明了他已經急不可待地要與人交流了，如果我知道如何鼓勵他就好了。看來，那個慢半拍的人是我才對。
We don't know what words man said first. Some experts have speculated that primitive language was developed from random sounds; early homo, they say, might have based his first words either on the noises he heard, like the splash of falling water; or on his own instinctive cries, like a gulp of surprise at the sight of falling water.
我們不知道人類最先說的是哪些詞。一些專家已推測，那些最初的語言是從隨機的聲音中發展起來的。他們聲稱，早期人類的第一個詞也許要么基于他所聽到的噪音，像是濺水的聲音；要么基于他自己本能的喊叫，像是看到降水時驚奇地吞咽口水的聲音。
But some believe that language was developed from signs rather than noises. Gestural theory suggests that man first communicated with hand and body movements and developed language from there.
然而，一些人認為語言是從肢體動作發展起來，而不是從周圍的噪音中發展起來的。肢體語言理論認為，人類最初是用手和身體動作來交流，并且語言是由此發展起來的。
The origin of language theories can never amount to much more than educated conjecture. But anyone who owns a child can observe firsthand how their speech slowly emerges. Tom, for instance, has yet to say his first proper word. He did go through a phase of saying "bra" every time he looked at a woman, but that was surely just a coincidence.
語言起源理論總不會超過其學術性推測的框框。然而，任何有孩子的人都可以率先觀察孩子的言語是如何初步顯現的。比如說，才學會說第一個完整的詞的Tom，在一段時間里，每次看見女人，便會說“bra"，但是這絕對只是一個巧合。
As well as "bra", Tom has been able to say "dada" and "mama" for almost a year now, but I'm not counting these as proper words. Babies throughout the world tend to start with such sounds, and this in turn is why so many languages' words for mother, father and baby have similar shapes; father can be expressed as "daddy" in English, baba in Albanian, ubaba in Zula, p¯ap¯a in Maori and atta in Latin. We've chosen these terms to mirror the repetitious consonants that babies seem to like so much.
至今為止，同"bra"一樣，Tom已經能夠說"dada"和"mama"快一年了，但是我還沒把這些當做正規詞語。全世界的嬰兒都傾向于以這些聲音開始，而這反過來說明了為什么在許多語言中，表示媽媽，爸爸和嬰兒的詞都用相似的形態。”爸爸“在英語里叫"daddy"，在阿爾巴尼亞語里叫baba，在祖魯語里叫ubaba，在毛利語里叫p-ap-a，拉丁語里叫atta。我們選擇的這些發音反映了嬰兒似乎喜歡重復的輔音。
As with all their basic skills, babies start talking at different ages. Einstein famously didn't say a word until he was three years old, Picasso said piz piz (a shortening of the Spanish for pencil) at 18 months, and one of the babies in our NCT class said "foible" before she was one. It's probably best not to worry too much about when they say what. They'll all get there in the end. But when I Google "my baby can't talk yet" I can't help but grow a little concerned. A typical 18-month-old, says the website of the Child Development Institute, "has vocabulary of approximately five to 20 words". Perhaps we will count bra, mama and dada after all. Just two more in two months and he'll be normal.
同其他基本技能一樣，嬰兒在不同的年齡開始說話。愛因斯坦直到三歲才說話，這是出了名的，畢加索在18個月大時說piz piz（西班牙語對鉛筆的縮寫），我們NCT班里的一個嬰兒在一歲前說“foible”。所以，或許最好不要太擔心他們何時開口說話，說的是什么，反正到頭來，他們都會說話的。但是當我在網上搜索“我的嬰兒還不會說話”時，我不由得有點擔心起來。兒童發展學會網說，一般而言，對于一個18歲大的嬰兒來說，“詞匯量大約在5到20個單詞之間。”或許我們還得將bra,mama,和dada也算作一個詞吧，只要在下兩個月內再掌握兩個單詞，他就在正常之列了。
As far as I can tell, Tom hasn't deliberately mastered a sign for any particular object yet, but he does point incessantly, wave goodbye and clap when excited. So perhaps his gestures are advancing faster than his speech. Perhaps, with a helping hand, this could be our shortcut to satisfying communication.
據我所知，Tom還尚未有意識地掌握一種針對任何特別事物的肢體動作，但是他無休止地用手指物體，揮手再見，并在激動的時候拍手。所以，也許他的肢體動作比他的語言進展得更快。也許手勢的幫助，可以加快我們滿意的溝通。
We'd like Tom to talk to us as soon as possible so that we can find out what's on his mind, rather than whether his mind is average or not. I'm desperate to know what he's got to say for himself. And, more than his opinions on culture and politics, I mainly want to know how he's feeling, if only so that my wife and I no longer have to guess. One whingey afternoon we thought he might be hungry, tired, teething or just a generally grumpy human being before finally realising he was hot. If only we'd all known there was a simple gesture for it.
我們想要Tom盡快和我們說話，這樣我們便可以知道他在想什么，而不是只能判斷他的想法是否在平均水平。我已經迫不及待地想知道他會為自己說些什么。并且，比起他對文化和政治的看法來，我更想知道他的感覺，要是我和妻子不用再猜那該多好。一天下午，我們以為他可能是餓了，累了，長牙了或者只是有一點人類共有的煩躁，后來我們才意識到他是熱著了。如果他有一個簡單的肢體動作來表達他的意圖，而我們對其了如指掌就好了。
Baby signing was invented with just such a situation in mind. The basic premise – that babies can communicate before they can talk – was investigated thoroughly by the scientist Joseph Garcia, among others, in the late 1980s. While working at Alaska Pacific University, Garcia suggested that even at six months, hearing babies of hearing parents can begin learning basic sign language for ideas such as eat, drink, milk, more, no and hot. According to his theory, a hot baby with a basic grasp of signing would simply move his open hand across his forehead to make his parents instantly remove his unnecessary jumper.
嬰兒的肢體動作是在這樣的思想狀態下出現的。其基本前提是，嬰兒在他們會說話之前就會交流，在20世紀80年代后期，Joseph Garcia及其他科學家對此做過徹底地調查研究。還在阿拉斯加太平洋大學工作時，Garcia表明，就算是那些自己和父母都有聽力能力的只有6個月大的嬰兒，也都會開始學習一些基本的肢體語言，比如像吃飯，喝水，牛奶，更多，不要，熱等。據此理論，一個感覺到熱的嬰兒，如果掌握一種基本的肢體動作，可以簡單地把他攤開的小手移上前額，以便讓父母馬上幫他脫掉不必要的夾克。
It wasn't until a few years ago, however, that baby signing really took off in the UK. It seems odd that, despite having the means to sign since the birth of language, we've only recently decided to share this information with our babies. Deaf communities have always known that infants can sign before they can talk, but hearing parents hadn't thought to follow suit.
然而，嬰兒肢體動作在英國開始流行起來還不到幾年工夫。奇怪的是，盡管人們在語言出現前就在使用肢體動作了，可我們從最近才決定和我們的嬰兒共享這個信息。失聰群體一直都知道嬰兒在他們會說話前便會做動作，但是有聽力的父母卻從沒有想過照著做。
Today, though, there are countless baby sign groups offering hundreds of classes in the UK alone. My wife took Tom to one such class when he was just a few months old, having heard about it from another mum, Sam, who'd read about it on the National Child Trust's (NCT) website. Her son, another Tom, was born six months before ours and had just about mastered the signs for milk and food, which is all you really need to survive at his age. More importantly, Sam told the group that she and Tom both loved the class itself, and that really got everyone's attention. When mums discover a new fun, cheap and healthy thing to do with their babies, the news spreads like wildfire.
盡管如此，今天單單是在英國，就有著多不勝數的嬰兒肢體動作訓練小組，提供上百個課程。在另一位媽媽Sam那聽說了這個課程以后，我和妻子在Tom幾個月大的時候帶他去參加了一個這種班，這位媽媽也是在國家兒童信托網上得知此事的。她的兒子也叫Tom，比我們的兒子早出生6個月，才掌握了牛奶和食物的肢體動作，這在他的年齡也只能達到這個程度了。更重要的是，Sam告訴小組說，她和 Tom都喜愛這個課程，這著實引起所有人的注意。當媽媽們發現一個能與自己的嬰兒一起完成的新樂趣，它花費不大而且健康的時候，這消息便像野火一樣蔓延開去。
The first time round, however, baby signing didn't work for us. We all needed to find our feet before our hands. In fact, despite our good intentions, no one in our NCT group had stuck with the signing. It might make things easier in the long run, but at a time when you're trying to get your head round suddenly keeping another human alive it's hard to prioritise. But after 16 non-communicative months I felt it was time to try again, so I took him along to a local baby sign class ran by TinyTalk, which claims to be "the biggest and best baby-signing organisation in the UK, Ireland and Australia".
但是剛去那會兒，嬰兒肢體動作對我們并不管用。在使用手勢前，我們都找不到北。實際上，除了我們想學好的意愿外，我們的NCT小組里還沒有哪個人不被肢體動作難住。可能時間長了，事情就會變得容易一些吧，但是當你在突然轉頭時，同時讓別人保持注意，這是很難優化的。但是在經歷了16個的“無法溝通”之月后，我覺得是時候再試試看了，所以我把Tom帶到一家TinyTalk旗下的嬰兒肢體動作學習班，它自稱是“英國、愛爾蘭和澳大利亞最好的嬰兒肢體動作訓練機構”。
There wasn't a lot of focus on vocabulary or grammar. Instead there were colourful mats to sit on, colourful books to look at, colourful toys to play with and a cuddly monkey to ape. Eight babies were herded by eight parents in the general direction of our teacher, Lisa Peycke, herself a mum of two, who spoke, sang and signed to us in a manner that was admirably patient.
訓練課并沒有過多注重詞匯量和語法的學習。取而代之的是五顏六色的墊子供我們坐，五顏六色的書供我們閱讀，五顏六色的玩具供孩子玩耍，還有一個柔軟的玩具猴子供孩子模仿。六對父母把六個嬰兒聚在一起，面向老師的方向。老師叫做Lisa Peycke，她自己也是兩個孩子的媽媽，她用耐心的態度為我們唱歌，做動作。
With a degree in linguistics from Bangor University, Lisa had left a job in HR to become a signing instructor soon after becoming a mother. It was, she says, the perfect job, especially since her own kids have taken to signing so well. Her eldest had 40 signs at his disposal at 13 months and her youngest signed her first word, milk, at just five months. Those are impressive stats.
在班戈大學持有語言學學位的Lisa，在成為母親不久后，便放棄了一份人力資源的工作，成為肢體動作指導師。她說，這是一份完美的工作，特別是當她自己的孩子開始把肢體語言學得很好的時候。她的大兒子用這種方法在13個月以來掌握了40個動作，她的小兒子5個月以來學會了他的第一個肢體語言，牛奶。這些開頭都很激動人心。
At first glance hers was much like many of the other parent-and-baby classes we've attended, where we're encouraged to sing songs, clap hands, listen to stories and gossip. Tom seemed to enjoy himself and so we did too. At Lisa's class, for the first time in his short life, he was the oldest child in the room and seemed to revel in this role, sitting silently like a village elder for 40 minutes before eventually cracking when some biscuits were brought out.
第一眼看去，她的課跟很多我們所參加的家長-嬰兒的課大體上都差不多，在那兒，老師鼓勵我們唱歌，拍手，聽故事和閑聊。看上去Tom玩得很高興，所以我們也跟著高興。在Lisa的課上，Tom在他短小的生命中第一次成為教室里最大的孩子，并且似乎對此陶醉起來，安靜地在坐了40分鐘，猶如村子里的長者一般，直到發餅干的時候他終于把持不住了。
The signing aspect of the class was underplayed and far from overwhelming. Lisa signed throughout the songs and stories, we tried to join in, and the babies watched each other. But by the end of the hour I found I had learnt at least half a dozen signs, more than enough to get me going with Tom back at home. I left impressed. I've always been suspicious of baby education, of teaching them the front crawl at six weeks or Mozart in the womb, but this was different, mainly because it was really aimed at the parents.
課程中教肢體動作的方面并不那么充分，遠不是主要部分。在唱歌和講故事的全程，Lisa都在做動作，我們便試圖加入進去，嬰兒們就彼此大眼對小眼。然而要結束的時候，我已經學了至少半打肢體動作，足夠讓我在回家后跟Tom交流了。臨走時，我的印象很深刻。我一直都對嬰兒教育心存疑慮，對于在他們六個月大時教他們自由泳，當他們還在媽媽肚子里時給他們放莫扎特的音樂而心存懷疑。但是這次不一樣，很大程度上是因為這個課是針對父母的。
The idea is that I will now use the signs I've learnt every time they're relevant to Tom. Every time I put him down for a nap I'll do the sign for sleep, while also slowly and deliberately saying the word. Eventually, in theory, Tom will connect the ideas and not only recognise the sign but make it himself if he feels sleepy. And because I will have deliberately used the word "sleep" each time, he will, in time, start copying that, too.
辦法是這樣的，只要現在的每次情況和Tom有關，我都可以用上學過的肢體動作。每次我把他放在床上睡午覺時，便會做出睡覺的動作，并且同時有意識地緩慢說出睡覺這個單詞。最終，從理論上來講，Tom將把動作和觀念聯系起來，他不僅只會識別動作，還會在自己困的時候做出這個動作。并且由于我每次都會刻意地說出睡覺這個詞，慢慢地，他也會模仿著說。
As well as the communication aspect, those who promote baby signing report huge benefits for everyone involved, including larger expressive and receptive spoken language vocabularies, more advanced mental development, a reduction in problematic behaviour and improved parent-child relationships. To those who think signing might slow down speaking, they say the opposite occurs: encouraging sign language empowers babies to focus the topic and context of conversation and ultimately makes them more interested in words. There's even research indicating that simply pointing at things aids the process of object naming and language development, so I'm now telling anyone I meet that my son is really rather advanced.
在交流方面，那些支持嬰兒肢體動作學習的人對相關的每個人宣稱其巨大的好處，包括可以讓嬰幼兒無論在表達上，還是接收上，都能掌握更大的詞匯量，讓他們心智進步，讓他們的“問題行為”減少，并改善父母和孩子之間的關系。要對那些認為肢體動作可能會減慢說話能力發展的人所說的是，其實這能產生與之所想相反的效果：鼓勵肢體語言會讓嬰兒專注于談話的主題和語境，并最終促使他們對單詞更感興趣。甚至已有研究表明，簡單地用手指物體能加快嬰兒在定義物體過程中的發展和語言的發展，所以現在我要告訴任何我所碰見的人，我的兒子取得了相當大的進步。
Whether or not any of this rubs off on Tom we'll have to see. But instinctively it feels good to be trying to connect with him. Any sort of focused interaction must be a good thing. Having said that, I have to admit feeling a little embarrassed in the class itself, memories of my French oral flooding back as I, the only bloke in the room, tried to sing in tune and remember the actions to "Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" (yes, I realise now the clue is in the title).
此事是否會對Tom產生影響，我們還得拭目以待。但是嘗試著和Tom 聯系起來，讓我本能地感覺很好。任何形式的互動都很好。在課程中，當我說了我承認自己感到有些尷尬以后，作為教室里唯一一個男性，在我試著順著曲調唱歌，并且記住“頭，肩，膝蓋，腳趾”對應的動作時，以前法語口試的記憶在我腦海中涌現出來。（是的，我現在才意識到，當時口試的提示就在題目中）。
Luckily, if you can't overcome your inhibitions, there are plenty of other more private baby sign options. After our second lesson I bought myself the TinyTalk Let's Sign! DVD, one of several interactive introductions to the language currently available. There are also numerous signing demonstrations on YouTube, and if you watch CBeebies as, I like to reassure myself, all parents do at least once a day, you'll be familiar with the work of one Justin Fletcher. Justin is the very soul of CBeebies, the star of the genuinely amusing Gigglebiz (Arthur Sleep, anyone?) and, most importantly, the presenter of Something Special. In this Bafta-winning show he takes kids with disabilities and learning difficulties on gentle adventures around the country, speaking to the children on screen and at home using a system called Makaton that mixes speech, signing and graphic symbols. As children grow more competent and confident with speech, the signs and symbols are gradually phased out, in just the same way that baby signing slowly gives way to baby talking.
所幸的是，如果你無法克服拘謹，還有很多其他可供你私下學習嬰兒肢體動作的方案。第二個課程結束后，我買了一張TinyTalk《讓我們一起做動作》的DVD，這是近期你可以找到的若干互動語言入門材料的其中之一。同樣地，優酷網上也有許多肢體動作示范，你可以在上面看CBeebies，就像我一樣，看這個讓自己安心，所有父母每天至少得做一次，你就會熟悉Justin Fletcher的作品。Justin是CBeebies的靈魂人物，也是真正好玩的Gigglebiz（亞瑟睡覺了，還有人在嗎？）中的明星，而且最重要的是，他是“來點特別”節目的主持人。在這個Bafta-winning秀里，他帶一些殘疾的和有學習障礙的孩子在全國范圍內進行溫和地冒險，在屏幕上和這些孩子說話，在家里使用一個叫做Mataton的系統，把言語，動作，圖片符號揉和在一起。當孩子在談話中變得越來越勝任和自信時，這些動作和符號逐漸被取消，根據同樣的方式，嬰兒的肢體語言逐漸地讓位給言語。
I'm determined to continue with baby sign language, inspired by both Lisa and Justin. Neither came from a signing background and both managed to learn well over 100 signs in a matter of days. More importantly, they make signing look easy, not ridiculous. If they can do it, if Lisa's daughter could do it at five months, then I can do it, too.
在Lisa和Jjustin兩個人的啟發下，我決意繼續學習嬰兒的肢體語言。他們都沒有肢體動作學習背景，但都掌握了超過100種動作，學會是遲早的事，只在乎時間長短。更重要的是，他們讓動作看上去簡單而不可笑。如果他們可以做到，Lisa5個月大的女兒可以做到，我也可以做到。
After just a couple of weeks of practice, Tom managed to sign his first word. Or at least I think he did. When I slowly asked him if he was sleepy, he certainly raised his hands to the side of the cheek as if to copy my action, and I was thrilled, even if it might just have been another coincidence. We're getting there. In the short term I'm hoping we'll help each other get to the elementary level of baby signing in a few months, because it's not just him I want to have words with. Tom's going to become an older brother at Christmas, and baby signing could just be how our family of four first gets to know each other. It'll hopefully be our helping hand, our secret language, our way of telling each other if we're a bit hot.
在幾周的練習后，Tom學會用動作表達他的第一個詞。或者只是我自己認為他學會了。當我慢慢地問他是否困了時，他肯定地舉止雙手，放在臉頰的一側，好像是在重復我的動作，于是我很興奮，就算這只是另一個巧合，我也很興奮，至少我們正在往目標發展。短期內，我希望我們能幫助彼此在幾個月內學會初級的嬰兒肢體動作，因為我只是想和他說話。在圣誕節，Tom就要當哥哥了，嬰兒肢體動作正是我們四口之家了解彼此的方法。希望它能助我們一力，成為我們的秘密語言，如果我們熱了，我們可以用這種方式告訴彼此。
PS:
1. 本文摘自 Alex Horne The Observer, Sunday 10 October 2010 Article history
2. Alex Horne is a comedian and writer. He has just released The Horne Section, a CD of comedy, jazz and poetry (alexhorne.com)
Alex是一名喜劇演員和作家。他剛發行了了名為Horne Section的包括喜劇，爵士及詩歌的CD。
