“哪个是谓语？” ：记我爸对我「相爱相杀」的英语启蒙
翻了一下之前发过的公众号文章，上次更新已经是15个月前的事了。这次整理了一篇这三周以来一直在写在改在翻译的叙事性小作文，跟大家分享我小时候跟着我爸学英语的画面。（嗯，我当面会叫“爸”，背地里叫“我爸”，所以文中不会出现“爸爸”二字。）
以及预警：本文没有图。一张都没有。
While growing up and studying English at school, I was able to get by without much effort: I became the teacher’s classroom assistant and remained in this role for eleven years. Meanwhile, the most effective English language education I received was from my dad, the most diligent self-taught English learner around me.
从小到大，学校的英语课我不用怎么努力就能过关，当英语科代也当了十几年。这一切大部分归要功于我身边最勤力的英语学习爱好者：我爸。
Dad is a successful salesman with English skills playing to his advantage. He didn’t start learning English until he graduated from the naval academy, when he realized how important English was and decided that it would help his career. He bought himself the four-book textbook series of New Concept English — a popular series among Chinese learners in recent decades. He recited every passage one by one and over and over again, along with studying thoroughly music lyrics and lines from classic films. He crashed some courses sitting in on classes at an ESL-immersive university. Within a year, he even started to make a little money on the side as an amateur translator during the city-wide annual trade fairs. At some point, he started to use his skills to build connections with potential clients and win them over by volunteering to tutor their kids in English.
销售出身的我爸，用英语这一技之长武装了自己，也算是为他带来了很大的竞争力。海军学院毕业之前，他都没有认真花心思学过英语（包括高考）。后来他认识到英语对于他职业发展的重要性——从四本《新概念英语》开始，他把每一篇课文读了背，背了读。同时他还反复琢磨一些喜欢的电影台词和歌词。再加上时不时去附近的大学里蹭英语课，一两年下来进步忒大。到后来甚至已经开始辅导客户的孩子们英语了（？！）。
To people who don’t know him well, it sounds like he pronounces English in a funny way. (I kept reminding him that his colleague was Tony, and not Tonny.) But as someone who constantly receives compliments on my English, I have nothing but awe for my dad’s wide vocabulary and easy confidence when facing intricate English sentences: It’s like he could sit down, focus, and slice an English paragraph open like a fruit and then study it under a microscope. Even today, he works hard at reading and reciting.
对我爸的英语水平不太了解的人，可能听他说起英语的时候可能会觉得别扭（觉得这个人口音是不是太重？）。确实，比如他谈起他名为“Tony”的同事的时候，我会试图纠正他说，人家叫“偷你”，不叫“托你”。
但说真的，虽然我时不时会因为英语说得还行被路人夸奖，但是我真正佩服的英语学习者是老爸：词汇量强大，面对复杂的语句也自信满满从不怯场。对待书里和报纸上那些复杂的句子，他可以抽丝剥茧逐一攻破。直到现在，他还会每天找时间认真地朗读和背诵英语。
Clearly, my dad has been hard on himself, and I think he was trying to put me through his experience — his philosophy of focus and diligence was exactly how my father “made” me learn English. From age five to around twelve, I was supposed to read English out loud every morning for a minimum of fifteen minutes. During weekends, whenever my dad was home, he’d assign me a 300- to 500-word passage — I’d have to spend whatever amount of time I needed to memorize it (usually a whole morning on a Saturday), and then go to him and recite it in front of him. There were always occasions when I thought I had it, but only to trip over my words in the very first sentence. When that happened, he’d send me back to my room to spend more time so that I could “really work on it this time.” Often times, after spending about an hour to an hour and a half in my room, I’d get frustrated and conclude that I’d never finish the task. But I was intimidated by his moods, and I didn’t want to let my challenge get in the way of our relationship.
没错，我爸对自己的要求就是这么苛刻，而且他也想让我贯彻他的学习方法——以专注和勤勉为指导方针。
在我五岁到十二岁这段时间里，我周一到周五每天吃早餐前后都要大声朗读15分钟左右的英语（以前学校早读或者第一节课还经常迟到，我爸说不要紧）。周末的时候，只要我爸在家，他就会从书里选一篇 300到500词的“精品短文”，然后把我关在房间里，让我把文章背下来给他检查：花多少时间不限制（一般要花两到三个小时的时间吧）。我经常在花了一两个小时之后，觉得自己已经准备好了，就拿上书到客厅找他。但往往第一个句子就会出现一些故障。这时候我爸会让我回房间，让我“这一次要认真花心思背”。
十有八九，我在接下来的几十分钟会觉得特别难熬，觉得自己肯定背不下来了。但毕竟我还是很怕我爸的升级版发脾气的，所以还是硬着头皮背完再给他检查一遍吧。
Sometimes Dad would check if I knew a new word he had spotted in his current reading. If I didn’t know what it meant or came up with a distant guess, he’d say how disappointed he was in me — that I did not invest enough time in vocabulary. I always replied and said that I did, and that it was just because he didn’t happen to have asked me something I already spent time on. Hearing this, he’d always get madder, claiming that if I’d allot more time to English, I’d achieve more.
有时候我爸看到报纸里或者电视上出现了一些不太常用（但他认识）的英语单词的时候，会来问我“这是什么意思”。如果我说不知道，或是强行猜测（但距离标准答案有点离谱）的时候，他会脸色大变，说一些“我对你很失望”，或者“你为什么平时一点也不积累”这样的话。我总是会回嘴说我有努力积累，只是你没问到我最近新学到的词！听我这样说，我爸会更生气，说如果我多用点心，一定能在英语学习上有更大的长进。
The articles he assigned me to recite were usually above my level (for example, “The Gettysburg Address,” when I was nine years old!). The sentences were long, with a lot of unfamiliar words. Sometimes I didn’t even know what a sentence meant; how would I be able to memorize it? And it was even more impossible to memorize over twenty sentences in a row. Dad’s philosophy was that if your goal was to memorize the whole thing, then you had to force yourself to read the sentences out loud — over and over again — then the sentence structure would unfold, and you’d understand the sentences. “Where is the predicate?” was his main question when I told him I didn’t understand a sentence. “Where is the predicate?” he always asked. And among all the clauses, auxiliary…and verbs, I’d show him that I was able to weed out the clauses and find that core of sentence. “Then we go from there,” he’d say.
再说回那些我爸周末把我关在房间里背诵的英语短文吧。那些文章往往比我的当时的英语程度要高很多。比如我在四年级的时候，他会布置林肯的《葛底斯堡演说》让我去背诵。这样的文章句子长，文字生涩——大部分时候我都不知道在说啥，更别说背下来了！而且不是一两个句子，是几十个句子组成的文章。我爸老说，你一定要告诉自己，这篇文章能背下来没问题。目标定好了，在背诵过程中，因为要不停地读每一个句子，往往就能把句子的结构搞得清清楚楚。
有时候如果我表示这个句子我看不懂（一般是背不出来的时候的合理借口），我爸就会问我：“你说这个句子的谓语是什么？” 紧接着，我要把从句和定语从那个复杂的句子里统统扒出来，找到句子的核心谓语。然后我爸会说，“既然已经找到谓语，那理解这个句子就没什么问题了。”
He was right. Ultimately, I always managed to understand those sentences. After several hours of preparation, I’d step out of my room, pass him the book where the article lied, and tell him: “I am ready.” He’d then sit in the couch and ask me to stand up, saying: “This way you’ll be more in the mode.”
他说的没错。我最后总是能把那些句子看懂。在房间里花了几个小时试图把文章背下来之后，我会拿上书，战战兢兢地走出房间然后把书交给我爸，说“我准备好了”。他会从沙发上坐起来，让我站起着背诵，说“这样你状态会比较好”。
Of course my recitation was stumbling. However, Dad seemed to be lenient with certain small mistakes; he’d willingly prompt a few words and ask me to continue. I saw the benefits of the two hours of practice, but what I really wanted was the feeling I got afterward. To me it was like building up my spirits for a six-mile run: my only motivation was the runner’s high I would get later.
不出所料，我每次背诵都会很磕巴。不过我爸有时候对于一些小错误还是很宽容的。他会时不时给我提几个词，然后让我接着背下去。
我知道每次背书的时候我都能学到很多，但我真正期待的是背给我爸听之后交了差的那种解放感。那种感觉就像是刚跑了十公里：过程无比痛苦，途中不下一百次想要放弃，但最终完成了的傲娇。
My Dad assigned authentic materials, like short articles he wanted me to recite, and TV and movie clips. For movies, he would play a clip of the movie of, say, Beauty and the Beast. He’d ask me to turn my head facing away from the TV, while only listening, I was required to repeat a stream of lines, many times until error-free. Usually, he had to replay each line at least five to eight times before I could succeed.
我爸很喜欢使用地道的素材，比如”精品背诵美文“或者一些电影台词片段。就拿《美女与野兽》来说吧，他会让我背对着电视，只听声音——他会播放几句台词，然后暂停，让我重复刚才播放的内容，要重复到一个词都不差。第一次重复当然很难成功。我爸会用遥控器把电影片段倒回去，再给我播一遍，让我再重复。
一般来说都要至少五六次反复快退快进播放，我才能一次不差地重复出那几句台词。
To me, Dad was never a decent teacher, given all his impatient yelling and scolding. I had countless teary moments as he criticized me as a person and questioned my will. As a diligent man himself, I always thought that I would never be able to manage a vocabulary as his. But thanks to him, and probably with all the English exams and tests that ensued, I would say that I’ve managed to conquer this English learning challenge.
对我来说，我爸不是个“好老师”：他经常骂我笨（然后我鬼哭狼嚎），更是不放过每一个可以质疑或者否定我的努力的机会。
看到像他这样努力的人，我心想我自己永远不会达到他的境界（及词汇量）吧。但我还是不得不承认，因为有他，在接下来很长的一段时间里，我都没有被学校里学校外大大小小的英语考试所困扰。从某种意义上来说，我也没有让他太失望吧。
What I appreciate most about my father’s guidance is that he never mentioned phrase like “in an exam” or “for a test.” He wanted me to be self-motivated and cherish the journey of lifelong learning. Finally, I think I have successfully come to embrace this passion for language study and brought it beyond learning English.
我最欣赏我爸的一点，是他从来没有在他的指导方针里把”考试“和”分数“作为关键词。他希望看到我主动花时间学习花时间积累（一辈子...!）。
在不知不觉中对语言学习的热情逐渐升温，生活态度也被带动起来啦！
小后续
这篇文章的起始点，是三年前在哥大的一节教育实践课第一节课的作业：An autobiography of your learning journey of a second language （写写你学外语的经历）。当时的小作文里有包含以上大部分的内容，加上我对我爸的教育方法的旁观者式分析：我觉得他使用的是一种叫做 Audiolingual Method 以及 Reading Approach 的结合体：这种方法的特征是 （1）集中力量通过使用大量使用真实自然的语言素材来扩大学生的词汇量；（2）授课中没有直接的语法灌输（但我爸通过 “找谓语” 还有背诵地道的语言素材的方式，给我铺垫了日后我对于语法的狂热）。
前几周突然想起把原来的作业翻出来改改。先是加了不少细节，再是趁回匹兹堡找朋友的时候约了母校写作中心的助手们，让他们给我的文章出谋献策。（要特别谢谢Emma!!) 写作中心小助手说，现在的文章结构，能看到复杂多面的人物性格了。("It's good that every paragraph complicates the character of your Dad.") 还要谢谢 Glenn 最后帮我修改了英语的部分。
中文翻译是今天中午开始刚弄的。要特别感谢小呆菲进来一直督促我写文章，还帮我检查翻译+头脑风暴了本文的标题。
