手機(jī)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(jīng)認(rèn)識(shí)了16個(gè)月，但是我們至今為止還是沒(méi)有進(jìn)行過(guò)一次正經(jīng)八百的交談。我曾無(wú)數(shù)次地試圖展開(kāi)一次對(duì)話(huà)，但是他似乎總是對(duì)玩游戲，唱歌，捉迷藏更感興趣。雖然我告訴他，說(shuō)話(huà)是很棒的事，可是他沒(méi)理我。我于是開(kāi)始感到挫敗起來(lái)。
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(cuò)。我很肯定他不是不想與我交談，而是他不知道如何交談，因?yàn)樗粫?huì)說(shuō)我的語(yǔ)言。不幸的是，他也不會(huì)說(shuō)其他任何一種語(yǔ)言。如果他會(huì)的話(huà)，到現(xiàn)在為止，我敢肯定我門(mén)已經(jīng)找到一些方式來(lái)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(jīng)有所進(jìn)展了；如果他是一只海豚，他可以發(fā)吸氣音。然而Tom的問(wèn)題可比簡(jiǎn)單地作為另一個(gè)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(wèn)題在于，他是一個(gè)嬰兒。他于去年5月出生，在生理上他對(duì)說(shuō)話(huà)還無(wú)能為力。他不太強(qiáng)大的腦子還不太跟得上速度，就算能跟上，他對(duì)自己的小舌頭也只有微弱的控制力。盡管有時(shí)候人類(lèi)嬰兒很可愛(ài)，但是他們實(shí)際上沒(méi)有用。他甚至不會(huì)走路，更別說(shuō)自己覓食或是撐到下午6點(diǎn)以后睡覺(jué)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(xiàn)在可以完成一些事。他能從沙發(fā)上滑下來(lái)，撿起豌豆，并且能激動(dòng)地指著任何能吸引他那明亮的藍(lán)眼球的東西。盡管這些簡(jiǎn)單的移動(dòng)還不能發(fā)揮具體作用，但這種配合表明了他已經(jīng)急不可待地要與人交流了，如果我知道如何鼓勵(lì)他就好了。看來(lái)，那個(gè)慢半拍的人是我才對(duì)。
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(lèi)最先說(shuō)的是哪些詞。一些專(zhuān)家已推測(cè)，那些最初的語(yǔ)言是從隨機(jī)的聲音中發(fā)展起來(lái)的。他們聲稱(chēng)，早期人類(lèi)的第一個(gè)詞也許要么基于他所聽(tīng)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(shí)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(rèn)為語(yǔ)言是從肢體動(dòng)作發(fā)展起來(lái)，而不是從周?chē)脑胍糁邪l(fā)展起來(lái)的。肢體語(yǔ)言理論認(rèn)為，人類(lèi)最初是用手和身體動(dòng)作來(lái)交流，并且語(yǔ)言是由此發(fā)展起來(lái)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(yǔ)言起源理論總不會(huì)超過(guò)其學(xué)術(shù)性推測(cè)的框框。然而，任何有孩子的人都可以率先觀察孩子的言語(yǔ)是如何初步顯現(xiàn)的。比如說(shuō)，才學(xué)會(huì)說(shuō)第一個(gè)完整的詞的Tom，在一段時(shí)間里，每次看見(jiàn)女人，便會(huì)說(shuō)“bra"，但是這絕對(duì)只是一個(gè)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(jīng)能夠說(shuō)"dada"和"mama"快一年了，但是我還沒(méi)把這些當(dāng)做正規(guī)詞語(yǔ)。全世界的嬰兒都傾向于以這些聲音開(kāi)始，而這反過(guò)來(lái)說(shuō)明了為什么在許多語(yǔ)言中，表示媽媽?zhuān)职趾蛬雰旱脑~都用相似的形態(tài)。”爸爸“在英語(yǔ)里叫"daddy"，在阿爾巴尼亞語(yǔ)里叫baba，在祖魯語(yǔ)里叫ubaba，在毛利語(yǔ)里叫p-ap-a，拉丁語(yǔ)里叫atta。我們選擇的這些發(fā)音反映了嬰兒似乎喜歡重復(fù)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(kāi)始說(shuō)話(huà)。愛(ài)因斯坦直到三歲才說(shuō)話(huà)，這是出了名的，畢加索在18個(gè)月大時(shí)說(shuō)piz piz（西班牙語(yǔ)對(duì)鉛筆的縮寫(xiě)），我們NCT班里的一個(gè)嬰兒在一歲前說(shuō)“foible”。所以，或許最好不要太擔(dān)心他們何時(shí)開(kāi)口說(shuō)話(huà)，說(shuō)的是什么，反正到頭來(lái)，他們都會(huì)說(shuō)話(huà)的。但是當(dāng)我在網(wǎng)上搜索“我的嬰兒還不會(huì)說(shuō)話(huà)”時(shí)，我不由得有點(diǎn)擔(dān)心起來(lái)。兒童發(fā)展學(xué)會(huì)網(wǎng)說(shuō)，一般而言，對(duì)于一個(gè)18歲大的嬰兒來(lái)說(shuō)，“詞匯量大約在5到20個(gè)單詞之間。”或許我們還得將bra,mama,和dada也算作一個(gè)詞吧，只要在下兩個(gè)月內(nèi)再掌握兩個(gè)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(jù)我所知，Tom還尚未有意識(shí)地掌握一種針對(duì)任何特別事物的肢體動(dòng)作，但是他無(wú)休止地用手指物體，揮手再見(jiàn)，并在激動(dòng)的時(shí)候拍手。所以，也許他的肢體動(dòng)作比他的語(yǔ)言進(jìn)展得更快。也許手勢(shì)的幫助，可以加快我們滿(mǎn)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(shuō)話(huà)，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(jīng)迫不及待地想知道他會(huì)為自己說(shuō)些什么。并且，比起他對(duì)文化和政治的看法來(lái)，我更想知道他的感覺(jué)，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(zhǎng)牙了或者只是有一點(diǎn)人類(lèi)共有的煩躁，后來(lái)我們才意識(shí)到他是熱著了。如果他有一個(gè)簡(jiǎn)單的肢體動(dòng)作來(lái)表達(dá)他的意圖，而我們對(duì)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(dòng)作是在這樣的思想狀態(tài)下出現(xiàn)的。其基本前提是，嬰兒在他們會(huì)說(shuō)話(huà)之前就會(huì)交流，在20世紀(jì)80年代后期，Joseph Garcia及其他科學(xué)家對(duì)此做過(guò)徹底地調(diào)查研究。還在阿拉斯加太平洋大學(xué)工作時(shí)，Garcia表明，就算是那些自己和父母都有聽(tīng)力能力的只有6個(gè)月大的嬰兒，也都會(huì)開(kāi)始學(xué)習(xí)一些基本的肢體語(yǔ)言，比如像吃飯，喝水，牛奶，更多，不要，熱等。據(jù)此理論，一個(gè)感覺(jué)到熱的嬰兒，如果掌握一種基本的肢體動(dòng)作，可以簡(jiǎn)單地把他攤開(kāi)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(dòng)作在英國(guó)開(kāi)始流行起來(lái)還不到幾年工夫。奇怪的是，盡管人們?cè)谡Z(yǔ)言出現(xiàn)前就在使用肢體動(dòng)作了，可我們從最近才決定和我們的嬰兒共享這個(gè)信息。失聰群體一直都知道嬰兒在他們會(huì)說(shuō)話(huà)前便會(huì)做動(dòng)作，但是有聽(tīng)力的父母卻從沒(méi)有想過(guò)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(guó)，就有著多不勝數(shù)的嬰兒肢體動(dòng)作訓(xùn)練小組，提供上百個(gè)課程。在另一位媽媽Sam那聽(tīng)說(shuō)了這個(gè)課程以后，我和妻子在Tom幾個(gè)月大的時(shí)候帶他去參加了一個(gè)這種班，這位媽媽也是在國(guó)家兒童信托網(wǎng)上得知此事的。她的兒子也叫Tom，比我們的兒子早出生6個(gè)月，才掌握了牛奶和食物的肢體動(dòng)作，這在他的年齡也只能達(dá)到這個(gè)程度了。更重要的是，Sam告訴小組說(shuō)，她和 Tom都喜愛(ài)這個(gè)課程，這著實(shí)引起所有人的注意。當(dāng)媽媽們發(fā)現(xiàn)一個(gè)能與自己的嬰兒一起完成的新樂(lè)趣，它花費(fèi)不大而且健康的時(shí)候，這消息便像野火一樣蔓延開(kāi)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?cè)ツ菚?huì)兒，嬰兒肢體動(dòng)作對(duì)我們并不管用。在使用手勢(shì)前，我們都找不到北。實(shí)際上，除了我們想學(xué)好的意愿外，我們的NCT小組里還沒(méi)有哪個(gè)人不被肢體動(dòng)作難住�？赡軙r(shí)間長(zhǎng)了，事情就會(huì)變得容易一些吧，但是當(dāng)你在突然轉(zhuǎn)頭時(shí)，同時(shí)讓別人保持注意，這是很難優(yōu)化的。但是在經(jīng)歷了16個(gè)的“無(wú)法溝通”之月后，我覺(jué)得是時(shí)候再試試看了，所以我把Tom帶到一家TinyTalk旗下的嬰兒肢體動(dòng)作學(xué)習(xí)班，它自稱(chēng)是“英國(guó)、愛(ài)爾蘭和澳大利亞最好的嬰兒肢體動(dòng)作訓(xùn)練機(jī)構(gòu)”。
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(xùn)練課并沒(méi)有過(guò)多注重詞匯量和語(yǔ)法的學(xué)習(xí)。取而代之的是五顏六色的墊子供我們坐，五顏六色的書(shū)供我們閱讀，五顏六色的玩具供孩子玩耍，還有一個(gè)柔軟的玩具猴子供孩子模仿。六對(duì)父母把六個(gè)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(gè)孩子的媽媽?zhuān)媚托牡膽B(tài)度為我們唱歌，做動(dòng)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(xué)持有語(yǔ)言學(xué)學(xué)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(dòng)作指導(dǎo)師。她說(shuō)，這是一份完美的工作，特別是當(dāng)她自己的孩子開(kāi)始把肢體語(yǔ)言學(xué)得很好的時(shí)候。她的大兒子用這種方法在13個(gè)月以來(lái)掌握了40個(gè)動(dòng)作，她的小兒子5個(gè)月以來(lái)學(xué)會(huì)了他的第一個(gè)肢體語(yǔ)言，牛奶。這些開(kāi)頭都很激動(dòng)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(zhǎng)-嬰兒的課大體上都差不多，在那兒，老師鼓勵(lì)我們唱歌，拍手，聽(tīng)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(duì)此陶醉起來(lái)，安靜地在坐了40分鐘，猶如村子里的長(zhǎng)者一般，直到發(fā)餅干的時(shí)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(dòng)作的方面并不那么充分，遠(yuǎn)不是主要部分。在唱歌和講故事的全程，Lisa都在做動(dòng)作，我們便試圖加入進(jìn)去，嬰兒們就彼此大眼對(duì)小眼。然而要結(jié)束的時(shí)候，我已經(jīng)學(xué)了至少半打肢體動(dòng)作，足夠讓我在回家后跟Tom交流了。臨走時(shí)，我的印象很深刻。我一直都對(duì)嬰兒教育心存疑慮，對(duì)于在他們六個(gè)月大時(shí)教他們自由泳，當(dāng)他們還在媽媽肚子里時(shí)給他們放莫扎特的音樂(lè)而心存懷疑。但是這次不一樣，很大程度上是因?yàn)檫@個(gè)課是針對(duì)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(xiàn)在的每次情況和Tom有關(guān)，我都可以用上學(xué)過(guò)的肢體動(dòng)作。每次我把他放在床上睡午覺(jué)時(shí)，便會(huì)做出睡覺(jué)的動(dòng)作，并且同時(shí)有意識(shí)地緩慢說(shuō)出睡覺(jué)這個(gè)單詞。最終，從理論上來(lái)講，Tom將把動(dòng)作和觀念聯(lián)系起來(lái)，他不僅只會(huì)識(shí)別動(dòng)作，還會(huì)在自己困的時(shí)候做出這個(gè)動(dòng)作。并且由于我每次都會(huì)刻意地說(shuō)出睡覺(jué)這個(gè)詞，慢慢地，他也會(huì)模仿著說(shuō)。
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(dòng)作學(xué)習(xí)的人對(duì)相關(guān)的每個(gè)人宣稱(chēng)其巨大的好處，包括可以讓嬰幼兒無(wú)論在表達(dá)上，還是接收上，都能掌握更大的詞匯量，讓他們心智進(jìn)步，讓他們的“問(wèn)題行為”減少，并改善父母和孩子之間的關(guān)系。要對(duì)那些認(rèn)為肢體動(dòng)作可能會(huì)減慢說(shuō)話(huà)能力發(fā)展的人所說(shuō)的是，其實(shí)這能產(chǎn)生與之所想相反的效果：鼓勵(lì)肢體語(yǔ)言會(huì)讓嬰兒專(zhuān)注于談話(huà)的主題和語(yǔ)境，并最終促使他們對(duì)單詞更感興趣。甚至已有研究表明，簡(jiǎn)單地用手指物體能加快嬰兒在定義物體過(guò)程中的發(fā)展和語(yǔ)言的發(fā)展，所以現(xiàn)在我要告訴任何我所碰見(jiàn)的人，我的兒子取得了相當(dāng)大的進(jìn)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(huì)對(duì)Tom產(chǎn)生影響，我們還得拭目以待。但是嘗試著和Tom 聯(lián)系起來(lái)，讓我本能地感覺(jué)很好。任何形式的互動(dòng)都很好。在課程中，當(dāng)我說(shuō)了我承認(rèn)自己感到有些尷尬以后，作為教室里唯一一個(gè)男性，在我試著順著曲調(diào)唱歌，并且記住“頭，肩，膝蓋，腳趾”對(duì)應(yīng)的動(dòng)作時(shí)，以前法語(yǔ)口試的記憶在我腦海中涌現(xiàn)出來(lái)。（是的，我現(xiàn)在才意識(shí)到，當(dāng)時(shí)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(wú)法克服拘謹(jǐn)，還有很多其他可供你私下學(xué)習(xí)嬰兒肢體動(dòng)作的方案。第二個(gè)課程結(jié)束后，我買(mǎi)了一張TinyTalk《讓我們一起做動(dòng)作》的DVD，這是近期你可以找到的若干互動(dòng)語(yǔ)言入門(mén)材料的其中之一。同樣地，優(yōu)酷網(wǎng)上也有許多肢體動(dòng)作示范，你可以在上面看CBeebies，就像我一樣，看這個(gè)讓自己安心，所有父母每天至少得做一次，你就會(huì)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(jué)了，還有人在嗎？）中的明星，而且最重要的是，他是“來(lái)點(diǎn)特別”節(jié)目的主持人。在這個(gè)Bafta-winning秀里，他帶一些殘疾的和有學(xué)習(xí)障礙的孩子在全國(guó)范圍內(nèi)進(jìn)行溫和地冒險(xiǎn)，在屏幕上和這些孩子說(shuō)話(huà)，在家里使用一個(gè)叫做Mataton的系統(tǒng)，把言語(yǔ)，動(dòng)作，圖片符號(hào)揉和在一起。當(dāng)孩子在談話(huà)中變得越來(lái)越勝任和自信時(shí)，這些動(dòng)作和符號(hào)逐漸被取消，根據(jù)同樣的方式，嬰兒的肢體語(yǔ)言逐漸地讓位給言語(yǔ)。
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(gè)人的啟發(fā)下，我決意繼續(xù)學(xué)習(xí)嬰兒的肢體語(yǔ)言。他們都沒(méi)有肢體動(dòng)作學(xué)習(xí)背景，但都掌握了超過(guò)100種動(dòng)作，學(xué)會(huì)是遲早的事，只在乎時(shí)間長(zhǎng)短。更重要的是，他們讓動(dòng)作看上去簡(jiǎn)單而不可笑。如果他們可以做到，Lisa5個(gè)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(xí)后，Tom學(xué)會(huì)用動(dòng)作表達(dá)他的第一個(gè)詞。或者只是我自己認(rèn)為他學(xué)會(huì)了。當(dāng)我慢慢地問(wèn)他是否困了時(shí)，他肯定地舉止雙手，放在臉頰的一側(cè)，好像是在重復(fù)我的動(dòng)作，于是我很興奮，就算這只是另一個(gè)巧合，我也很興奮，至少我們正在往目標(biāo)發(fā)展。短期內(nèi)，我希望我們能幫助彼此在幾個(gè)月內(nèi)學(xué)會(huì)初級(jí)的嬰兒肢體動(dòng)作，因?yàn)槲抑皇窍牒退f(shuō)話(huà)。在圣誕節(jié)，Tom就要當(dāng)哥哥了，嬰兒肢體動(dòng)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(yǔ)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(fā)行了了名為Horne Section的包括喜劇，爵士及詩(shī)歌的CD。
