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Steve's Youtube Videos - General Language Learning, Hello Siberia, or Why Study English and Other Languages

Hello Siberia, or Why Study English and Other Languages

Hello, this is Steve Kaufmann and hello Siberia. This is in response to a YouTube video that I received from an English teacher in Siberia who asked me to do a video to explain to his 14-year-old students why they should learn English. So, I'm going to speak slowly, I'm going to make this video in English and then I'm going to make another video on the same subject in Russian for these 14-year-old students somewhere in Siberia.

First of all, let me say I have been to Siberia. I was in Khabarovsk in 1975 and I flew from Khabarovsk to Moscow. It was a beautiful day and the scope, the size of Siberia is unbelievable. My nose was glued to the window. I was watching Siberia, basically, as we flew over these vast forests. It's a place that I would love to visit.

Now, why should a 14-year-old living in Siberia learn English? My first answer is that a person living in Siberia or Canada or Japan or Brazil should not only learn one foreign language, he or she should learn several, more than one foreign language, and the reason is simple. If I take my own case, I'm 67 years old, so I'm quite a bit older than you 14-year-olds in Siberia. I have seen a lot more in my life and I know many things now at age 67 that I didn't know when I was 14.

Now, in my own case, I worked. In fact, I still work. I have worked for over 40 years and I have been, I would think, fairly successful in terms of what I wanted to do in my life. I have a nice family. I have two sons. I have five grandchildren. I live in a nice house. I travel when I want. If my wife and I want to go out to a nice restaurant, we go out. If we want to go on holidays, we go on holidays. In other words, I would say that I am quite comfortable. I consider that whatever success I have had in my job, in my work, has come from knowing languages and I will go through the languages that I learned.

More opportunities have come to me because I knew a lot of languages than I would otherwise ever have had a chance to get at, so languages mean opportunities. In my case, I learned French and that's why I was accepted into the Canadian Diplomatic Service. I learned Chinese. I learned Japanese. That enabled me to set up my own company selling lumber to Japan. I then went and studied Spanish and other languages and that helped me do business in Europe. It helped me meet people. It helped me increase my range of contacts. It helped me create personal connections with people.

That's just on the business side. However, in the last 10 years or so, I have learned other languages that have nothing to do with my business, like Russian, so later on I will do a video in Russian. Every language that I learn gives me so much enjoyment because I was able to go to St. Petersburg, I was able to go to Moscow, meet people, have dinner with people, talk with people, visit the theater, go here, go there, understand everything that's going on. It gives you a tremendous feeling of satisfaction.

In Russian I like certain movies. I live certain writers. I like certain music. I have friends who are Russian. So I have things that I like in Russian and the ability to speak Russian and to understand Russian gives me tremendous enjoyment. All of these are the same for you, but more so because, whether we like it or not, English is the most useful language in the world. We may wish that Russian were more of an international language or French or Chinese or Esperanto, but the real situation is that wherever you go in the world, if you go to Japan, if you go to China, if you go to Germany, if you go to Brazil, the common language is English.

Now, why is this important if you live in Siberia? I've seen the distances in Siberia and there's probably not an English-speaking person for many thousands of kilometers in any direction, but today we live in a very connected world so that even if you are in the middle of Siberia it is very easy for you to connect with people, with movies, with music, with culture, with whatever you want via the Internet instantly in English or in Spanish or in Chinese or whatever language you are interested in, but English is the most useful because more people speak English as a second language.

I'm not talking about native speakers in the United States, Great Britain or Canada. I'm talking about people who use English as a second language. Not their own language, but a language to communicate with other people who also use it as a second language. So English is the international means of communication. Even if you live in Siberia, you are going to have contact, lots of contact with people from other countries and in order for that interaction to be meaningful you need to speak English. Now, these are things that you don't understand at age 14, or some of you do and some of you don't.

Now, I would further give you the advice that in order to learn English, you have to like learning English. I like learning Russian. I like learning other languages, Czech or French or Korean. You have to like it. That doesn't mean that you have to like everything about English culture or American culture or that you have to like all American music, you have to like all English or Austrian or Canadian or American people you meet. You don't have to like them all, but you have to find something you like, music, movies, books, some people, a friend. You have to find something to like and then what you need to do is to devote yourself to cultivating that relationship with the book, with the person, with the music and not worry too much about your grammar, about speaking correctly.

These things don't matter so much. Most people who use English as a second language make mistakes. The important thing is to be able to communicate because we live in this world today. We are sharing this world. All seven billion or so people who live in the world, we are sharing this world at the same time. We are alive at the same time and have the ability to connect with people who are sharing this moment in this enormous history of the world. To connect with other people who live in different countries, your neighbor in China or someone in the southern hemisphere in Africa or whatever, the ability to connect with these people and with their culture and their way of thinking is tremendously enriching to your life and, probably, it will enable you to be more successful because through your language you will be able to access more opportunities, more connections. Not because you get a job as a translator, but because if you are somewhere traveling and you're sitting in the plane beside someone who is from Turkey, if you have a common language you can speak. From that you will meet people who will be helpful to you in your lives or people who will in other ways enrich your lives because they will become friends.

So I have done this now, a great, long speech in English and, if I remember what I said, I will try to say some of the same things in Russian. Thank you for listening.


Hello Siberia, or Why Study English and Other Languages Hola Siberia, o por qué estudiar inglés y otros idiomas

Hello, this is Steve Kaufmann and hello Siberia. こんにちは、スティーブ・カウフマンとこんにちはシベリアです。 Привіт, це Стів Кауфман і привіт Сибір. This is in response to a YouTube video that I received from an English teacher in Siberia who asked me to do a video to explain to his 14-year-old students why they should learn English. これは、シベリアの英語教師から、14歳の生徒に英語を学ぶべき理由を説明するためのビデオを作成するように依頼されたYouTubeビデオへの返信です。 So, I’m going to speak slowly, I’m going to make this video in English and then I’m going to make another video on the same subject in Russian for these 14-year-old students somewhere in Siberia. それで、私はゆっくり話すつもりです、私は英語でこのビデオを作るつもりです、そしてそれから私はシベリアのどこかでこれらの14歳の学生のためにロシア語で同じ主題に関する別のビデオを作るつもりです。

First of all, let me say I have been to Siberia. まず、私はシベリアに行ったことがあると言わせてください。 I was in Khabarovsk in 1975 and I flew from Khabarovsk to Moscow. 私は1975年にハバロフスクにいて、ハバロフスクからモスクワに飛びました。 It was a beautiful day and the scope, the size of Siberia is unbelievable. Es war ein wunderschöner Tag und der Umfang, die Größe Sibiriens ist unglaublich. Fue un hermoso día y el alcance, el tamaño de Siberia es increíble. それは美しい日であり、その範囲、シベリアの大きさは信じられないほどです。 My nose was glued to the window. Mi nariz estaba pegada a la ventana. دماغم را به پنجره چسبانده بودند. 私の鼻は窓に接着されていました。 I was watching Siberia, basically, as we flew over these vast forests. 基本的に、私たちはこれらの広大な森の上を飛んでいる間、シベリアを見ていました。 It’s a place that I would love to visit. ぜひ訪れたい場所です。

Now, why should a 14-year-old living in Siberia learn English? Ahora bien, ¿por qué un niño de 14 años que vive en Siberia debería aprender inglés? My first answer is that a person living in Siberia or Canada or Japan or Brazil should not only learn one foreign language, he or she should learn several, more than one foreign language, and the reason is simple. 私の最初の答えは、シベリア、カナダ、日本、ブラジルに住む人は、1つの外国語を学ぶだけでなく、複数の外国語を学ぶ必要があるということです。理由は簡単です。 If I take my own case, I’m 67 years old, so I’m quite a bit older than you 14-year-olds in Siberia. 私自身の場合、私は67歳なので、シベリアの14歳よりもかなり年上です。 I have seen a lot more in my life and I know many things now at age 67 that I didn’t know when I was 14. 私は人生でもっと多くのことを見てきました。そして今では67歳で、14歳のときに知らなかった多くのことを知っています。

Now, in my own case, I worked. 今、私自身の場合、私は働きました。 In fact, I still work. 実際、私はまだ働いています。 I have worked for over 40 years and I have been, I would think, fairly successful in terms of what I wanted to do in my life. 私は40年以上働いており、人生でやりたいことに関してはかなり成功していると思います。 I have a nice family. 私には素敵な家族がいます。 I have two sons. I have five grandchildren. I live in a nice house. I travel when I want. If my wife and I want to go out to a nice restaurant, we go out. 妻と私が素敵なレストランに行きたいのなら、私たちは出かけます。 If we want to go on holidays, we go on holidays. 私たちが休日に行きたいのなら、私たちは休日に行きます。 In other words, I would say that I am quite comfortable. Mit anderen Worten, ich würde sagen, dass ich mich sehr wohl fühle. 言い換えれば、私は非常に快適だと言えます。 I consider that whatever success I have had in my job, in my work, has come from knowing languages and I will go through the languages that I learned. Ich bin der Meinung, dass jeder Erfolg, den ich in meinem Beruf, in meiner Arbeit hatte, von der Kenntnis der Sprachen herrührt, und ich werde die Sprachen, die ich gelernt habe, durchgehen. 私の仕事や仕事で成功したことは、言語を知ることから来ていると思います。私は学んだ言語を経験します。

More opportunities have come to me because I knew a lot of languages than I would otherwise ever have had a chance to get at, so languages mean opportunities. たくさんの言語を知っていたので、これまでにないほど多くの機会が訪れました。言語は機会を意味します。 In my case, I learned French and that’s why I was accepted into the Canadian Diplomatic Service. 私の場合、フランス語を学び、それがカナダ外交官に受け入れられた理由です。 I learned Chinese. I learned Japanese. That enabled me to set up my own company selling lumber to Japan. それで、日本に木材を販売する自分の会社を設立することができました。 I then went and studied Spanish and other languages and that helped me do business in Europe. それから私はスペイン語や他の言語を学びに行き、それは私がヨーロッパでビジネスをするのを助けました。 It helped me meet people. それは私が人々に会うのを助けました。 It helped me increase my range of contacts. Es hat mir geholfen, meinen Kontaktbereich zu erweitern. 連絡先の範囲を広げるのに役立ちました。 It helped me create personal connections with people. それは私が人々との個人的なつながりを作るのを助けました。

That’s just on the business side. それはビジネス面だけです。 However, in the last 10 years or so, I have learned other languages that have nothing to do with my business, like Russian, so later on I will do a video in Russian. しかし、ここ10年ほどで、ロシア語のように自分のビジネスとは関係のない他の言語を学んだので、後でロシア語でビデオを撮ります。 Every language that I learn gives me so much enjoyment because I was able to go to St. セントに行くことができたので、私が学ぶすべての言語は私にとても楽しいものを与えてくれます。 Petersburg, I was able to go to Moscow, meet people, have dinner with people, talk with people, visit the theater, go here, go there, understand everything that’s going on. ピーターズバーグ、私はモスクワに行き、人々に会い、人々と夕食をとり、人々と話し、劇場を訪れ、ここに行き、そこに行き、起こっていることすべてを理解することができました。 It gives you a tremendous feeling of satisfaction. それはあなたに途方もない満足感を与えます。

In Russian I like certain movies. ロシア語で私は特定の映画が好きです。 I live certain writers. 私は特定の作家を生きています。 I like certain music. 私は特定の音楽が好きです。 I have friends who are Russian. 私にはロシア人の友達がいます。 So I have things that I like in Russian and the ability to speak Russian and to understand Russian gives me tremendous enjoyment. だから私はロシア語で好きなものがあり、ロシア語を話し、ロシア語を理解する能力は私に大きな楽しみを与えてくれます。 All of these are the same for you, but more so because, whether we like it or not, English is the most useful language in the world. All dies ist für Sie gleich, aber umso mehr, weil Englisch, ob wir es mögen oder nicht, die nützlichste Sprache der Welt ist. これらはすべてあなたにとって同じですが、それが好きかどうかにかかわらず、英語は世界で最も有用な言語であるためです。 We may wish that Russian were more of an international language or French or Chinese or Esperanto, but the real situation is that wherever you go in the world, if you go to Japan, if you go to China, if you go to Germany, if you go to Brazil, the common language is English. ロシア語がもっと国際的な言語かフランス語か中国語かエスペラントかといいのにと思うかもしれませんが、実際の状況は、世界のどこに行っても、日本に行けば、中国に行けば、ドイツに行けば、あなたがブラジルに行くとき、共通言語は英語です。

Now, why is this important if you live in Siberia? さて、あなたがシベリアに住んでいるなら、なぜこれが重要なのでしょうか? I’ve seen the distances in Siberia and there’s probably not an English-speaking person for many thousands of kilometers in any direction, but today we live in a very connected world so that even if you are in the middle of Siberia it is very easy for you to connect with people, with movies, with music, with culture, with whatever you want via the Internet instantly in English or in Spanish or in Chinese or whatever language you are interested in, but English is the most useful because more people speak English as a second language. 私はシベリアの距離を見てきました、そしておそらくどの方向にも何千キロも英語を話す人はいないでしょう、しかし今日私たちは非常に接続された世界に住んでいるのであなたがシベリアの真ん中にいてもそれはとても簡単です人と、映画と、音楽と、文化と、インターネットを介して英語、スペイン語、中国語、または興味のある言語で即座につながることができますが、英語はより多くの人が話すので最も便利です第二言語としての英語。

I’m not talking about native speakers in the United States, Great Britain or Canada. 私はアメリカ、イギリス、カナダのネイティブスピーカーについて話しているのではありません。 I’m talking about people who use English as a second language. 私は第二言語として英語を使う人々について話している。 Not their own language, but a language to communicate with other people who also use it as a second language. 自分の言語ではなく、第二言語としても使用している他の人々とコミュニケーションをとるための言語です。 So English is the international means of communication. つまり、英語は国際的なコミュニケーション手段です。 Even if you live in Siberia, you are going to have contact, lots of contact with people from other countries and in order for that interaction to be meaningful you need to speak English. あなたがシベリアに住んでいるとしても、あなたは他の国からの人々との接触、たくさんの接触をするでしょう、そしてその相互作用が意味のあるものであるためにはあなたは英語を話す必要があります。 Now, these are things that you don’t understand at age 14, or some of you do and some of you don’t. さて、これらはあなたが14歳で理解できないこと、またはあなたの何人かは理解し、何人かは理解していません。

Now, I would further give you the advice that in order to learn English, you have to like learning English. さて、英語を学ぶためには英語を学ぶのが好きでなければならないというアドバイスをさらにお伝えしたいと思います。 I like learning Russian. I like learning other languages, Czech or French or Korean. You have to like it. Tiene que gustarte. That doesn’t mean that you have to like everything about English culture or American culture or that you have to like all American music, you have to like all English or Austrian or Canadian or American people you meet. それはあなたがイギリスの文化やアメリカの文化についてのすべてを好きでなければならないという意味ではなく、あなたが出会うすべての英語やオーストリア、カナダやアメリカの人々を好きでなければならないという意味ではありません。 You don’t have to like them all, but you have to find something you like, music, movies, books, some people, a friend. あなたはそれらすべてを好きである必要はありません、しかしあなたはあなたが好きなもの、音楽、映画、本、何人かの人々、友人を見つけなければなりません。 You have to find something to like and then what you need to do is to devote yourself to cultivating that relationship with the book, with the person, with the music and not worry too much about your grammar, about speaking correctly. あなたは好きなものを見つけなければなりません、そしてあなたがする必要があるのは本、人、音楽との関係を育むことに専念することであり、あなたの文法や正しく話すことについてあまり心配しないでください。

These things don’t matter so much. これらのことはそれほど重要ではありません。 Most people who use English as a second language make mistakes. 第二言語として英語を使うほとんどの人は間違いを犯します。 The important thing is to be able to communicate because we live in this world today. 私たちは今日この世界に住んでいるので、重要なことはコミュニケーションできることです。 We are sharing this world. 私たちはこの世界を共有しています。 All seven billion or so people who live in the world, we are sharing this world at the same time. Todos los siete mil millones de personas que viven en el mundo, estamos compartiendo este mundo al mismo tiempo. 世界に住む70億人ほどの人々すべてが、同時にこの世界を共有しています。 We are alive at the same time and have the ability to connect with people who are sharing this moment in this enormous history of the world. Estamos vivos al mismo tiempo y tenemos la capacidad de conectarnos con personas que están compartiendo este momento en esta enorme historia del mundo. 私たちは同時に生きており、この巨大な世界の歴史の中でこの瞬間を共有している人々とつながる能力を持っています。 To connect with other people who live in different countries, your neighbor in China or someone in the southern hemisphere in Africa or whatever, the ability to connect with these people and with their culture and their way of thinking is tremendously enriching to your life and, probably, it will enable you to be more successful because through your language you will be able to access more opportunities, more connections. さまざまな国に住む他の人々、中国の隣人、アフリカの南半球の誰かなどとつながるために、これらの人々や彼らの文化や考え方とつながる能力は、あなたの人生を非常に豊かにします。おそらく、あなたの言語を通してあなたはより多くの機会、より多くのつながりにアクセスすることができるので、それはあなたがより成功することを可能にするでしょう。 Not because you get a job as a translator, but because if you are somewhere traveling and you’re sitting in the plane beside someone who is from Turkey, if you have a common language you can speak. あなたが翻訳者としての仕事を得たからではなく、あなたがどこか旅行していて、トルコ出身の誰かのそばの飛行機に座っているなら、あなたが共通の言語を持っていればあなたは話すことができるからです。 From that you will meet people who will be helpful to you in your lives or people who will in other ways enrich your lives because they will become friends. そこから、あなたはあなたの人生であなたに役立つ人々、または他の方法で彼らが友達になるのであなたの人生を豊かにする人々に会うでしょう。

So I have done this now, a great, long speech in English and, if I remember what I said, I will try to say some of the same things in Russian. だから私は今これを英語で素晴らしい長いスピーチをしました、そして私が言ったことを覚えているなら、私はロシア語で同じことのいくつかを話そうとします。 Thank you for listening.