Let's talk about manias. Let's start with Beatle mania: hysterical teenagers, crying, screaming, pandemonium. Sports mania: deafening crowds, all for one idea -- get the ball in the net. Okay, religious mania: there's rapture, there's weeping, there's visions. Manias can be good. Manias can be alarming. Or manias can be deadly.
The world has a new mania. A mania for learning English. Listen as Chinese students practice their English by screaming it.
现在,世界上有种新的狂热。学习英语的狂热。下面听听中国学生用高声叫喊的方式练习英语。
Teacher: ... change my life!
老师:...改变我的生活!
Students: I will change my life.
学生:我要改变我的命运。
T: I don't want to let my parents down.
老师:我不想让父母失望。
S: I don't want to let my parents down.
学生:我不想让父母失望。
T: I don't ever want to let my country down.
老师:我从不想让国家失望。
S: I don't ever want to let my country down.
学生:我从不想让国家失望。
T: Most importantly ... S: Most importantly ...
老师:最重要的...学生:最重要的...
T: I don't want to let myself down.
老师:我不想让我自己失望。
S: I don't want to let myself down.
学生:我不想让我自己失望。
Jay Walker: How many people are trying to learn English worldwide? Two billion of them.
JayWalker:全世界现在有多少人学习英语?20亿
Students: A t-shirt. A dress.
学生:一件T恤。一条裙子。
JW: In Latin America, in India, in Southeast Asia, and most of all in China. If you are a Chinese student you start learning English in the third grade, by law. That's why this year China will become the world's largest English-speaking country. (Laughter) Why English? In a single word: Opportunity. Opportunity for a better life, a job, to be able to pay for school, or put better food on the table. Imagine a student taking a giant test for three full days. Her score on this one test literally determines her future. She studies 12 hours a day for three years to prepare. 25 percent of her grade is based on English. It's called the Gaokao, and 80 million high school Chinese students have already taken this grueling test. The intensity to learn English is almost unimaginable, unless you witness it.
JW: So is English mania good or bad? Is English a tsunami, washing away other languages? Not likely. English is the world's second language. Your native language is your life. But with English you can become part of a wider conversation: a global conversation about global problems, like climate change or poverty, or hunger or disease. The world has other universal languages. Mathematics is the language of science. Music is the language of emotions. And now English is becoming the language of problem-solving. Not because America is pushing it, but because the world is pulling it. So English mania is a turning point. Like the harnessing of electricity in our cities or the fall of the Berlin Wall, English represents hope for a better future -- a future where the world has a common language to solve its common problems.