外語專業選課指南：葡萄牙語和西班牙語開始吃香

外語專業的同學在選擇語種專業的時候一般都有自己的考慮，學法語的同學可能喜歡法式浪漫，學德語的同學或是驚歎於德國式嚴謹，學英語的同學大概是想世界各地暢行無憂吧。不過，據外媒報道，近兩年，中國大學生選擇學習葡萄牙語和西班牙語的人數猛增，並稱這和中國在拉美國家的影響力擴大有很大關係。

When Zhang Fangming started learning Portuguese, it was with an eye to becoming a top Chinese diplomat in Brazil.

張方明（音）當初學習葡萄牙語的時候，他的理想是成爲中國駐巴西的一名優秀外交官。

For Sun Jianglin, a Portuguese degree was about landing a job, but also a deeper knowledge of Brazilian music. “Bossa nova!” the 19-year-old undergraduate cooed. “I really like this kind-of-close-to-jazz music!”

而對孫江琳（音）來說，拿到葡萄牙語學位不僅是爲了找工作，也是爲了更深入地瞭解巴西音樂。“巴薩諾瓦！”這位19歲的本科生說，“我非常喜歡這種類似爵士樂的音樂！”

The pair – who also go by the names Rodrigo and Antonia – are part of a new generation of Chinese students hoping a mastery of Latin America’s languages coupled with their country’s expanding role in the region will prove a recipe for success.

兩人的葡萄牙語名字分別是羅德里戈和安東尼婭。他們所代表的新一代中國學生希望，對於拉美語言的熟練掌握再加上中國在該地區不斷擴大的影響力，會使他們走向成功。

Twenty years ago – before a commodities boom made China Brazil’s top trading partner – ties between the two were negligible and few Chinese students studied Brazil’s official language, which has more than 220m native speakers worldwide. Today, record numbers are doing so, wagering it will guarantee them work as diplomats, interpreters or lawyers for Chinese ministries or firms in the Lusophone world.

20年前，在商品熱潮令中國成爲巴西最大的貿易伙伴之前，兩國之間的關係還不緊密，學習巴西官方語言葡萄牙語的中國學生寥寥無幾，而全世界以葡萄牙語爲母語的人口超過2.2億。如今，學習葡萄牙語的中國學生人數創下了歷史紀錄，因爲他們認爲學習葡萄牙語能讓自己成爲中國的政府機構和公司派駐葡語國家的外交官、翻譯或律師。

圖爲巴西唐韻藝術團小女孩展示中國童裝旗袍。　莫成雄 攝 “There’s a saying: ‘Learning Portuguese will help you find a good job, with good pay!’” said Sun, a second-year student at China’s leading language school, the Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU).

孫江琳說：“很多人說，學葡萄牙語能幫你找到高薪工作。”她是來自北京外國語大學的一名大學二年級學生。

There has also been an explosion in the study of Spanish – spoken in many Latin American nations – with about 20,000 Chinese undergraduates in 2016 choosing the language, up from just 500 in 1999, according to official figures.

學習西班牙語的人數也呈現出爆炸式增長，許多拉美國家都說西班牙語。根據官方數據，2016年有大約2萬名中國本科生選擇學習西班牙語，而1999年僅有500人。

Margaret Myers, the head of the Inter-American Dialogue’s Asia and Latin America program, said more and more Latin America departments were opening in China because of a push to foster regional experts.

美洲國家對話組織亞洲與拉美項目負責人瑪格麗特·邁爾斯說，中國開設了越來越多的拉美語言院系，因爲中國在大力培養該地區問題專家。

“In the past five years we’ve seen … centres open all over the place, from Wuhan, to Tianjin, to Zhejiang – you name it,” said Myers, who wrote a recent report on the trend.

邁爾斯在最近撰寫的一份相關報告中說：“在過去5年裏，我們看到……各地都開設了拉美研究中心，從武漢到天津再到浙江，不一而足。”

Many of China’s Portuguese graduates still end up in African countries such as Angola, Mozambique or Cape Verde. But as Beijing’s Latin American footprint grows, they are increasingly looking further west.

中國的許多葡語專業畢業生去了非洲國家，比如安哥拉、莫桑比克和佛得角。但隨着中國在拉美的影響不斷擴大，他們也日益將目光投向了更靠西的地方。

“Brazil is a country of possibilities,” said Zhang, from Zibo in Shandong province, who is halfway through a four-year degree at BFSU. Zhang, 20, admitted the 17,000km between Beijing and Brazil meant his knowledge of Latin America’s largest economy had yet to expand far beyond the cliches. He painted it as a resource-rich “melting pot of different races” and admitted most students knew only about its football.

來自山東淄博的張方明在北外的四年葡語專業學習纔剛剛完成一半。他說：“巴西是一個充滿可能性的國家。”20歲的張方明承認，北京和巴西之間1.7萬公里的距離意味着他對這個拉美第一大經濟體的瞭解尚未超越老生常談的範疇。他說巴西是一個資源豐富的“多種族大熔爐”，不過也坦承，大多數學生對巴西的瞭解僅限足球。

Brazilian culture also left a better impression. “Every time I watch it, I will cry,” Sun said of her favorite film, Walter Salles’s Oscar-nominated Central Station.

巴西文化也給大家留下了不錯的印象。孫江琳在談到她最喜愛的電影、巴西導演沃爾特·塞勒斯執導的奧斯卡提名影片《中央車站》時說：“我看一次哭一次。”

After initially struggling with Portuguese phonetics she had also fallen in love with a language that showed her “a culture which is different from Chinese culture”.

在最初費力學會了葡語發音後，孫江琳也愛上了葡萄牙語，學習葡語讓她瞭解了“和中國文化不同的另一種文化”。

Chinese Portuguese students have security concerns though. Sun plans to visit Brazil after graduating, but will stick to São Paulo, one of the safer corners of a country that suffered a record 63,880 homicides last year. “Other cities are a little bit dangerous for me.”

而中國的葡語學生也擔心安全問題。孫江琳計劃在畢業後去巴西，但僅限於聖保羅，這裏是巴西更安全的一隅。巴西去年有63880人被殺。她說：“其他城市對我來說有些危險。”

Zhang said a teacher recently told him of a friend whose Rio home was invaded by burglars while she was studying. According to Zhang’s account, the student asked her Brazilian assailant if she could finish her homework first.

張方明說，最近有位老師告訴他，一位朋友在里約熱內盧的家被小偷闖入，當時這位朋友還在學習。根據他的描述，這名學生還請求歹徒讓她先做完作業。

“The robber was quite friendly actually,” he said. “But the final result was that he took her computer.”

他說：“盜賊其實還算挺友好，但最後還是搶走了她的電腦。”