Now this is a really, really important question in today's world.

要强调的是，在今天的世界里这是一个非常非常重要的问题。

We have massive challenges with environment. We have massive challenges with social dislocation, with wars, all sorts of things going on and if we can't communicate we're really going to have difficulty solving these problems.

我们需要面对大量的(有关)环保问题的挑战，我们需要面对很多社会混乱和战争的挑战，各种各类事情在发生，如果我们不能沟通那我们将难以解决这些问题。

So we need to be able to speak each other's languages. This is really, really important.

因此，我们需要能够说对方的语言。这真的非常重要。

The question then is how do you do that？ Well, it's actually really easy.

接下来的问题是，怎样做到？这实际上是很容易的。

You look around for people who can already do it, you look for situations where it's already working and then you identify the principles and apply them.

看看你周围那些已经做到的人，寻找在什么情况下，它是有效的，识别这些原则后好好利用它们。

It's called modeling and I've been looking at language learning and modeling language learning for about fifteen to twenty years now.

这是一种高科技模仿，而我已经用这种方法研究语言学习 大约15到20 年了。

And my conclusion, my observation from this is that any adult can learn a second language to fluency inside six months.

接着多年的观察，我得到的结论是，任何一个成年人能在6个月内把任何外语学得流利。

Now when I say this, most people think I'm crazy, this is not possible. So let me remind everybody of the history of human progress, it's all about expanding our limits.

呐，当我说成年人能在6个月内学会任何一种外语，大多数人都认为我疯了，这是不可能的。因此，先让我提醒在座各位关于人类历史的进展，所有人类历史都是在扩展我们的极限。

In 1950 everybody believed that running one mile in four minutes was impossible and then Roger Bannister did it in 1956 and from there it's got shorter and shorter.

在20世纪50年代，所有人都相信跑出4分钟1英里的成绩是不可能的，后来罗杰·班尼斯特在1965年做到了，而从那开始跑1英里的时间变得越来越短 。

100 years ago everybody believed that heavy stuff doesn't fly。

100年前，每个人都相信重的物体不能飞。

Except it does and we all know this. How does heavy stuff fly?

它不但可以飞，而且我们大家都知道这个事实。那么，重物是怎样飞的呢？

We reorganize the materials using principles that we have learned from observing nature, birds in this case.

我们观察大自然的原理，在此是鸟飞行的原理，，根据这些我们重新组织材料来使重物可以飞。

And today we've gone ever further, so you can fly a car. You can buy one of these for a couple hundred thousand US dollars.

如今，我们甚至走得更远，你可以驾驶一辆会飞的汽车。你可以花几十万美元购买一辆这样的汽车。

We now have cars in the world that can fly.

我们现在有了会飞的汽车了。

And there's a different way to fly that we've learned from squirrels.

在能飞的松鼠的身上我们学会了另一种不同的方式来飞。

So all you need to do is copy what a flying squirrel does, build a suit called a wing suit and off you go, you can fly like a squirrel.

你只要做的是去复制一只飞鼠如何飞的原理，建造一套翼服，你就可以像一只飞鼠那样可以在天空中飞翔。

Now, most people, a lot of people, I wouldn't say everybody but a lot of people think they can't draw.

那么，大多数人，很多人，我不会说所有人，但很多人认为他们不会画画。

However there are some key principles, five principles that you can apply to learning to draw and you can actually learn to draw in five days.

然而这里有一些重要的原则，5个原则你可以利用来学习画画并且实际上你可以在5天内学会。

So, if you draw like this, you learn these principles for five days and apply them and after five days you can draw something like this.

如果你平时画成这样，那么你学习5天这些原则然后应用它们，5天后，你可以画成这样。

Now I know this is true because that was my first drawing and after five days of applying these principles that was what I was able to do.

我知道这是真的，因为那是我第一次画的，5天后我应用了这些原则，我可以做到这样。

And I looked at this and I went ‘wow,' so that's how I look like when I'm concentrating so intensely that my brain is exploding.

当我看着这个，我“哇”了一声，那就是我非常强烈的，专注到我大脑快要爆炸的样子呀！

So, anybody can learn to draw in five days and in the same way, with the same logic, anybody can learn a second language in six months.

因此，任何人都能够用5天时间学会画画，同样地，用同样的方式和逻辑，任何人都可以在6个月内学会一门外语。