雙語：外語交流中遇到一個不會的單詞怎么辦

It’s a problem that every language learner faces： you’re talking to someone in a language you haven’t mastered yet， and all of the sudden you can’t remember a word — or you realize that you haven’t even learned it yet! The flow of conversation stops， your mind goes blank， your conversation partner searches your eyes for whatever you are trying to communicate， but all they see is panic。 We all forget words (even in our mother tongues)， but that doesn’t need to shut us up。 Follow these five tips， and you’ll never be left speechless again。

每個學語言的同學都會面臨這樣一個問題：你在用你還沒有(完全)掌握的語言和別人交談時，突然會記不得一個詞，或者你意識到你還沒有學過這個詞!(然后)談話過程就中斷了，大腦一片空白，你的同伴會看著你的眼睛，(希望)可以找到你想談?wù)摰臇|西，但他們看到的只是驚慌失措。我們都會忘記單詞(即使是母語)的含義，但那不能讓我們閉嘴。遵循以下5點，你將再也不會無言以對。

1 Preventative measures

1 預防措施

Here are some tips to help bolster word memorization： Learn new words and their synonyms。 Learn how to describe new words in your learning language。 Instead of simply translating a word from your native language into your learning language， these techniques help you associate a new word with other words in the same language。

這有一些提示來幫助鞏固詞匯的記憶：學新單詞和它們的同義詞。試著用你學習的語言來描述新單詞。這些技能幫助你用外語把新單詞和其他單詞聯(lián)系起來，而不是簡單地用你的母語翻譯成你學習的語言。

Put these word connections into practice with a little improve training。 You and your friends can play games like “who can describe a concept with the fewest words”， or， when you’re by yourself， you can write down as many word associations as possible。 This way， when you forget a word in a real conversation， you’ll have plenty of other associations to fall back on。 You’re likely to remember one of the synonyms or at least be able to describe what you mean in different words — without having to access your native language for help。

通過一些提高性訓練，把單詞聯(lián)系方法付諸實踐。你和同伴們可以玩“誰能用最少的文字描述一個概念”這個游戲，或者，當一個人的時候，你可以盡可能多地寫下單詞聯(lián)想。當你在現(xiàn)實對話中忘記一個單詞的時候，你就會有很多其他聯(lián)想到(的單詞)來幫忙。你可能會想起一個同義詞或至少能用其他單詞來描述你的意思，而不必求助于你的母語。

2 Just guess

2 猜一猜

Over 30% of English vocabulary was adopted from French， so if you’re speaking French to someone and you suddenly draw a blank， take a chance and “Frenchify” an English word。 There’s a good chance that what you say will at least be a close approximation of a real French word。 This trick also works for the other Romance languages — like Spanish， Portuguese and Italian — since these languages use words with the same Latin roots as French words。 Because most of English vocabulary derives from middle German， this trick can work when speaking German and Dutch as well。

超過30%的英語詞匯來源于法語，所以如果你用法語和人交談，突然想不起來(怎么說)，抓住機會“法語化”一個英語單詞。很有可能你所說的和一個真正的法語單詞非常接近。這個技巧同樣適用于其他羅曼語族，像西班牙語、葡萄牙語和意大利語，因為這些語言和法語一樣都用同一個拉丁語單詞。大部分英語單詞來源于中德，所以這個技巧對德語和荷蘭語也適用。

單詞　　3 Make up words

3 造詞

This is especially easy to do with languages like German where many nouns are compounds of two or three smaller words。 If you want to say glove， but don’t know how， just take two probable words (hand + shoe) and stick them together。 Voila： Handschuh is in fact the German word for glove!

對于像德語這樣的語言，這個方法非常簡單，因為很多名詞是2個或3個小單詞的復合詞。如果你想說手套，但不知道怎么說，那就把兩個可能的單詞(手+鞋)組合在一起。看，“handschuh”就是手套的德語單詞。

Even if your clever made-up word is totally not a real word， your conversation partner will find it much easier to guess what you mean。 For example， a cell phone is not a Taschentelefon (pocket-telephone)， but the invented word still communicates the concept accurately enough (the Germans actually call them Handys by the way)。

即使你機智創(chuàng)造的單詞不是一個真的詞，你的對話伙伴也能更容易的猜到你的意思。比如，“cell phone”(手機)不是德語“Taschentelefon”的單詞，但創(chuàng)造出來的單詞仍然可以準確地聯(lián)系到這個概念(德國人實際上管手機叫做“Handys”)。

You can also achieve a similar effect with the equivalents of vague words like “something，” “thing” or “whatchamacallit” which allow context to fill in the blanks。

你也可以用類似“某物”“東西”或“隨你說”等模糊的詞語連接上下文，這樣也能達到類似的效果。

4 Use your body

4 運用你的肢體

Seriously， don’t underestimate the power of body language。 After all， charades might be a French word， but it’s played all over the world。 So do pantomime， make sound effects， gesticulate wildly， make shadow puppets if you need to， try anything! My mom pulls this trick all the time and has been able to communicate with people in 500+ languages。 Somehow， it actually works!

說真的，不要忽視肢體語言的作用。畢竟，猜詞游戲是一個法語單詞，但全世界都在玩。所以，做手勢、發(fā)出聲音、夸大手勢，如果你需要可以做皮影，嘗試任何方法!我媽媽一直通過這個方式和500多種語言的人交流。不管怎么說，它真的管用!

肢體語言　　5 Say it in your mother tongue (speaking of moms)

5 說你的母語

This should only be your last resort， reserved only for those instances where tips one through four have failed。 Saying the word in your own language is not ideal， but it’s still better than saying nothing。 You can even turn it into a learning opportunity by asking — in the target language， of course — “How do you say ____ in your language?” They might not know， but it also might be the final clue they needed in order to understand you。

這只能是你最后的方法，在之前四個方法都失敗的情況下才能使用。用母語說不算理想，但這也比什么都不說好。你甚至可以把它變成一個學習機會，詢問(用你正在學習的語言)“ ____用你的語言怎么說?”他們可能不了解，但這也可能成為讓他們明白你(的意思)的最終線索。

HOWEVER： be strict with yourself。 Only say the word you’re missing in your native language， the rest of the conversation should still be held in your target language!

但是：嚴于律己。只在你不知如何表達的單詞中才能，其他談話仍然用你正在學習的語言(表達)。

Bonus tip

額外提示

According to Paul Grice’s principles of communication， people have conversations with each other (surprise!) — so it’s not like you’re the only person who can make the conversation happen。 People are usually happy when you try to speak their language。 You can expect them to be a little more patient and listen a little more closely than they would with a fellow native speaker。 If you can stumble through most of a sentence in their language， and utilize the tips above for the rest， they’ll probably be able to meet you halfway。

根據(jù)保爾·格賴斯(美國語言哲學家)的溝通原則，每個人都可以互相交談(驚呆寶寶了!)，所以你并不是唯一一個可以開啟談話的人。當你試著說對方的語言時，他們常常會感到很開心。你可以期望他們和你交流時，比和本國人交流時更加耐心、聽得更加仔細。如果你結(jié)結(jié)巴巴的用他們的語言表達了大部分意思，利用上述提示表達出你不會的部分，他們很可能明白你的大致意思。