这些王室和富豪的萌娃们都跟风学起了中文~ 歪果仁：再虐也值啊！（附视频）
这些年，感觉整个地球都掀起了中文热~ 美国总统特朗普的外孙女阿拉贝拉就是又会唱中文歌又能背中文诗的“小网红”~
https://v.qq.com/txp/iframe/player.html?vid=j0502e0yu6p&width=500&height=375&auto=0
今年9月，英国的乔治小王子开始上学前班。在学前班上，年仅4岁的乔治王子要上的课可不少，不仅要学英语、数学、芭蕾等课程，还要学说普通话。
英国美国的花骨朵们在努力学着中文，欧洲其他国家还有这样一群小公举也对中文情有独钟呐~
西班牙国王费利佩六世和莱蒂西娅王后大女儿莱昂诺尔公主，是西班牙王位第一继承人。这位将来要当女王的小公主现在的课程里除了英文和芭蕾舞，还有普通话！
比利时的伊丽莎白公主以后也会成为女王。而且她也在学习中文，仅可以用汉语进行简单的交流，而且对方方正正的汉字也有着极其浓厚的兴趣。
荷兰的长公主Amalia在海牙中学读书，看上去也是萌萌哒~ 2017年长公主选择中文课程作为选修课，努力学习。王后说，长公主很喜欢中文。
除了各国王室的未来在学中文，亿万富翁商界大咖也在给自家娃加中文课。
亚马逊创始人杰夫•贝佐斯（Jeff Bezos）和他的妻子麦肯齐（MacKenzie）有四个孩子，他们会让孩子学习许多课程，其中就有普通话。
"We tried all sorts of things ... including off-season travel, kitchen-science experiments, chicken incubation, Mandarin lessons, the Singapore math program, and lots of clubs and sports with other neighborhood kids," MacKenzie told Vogue.
而自己的普通话已经很溜的脸书CEO马克•扎克伯格（Mark Zuckerberg），去清华演讲普通话说来就来，全程中文互动。他也让大女儿Max学说普通话。马扎曾分享过一段视频，他家的智能机器人助理正要教麦克斯说普通话↓↓↓
https://v.qq.com/txp/iframe/player.html?vid=z0506d7y88e&width=500&height=375&auto=0
都说中文难学，可是大家都说得溜溜溜，这是怎么回事儿？最近世纪君就在英国一家媒体上看到这样一篇文章↓↓↓
“我的中文专业虽然学得辛苦，但它绝对值啊”
在英国找工作，中文已经超越法语，西班牙语和德语成为最吃香的外语之一。调查显示中文专业的学生年薪平均在31000英镑甚至更多。
Chinese has overtaken French, Spanish and German to become one of the most lucrative foreign languages for jobseekers in the UK. Research shows graduates in Chinese earn an average yearly salary of £31,000 or more.
汉娜・杰克逊2009年从谢菲尔德大学的汉学专业毕业，她表示自己有不少其他专业的朋友，大一大二没事儿做，可是学中文的就没戏了。因为你得花上好几个小时练字啊!
“I had a lot of friends on other courses who didn’t do much in first or second year. You can’t blag Chinese. You literally have to spend hours and hours writing characters,” says Hannah Jackson, who graduated in Chinese Studies from Sheffield University in 2009.
汉娜说她的专业课也是压力山大。据她描述，头一学年是真的好难。自己大部分的小伙伴都会承认一点，那就是——因为太紧张刚学一星期就被虐哭了。自己甚至还动过退学的念头。
Hannah describes her course as “majorly intense”. “The first year was really difficult. Most of my friends admitted at one point to crying in the first week because of the intensity. I was almost told at one point that I might want to reconsider and drop out.”
拉面？方便面？刀削面？
这位出题的老师，想必是对大中华美食有种执念吧~
利伯蒂・泰姆威尔是2012年从剑桥中文系毕业的，她每天都要用功读书8小时，考试前一天甚至花18小时来学习。
Liberty Timewell, who graduated in Chinese from Cambridge University in 2012, spent at least eight hours a day studying during her degree, which increased to 18 hours a day at times during her finals.
在利伯蒂看来，学中文的每一年都是艰辛的。她说，这本身就是个挑战，你没法胡诌乱编，如果不花时间去学，那就只能等着挂科。虽然没有其他专业同学们每周写论文的压力，但是头一年的每一天她都要学会20个汉字。
“I found studying Chinese an incredibly hard slog throughout every year. It was a challenge – there is no way you can bullshit your way through it. If you don’t put the hours in then you will fail. That’s it,” she says. Although she did not have the pressure of writing an essay a week as some of her peers did, she was expected to learn 20 characters a day in her first year.
学中文专业通常是4年学制，包括去中国学习一年。可是就算是在大学里学了1-2年的中文，大家表示来到中国还是无法与母语是说中文普通话的人交流啊~
Chinese degrees are typically four years including a year out in China. But even after an intensive first year or two studying the language at university, students often arrive in China unable to converse with native Mandarin speakers.
对此，诺丁汉特伦特大学的扎克・克莱门茨就深有体会，虽然他在头两个学年成绩名列前茅，觉得自己来到中国中文一定溜到飞起，燃鹅从课堂转战现实的中文环境，他发现自己初来乍到竟然连点菜都费劲……
‘When I got to China I couldn’t speak anything’ For Zak Clements, who achieved firsts in his first two years studying Chinese and Global Studies at Nottingham Trent University, this came as a shock. “You get to China and think you can speak quite well, but when I got to China I couldn’t speak anything. You learn how to get by in class, but when thrown into the deep end it was a struggle. When I got there I couldn’t even order some food. It’s difficult to get used to at first,” he says.
汉娜碰上了类似的问题，她回忆说刚到上海时都说不出100这个数字，跟的哥沟通需要指着字，因为发音太不一样了，相比说英文、法文或者西班牙语，说中文时你的嘴和舌头完全是另一种使用方式。
Hannah had similar problems during her year abroad. “I remember we arrived in Shanghai and we couldn’t even say the number 100 – the taxi driver didn’t understand it. We had to point to characters. The pronunciation doesn’t sound like anything you know – you can’t compare it to English, French or Spanish. You use your mouth or tongue in a different way.”
这么看来当别人大学里撒欢时，学中文的歪果仁应该都在挑灯夜读了…… 话说，自己选的路，跪着也要走完，那么这些歪果仁有没有后悔呢？
据说当然不会，因为他们的专业都好吃香哟~
利伯蒂因为喜欢才选择了学习中文，在拿到文凭后她加入了英国国际开发署毕业生计划，来到北京当起了“公务员”。不到两年，利伯蒂的薪水就超过了3万英镑。
Although Liberty chose to study Chinese because of her interest in the language rather than the likelihood of securing a stable job afterwards, she now works for the civil service in Beijing. She earned a place on the Department for International Development graduate scheme a month after finishing her degree, and was earning a salary of over £30,000 within two years.
妹纸还傲娇地表示，再辛苦也值了，自己学法语或西语的同学，就没有这种学以致用的好机会！
“The degree was absolutely worth it. The slog has paid off. I like that I can live and work and operate with relative ease in China now. Looking around at people I know who have studied French or Spanish at university, there’s not such a chance to use it in the workplace,” she says.
另一个学中文的外国小伙伴扎克，凭借超强的中文能力为自己在职场上赢得一席之地。毕业后他为一家针对中国市场的保健品公司工作，短短半年就从研究助理升职线上业务总监。
Thanks to his ability to speak Chinese, Zak helped to create a role for himself in a company selling health supplements to the Chinese market soon after graduating. Starting as a research assistant at Simply Supplements in Peterborough, he was able to prove there was enough commercial interest from China, earning him a promotion to online operations executive within six months.
这份工作他可以挣26000英镑，如果他继续在这家公司发展，很可能还能涨到5万英镑。扎克表示，学中文找工作实在太吃香了，和他一起学中文的小伙伴们都蛮好找工作的。
He earned £26,000 in the role, with the potential to earn as much as £50,000 as an account manager if he stayed at the company. “Studying Chinese definitely makes you more marketable in the workplace. People I studied Chinese with have found it easier to find a job,” he says.
汉娜毕业时西方经济正在衰退的低谷，她来上海找到了更多的就业机会。先是在一家公司做了四年的项目经理，后来自己出来单干，一天能挣到500英镑。如今她又回到英国为一家美体公司做业务拓展。
Hannah graduated at the height of the recession and went to look for a job in Shanghai, where she found more employment opportunities. After working as a project manager for Intralink Group for four years, she set up her own independent consultancy earning £500 a day. She has now returned to the UK and works in business development for the Body Shop.
这么说来，看到中文系的童鞋一个个都秒变土豪，选了其他外语的歪果小伙伴如今应该分外眼红了（偷笑）……
转自：英语视频