口音也能黑科技？

科技能帮你改掉口音吗?

German tennis star Alexander Zverev's struggle to understand sports reporter Jonathan Pinfield’s Yorkshire accent at a press conference at last year’s French Open sent viewers into fits of giggles, and it went viral.

在去年法网公开赛的新闻发布会上，德国网球明星Alexander Zverev努力辨别体育记者Jonathan Pinfield的约克郡口音，观众忍俊不禁，此时在网上迅速走红。

Pinfield laughed it off, but told the BBC afterwards that he has to speak slowly when interviewing and is frequently misunderstood. The reality is that a thick accent can hamper our work prospects, and research shows that employers still favour standard versions of British and American accents over non-native accents for more prestigious or “higher status” jobs.

Pinfield对此一笑置之，但事后他告诉BBC，虽然自己在面试时语速很慢，但还是经常被误解。实际上，浓重的口音会影响我们的工作前途。研究表明，对于更有威望或“地位更高”的工作，雇主们仍然偏爱标准英音和美音，而不是非母语口音。

By 2020, two billion people will be speaking English, the British Council forecasts. English is already spoken by some 1.75 billion people worldwide. It has become the de facto global language of business; however, speaking with a cut-glass accent is less ubiquitous, given many are not native speakers.

英国文化协会预测，截至2020年将有20亿人讲英语。如今全世界大约有17.5亿人讲英语。实际上它已成为全球的商务语言；然而，由于很多人不是英语母语者，并非都能做到口音清晰利落。

And even native speakers feel judged over the way they speak: over a quarter of Brits feel they have encountered accent discrimination, according to research compiled by ITV and Comres, a British research consultancy.

英国独立电视台(ITV)和英国研究咨询公司Comres联合进行的一项调查显示，就连英语母语者也觉得自己的说话方式被歧视了：超过四分之一的英国人觉得自己受到了口音歧视。

This trend is despite the fact that after the UK leaves the European Union, English will no longer be the official nominated language of any the remaining 27 member states. It will, however, continue to be a working language in the EU. So English – and the ability to speak it understandably with no accent – will still be coveted.

尽管英国退出欧盟后，英语将不再是其余27个成员国的官方指定语言。然而，它将继续作为欧盟的工作语言。因此，英语——以及没有口音地讲英语的能力——仍是人们希望拥有的技能。

Our accent still has profound implications for our social status, says Caroline Belot, pedagogical consultant and director of communications at Sound Sense, a language school in Paris. "If you pronounce a word very badly or don't have the right intonation, you can figuratively get killed in a meeting."

“我们的口音对社会地位仍有深远的影响，”巴黎语言学校Sound Sense的教学顾问兼传播总监Caroline Belot表示，“如果你的一个单词发音很糟糕或者没有正确的语调，你可能在一场会议上被碾压。”

Belot cites the common mistake made by French people pronouncing the word "focus" as "fuc-us", which can instantly damage hurt a speaker's credibility and confidence. "As a French person, when you go abroad, you realise the way we speak can generally be perceived as cold, boring, ironic, sometimes rude, sarcastic, even depressed or generally showing lack of interest."

Belot提到了法国人常犯的一个错误，他们把“focus”(专注)读成“fuc-us”（音似一种脏话），这可能会立刻损害说话人的可信度和信赖度。“作为一个法国人，当你出国时，你会发现其他人常常认为我们的说话方式是冷漠、无聊、讽刺的，有时是粗鲁、嘲讽的，甚至是抑郁消沉或漠不关心的。”

So, could the trick to true fluency lie in re-training your brain to neutralise your accent?

那么，重新训练大脑真的能使语言更流利，并中和口音吗？

French ear, nose and throat doctor Alfred Tomatis discovered that each language has its own bandwidth; languagea schools like Sound Sense in Paris now use this method to help re-train busy French professionals to English frequencies using a device known as an electronic ear. This is a set of headphones that transmits sound through air and bone conduction by making small vibrations that pass through the skull into the inner ear, similar to a hearing aid.

法国耳鼻喉科医生Alfred Tomatis发现每种语言都有自己的频率范围;像巴黎Sound Sense这样的语言学校现在就在使用一种叫做“电子耳朵”的设备，使法语专业人士在他们忙碌的生活之余提高使用英语的频率。“电子耳朵”是一套通过空气和骨头来传递声音的耳机，通过头骨产生的小振动进入内耳，类似于助听器。

Humans can hear from around 20Hz to 20,000 Hz, which explains why we can’t hear things like a dog whistle because it emits a much higher frequency; we simply don’t hear as well as dogs and other animals.

人类可以听到大约20Hz到20000 Hz的声音，这就解释了为什么我们听不到像狗笛声这样的声音，因为它发出的频率要比我们能听到的要高得多;我们的听力就是不如狗和其他动物。

Language experts say that our speech is made up of a huge number of frequencies – base tones and overtones. According to the Tomatis method, every human language has a different range of overtones, with British English fluctuating considerably between 2,000 to 12,000 Hz and French much less so between 125 to 250 Hz and 1,000 to 2,000 Hz. Russian fluctuates between an incredible 125 to 12,000 Hz.

语言专家说我们的语音是由大量的音频所组成的——基音和泛音。根据Tomatis方法，每种人类语言都有不同的泛音范围，英式英语在2000到12000赫兹之间，波动很大，法语在125到250赫兹到1000到2000赫兹之间，波动很小。俄语的频率在令人难以置信的125到12000赫兹之间波动。

The Tomatis method aims to train the ear to the frequency of other languages. First, a trained practitioner performs a half-hour listening test to figure out how well a student can already hear different frequencies.

Tomatis方法的目的是训练耳朵适应其他语言的频率。首先，由一名训练有素的专业人士进行半个小时的听力测试，以确定学生能听到不同频率的声音的程度。

This is followed up by a two-hour tape recording of music, typically classical music like Mozart, which has been modified to filter out the frequencies that you can already hear well and plays those your ear cannot hear so well. These are switched on and off throughout the recording to wake up the tiny muscles in the middle ear and strengthen them – a form of exercise for the ears that can be done sitting at home.

接着是两小时的音乐磁带录音播放典型的古典音乐如莫扎特，这些音乐经过修改可以过滤掉你已经很熟悉的频率，只播放那些你耳朵听不太清楚的频率。在整个播放过程中，这些音乐时停时播，以唤醒并增强中耳的微小肌肉——这是一种可以在家进行的耳朵锻炼方式。

Sound Sense combines the method with language classes, preferably face-to-face or on Skype.

Sound Sense将这种方法与语言课程结合起来，最好是面对面或者在Skype上进行。

Fabienne Billat works as a consultant in digital communications and strategy, which involves frequent travel from France to the United States for conferences. She’s found the method useful. “The focus of the training is really on understanding rhythm and accentuation.” she says.

Fabienne Billat是数字通信和战略顾问，经常从法国前往美国参加会议。她发现这个方法很有用。她说:“培训的重点实际上是理解节奏和重音。”

Other companies that have used this method to help staff improve their language skills are IBM France, Renault and Cisco. A different technique called the Berard method also uses this form of auditory training to help with language development.

也有其他公司使用这种方法帮助员工提高语言技能，包括IBM法国公司、雷诺公司和思科公司。另一种被称为Berard方法的技术也使用这种形式的听觉训练来帮助语言发展。

Some language schools claim that using this ear training method can reduce the time it takes to learn a language by up to 50%. The Polytechnic University of Valencia assessed the Tomatis method in a recent study, finding it an effective learning tool.

一些语言学校声称这种耳朵训练方法最多可以将学习一门语言的时间减少50%。瓦伦西亚理工大学在最近的一项研究中评估了Tomatis方法，发现它是一种有效的学习工具。

So why can’t we more easily pinpoint accents and actively switch them off? It’s because our habits start when we’re young.

那我们为什么不能采取更简单的方式呢，比如精确地找出口音，并主动做出改变？这是因为我们的听觉在小时候就形成了。

A newborn's brain can perceive the entire range of human speech sounds, but by around eight months it starts to narrow that range to its native language or languages. Some linguists say the critical period for picking up a language completely fluently is at around six years old, others believe the cut-off period is in the teens. By adulthood it is almost impossible to pick up a new language without some trace of an accent, says Jennifer Dorman, instructional designer in didactics at language learning app Babbel.

新生儿的大脑可以感知人类所有的语音，但大约八个月后，他们逐渐只能感知到自己的母语。一些语言学家表示，非常流利地掌握一门语言的关键时期是六岁左右；另一些认为不能晚于十几岁。语言学习软件Babbel的教学方法设计者Jennifer Dorman表示，到了成年时期，学会一口标准的新语言几乎是不可能的。

It can take a bit more effort and exposure for French speakers to re-activate those ranges of pitches

对于说法语的人来说，重新激活这些音域需要更加努力，并沉浸在相应的语言环境中。

This means a native French speaker might struggle to speak English with an authentic English accent because their brain can no longer perceive the entire range of frequencies, or pitch, that make up the English language and their mouth can’t reproduce the right sound.

这意味着法语母语者可能很难用纯正的英式口音说英语，因为他们的大脑无法再感知构成英语的全部频率范围或音域，他们的嘴巴也无法再发出正确的声音。

Dorman says, "Some people are naturally gifted at learning languages and very often those were people that were exposed to multiple languages as children. Their brains were open to many different ranges and didn’t start to filter and desensitise them to those different ranges, so it is easier for them to hear sounds.

Dorman说: “有些人在学习语言方面有天赋，又往往在孩童时期就接触过多种语言。他们的大脑对许多不同的频率范围都是开放的，并且不会过滤这些频率范围或对其感到麻木，所以这些人更容易听到特殊频率范围的声音。”

 What practical steps can you take?

你能采取哪些切实可行的做法？

Linguistic experts say the baest way to speak English like a native, as with any language, is to listen and speak the language as much as possible. Brazilian entrepreneur Rafael Dos Santos says when he moved to the UK in 2002 he took formal English classes and even hired a voice coach, but found the best way to improve his accent was to practice reading with his then-boyfriend before going to bed.

语言学家认为，把英语说的像母语一样的最好方法就是尽可能多听、多说，这个道理适用于任何语言。巴西企业家Rafael Dos Santos表示，2002年自己搬到英国后，参加了正式的英语课程，甚至聘请了一位语音教练，但他发现改善口音的最佳方法是睡前和当时的男友一起练习朗读。

"That's how I learned the most,” he says. “He was a native English speaker and really helped me to develop the language. I would read pages and he would correct my pronunciation."

他说：“这就是最有用的方法。他是英语母语者，在学习语言方面给予了我很多帮助。他会在我读书时纠正发音。”

But in the end, an accent is only a problem if people can't easily understand you, says Russian entrepreneur Polina Montano. She co-founded a company that advertises entry-level positions in service industries like hospitality. Many of its applicants are not native English speakers.

但俄罗斯企业家Polina Montano表示，归根结底，只有在别人难以理解的情况下，口音才成问题。她与别人共同创办了一家公司，招聘服务业的初级职位（比如酒店管理），许多申请者的母语并不是英语。

Montano says, "I believe people in our society are opening up to embracing diversity. You have to believe in yourself.” And the next time your accent might affect your confidence, Montano says to just “tell yourself, ‘everyone has an accent – but mine is cute.’”

Montano说：“我相信当今这个社会正在拥抱多元化，你必须相信自己。”下次因为口音影响自信时，Montano建议你“告诉自己‘每个人都有口音——但我的口音很可爱。’”