作为财富中文网推荐的博客之一，“四不像”是我最爱之一。“四不像”的博主是一个美国人，从1974年开始定居香港，之后经常到中国各地旅行。
在他的博客《四不像》中，最早会看到中国改革开放前和开放初期的各种轶事。随后，文章涉及的话题逐渐拓宽，跨文化交流、人力资源、教育、旅行以及管理相关的问题均有涉及。
他的博文都用英文撰写，后来有些文章经由他的同事，有了中文译文。
这篇谈论“语言学习”四十分钟黄金记忆时段的文章，因为对其中的观点，非常认同，故将其翻译了过来，供大家阅读。
后文也一并附上作者的英文原文。
想要好好学习外语的朋友，或可一读，并加以借鉴运用。
译文/温佛佳
最近，在北京我和一位成年中国朋友聊天，他向我诉苦，学英语实在是太难了。一点也不奇怪。英语和中文一样，确实都不容易掌握。
根据自身经验，我给了他一些建议。其中包括我高中拉丁语、希腊语老师的真传。他是一位耶稣会牧师，同时也是一位极具天赋的语言学家，在背诵诗歌、散文、演讲等方面，记忆超群。
他告诉我们这些学生啊，想要记住东西的话，一天中人有40分钟的记忆力最强，比其它23小时20分，接受事物更快。这40分钟的“记忆黄金段”可分为两个部分：睡前的20分钟，醒后的20分钟。
支撑这一论断的理论很简单。首先，在进入梦乡前，我们输入大脑的信息，比起在乱哄哄的白天，更容易扎下根来；再者，清晨刚刚醒来的时刻，我们的大脑思想不受任何干扰，就像一块空白的页岩，接受能力更强。
我牢记这个教诲，并且亲身去实践，受益良多。大学时代，我们的中文老师每天都给我们布置200个新单词，第二天课堂上还要做测试。要不是这神奇的40分钟，我是无论如何也过不了每天的测试的。
这个方法确实很有用，但与许多其它事情一样，它同样需要我们花时间和高度自律，才能够运用自如、日臻佳境。
就语言学习而言，它不仅只对记忆单词管用，也同样是进行所学语言听力练习的一个好时间，你可以在这两个时间里，听背景乐、晦涩的内容、外语听力材料、广播、电视、或其它什么材料。
记忆力除了上学时有用外，对从事各行各业的人，也非常重要。
你有几次见过一位演讲者照着准备好的文字稿去读，或者在做演示时一字一句朗读PPT材料的呢？
这样的交流方式，实在是枯燥无味、令人精神涣散、低下无效。这样的演讲者注定引不起听众的兴趣和注意力，更不用说去说服或激励他们采取行动了。
然而，很多人却还在犯这样的错误。
使用四十分钟技巧的话，或许并不能保证你一字不差地记住演讲稿，却可以让你充分熟悉演讲内容，这样的话呢，你就能有更多时间与听众进行目光交流了。你可以让观众参与其中，趁着这当儿，抽空扫一眼讲稿，而不用紧盯不放。你还可以把双手和胳膊解放出来，通过增加一些动作，以示语意重点。
对于任何语言的学习者而言，记忆都是一大挑战，尤其随着年龄的增长。另外一个更大的难题，可能是大多数人从年的时候起，就特别害怕当众出洋相，而且越老就越怕。
小孩子通常还未受到这种身处群体时的自我意识的影响，所以学习语言会更快。他们不怕去模仿，就算犯错也无所谓。
而重复和模仿是语言学习自然过程中的核心要素。
所以，对学英语或任何第二语言的年轻人，我有三点建议：
一要抓住这四十分钟的黄金时间；二要克服担心念错或焦虑发音搞笑这一心魔；三要在课外，尽量多创造机会去使用语言。
语言学习的根本法则就是“用进废退”。
成功学好语言的回报十分巨大，且是终生受用的。
不过，失败的代价也同样很惨重。不光我们的学费和相关支出打了水漂，我们付出的时间成本也不可估量。虽说不上是有多浪费，但与取得的成果相比，就有些得不偿失了。
英文原文链接：http://app.fortunechina.com/blog/sibuxiang/archives/630
The Forty Most Important Minutes Each Day: Are You Using Them Well?
Recently I had a conversation in Beijing with an adult Chinese friend who was complaining how difficult it is to study English. No surprises there. It is a difficult language to master, just like Chinese.
I made a few suggestions based on my own experience. One involved a very valuable fact which I learned from my high school Latin and Greek teacher. He was a Jesuit priest, a gifted linguist, and had an amazing ability to memorize things, like poetry, essays, speeches, etc.
His advice to us students was that for memorization purposes, there are forty minutes each day in which our memory is vastly more receptive than it is during the other 23 hours and 20 minutes. This 40-minute “super memory” period is divided into two parts: the 20 minutes before we sleep, and the 20 minutes after we first awake.
The theory supporting this is pretty simple. First, the last information you input into your brain before a good night’s sleep has a better chance of taking root than information acquired during the hustle bustle of normal daily routine; and, second, your mind is free of distraction when you first awake in the morning — so more receptive to inputs, like a blank slate.
I took the advice to heart and it served me well in my school years. In my university days, our Chinese teacher would assign us 200 new vocabulary words each day, on which we would be quizzed the following day. Without the “magic” forty minute technique, there’s no way I would have passed those daily quizzes.
The technique really works, but like many things, it takes practice and discipline to hone and perfect it.
As far as language study goes, it’s not only useful for memorizing vocabulary. It’s also a very useful window of time in which to listen to the language you’re studying, even as background noise, and even if it’s at a level you find difficult to comprehend. It might be audio language study aids, or just radio, TV or whatever.
Beyond our years of formal education, memory skills are hugely important in any career.
How many times have you heard a speaker read their speech from a prepared text, or read the word-by-word content of a powerpoint presentation as they present each slide?
These are annoying, distracting, boring, and ineffective ways of communicating. They are almost guaranteed to lose the audience’s close attention and interest, let alone persuade or inspire anyone to do anything. And yet lots of people still make this mistake.
If you use the “forty minute” technique, you may not succeed in memorizing your presentation contents on a 100% word-by-word basis, but you’ll be familiar enough that you can spend much more time making eye contact with your audience. You will engage them in the process, while glancing at your text instead of staring at it. This will also free up your hands and arms to add some emphasis through gesture.
Memory is of course a big challenge for any language learner, especially as we grow older. Possibly an even bigger challenge, which starts around the pre-teen years for most people and gets progressively worse, is the fear of looking or sounding stupid.
Younger children are generally uninhibited by this kind of self-consciousness when among their peers, and that’s one reason they learn language so quickly. They are not afraid to mimic, even if they get it wrong. Mimicry and imitation are core elements of the natural process of language learning.
So, for young adults learning English or any second language, my advice would be threefold: 1) seize the forty-minute learning window; 2) slay the dragon of self-consciousness associated with mis-pronunciation or sounding funny; and 3) find ways to use the language outside of the classroom, as regularly and frequently as possible.
One fundamental rule of language learning is: “Use it, or lose it.”
The paybacks of success are enormous and life-long.
Likewise, the cost of failure is high. It includes all the money spent on tuition and associated expenses, plus a huge amount of time poorly spent.
