投资未来：美中语言交流的重要性_公共英语阅读理解

投资未来：美中语言交流的重要性

美国国务院为我提供了大约2.5万美元学习汉语。作为高中NSLI-Y奖学金和大学“重要语言奖学金”获得者，我在中国同寄宿家庭一起生活了两个夏天，每天学习九小时汉语。读本科时，我花了大约2000小时的课堂时间坚持学习汉语。说实话，我在我的汉语能力上还是小有投入的。

The U.S. State Department has invested some $25,000 in enabling me to study Mandarin Chinese. As a recipient of the NSLI-Y scholarship in high school, and then the Critical Language Scholarship in college, I lived in China for two summers with host families, studying Mandarin for nine hours a day. Tack on to that the approximately 2,000 classroom hours I spent learning Mandarin as an undergraduate, and it seems fair to say that a small fortune of resources has been invested in my Mandarin ability.

投资未来：美中语言交流的重要性1

然而，即使有这一大笔钱，我仍然用了很大力气来达到流利的程度。目前还不清楚，将来我的职业生涯中会不会经常用到我的语言技能。这让我思考，国务院是希望有什么样的投资回报呢？到底是什么驱使我练习发音，记住汉字呢？

Yet even with this hefty sum, I still have strides to make in achieving fluency, and it's unclear whether I'll use my language skills regularly in my career. This leads me to reflect: what return on investment was the State Department hoping for? What is it that drives me to drill tones and memorize characters?