You can tell by the power squat, I was a very confident boy --

從我蹲馬步的姿勢，你可以看出我是一個非常有自信的孩子 —

and not without reason.

這是有原因的

I had a very charming routine at the time,

當時我有一個非常迷人的例行公事，

which was to wait until late in the evening

我會等到很晚的夜裡

when my parents were decompressing from a hard day's work,

當我的父母在為了一天下來的辛苦工作紓壓，

doing their crossword puzzles, watching television.

玩填字遊戲，看電視時

I would run into the living room, jump up on the couch,

我會跑進客廳，跳上沙發

rip the cushions off, throw them on the floor,

將椅墊掀起來，扔在地上，

scream at the top of my lungs and run out

尖叫，然後跑走

because I was the Incredible Hulk.

因為我是神奇綠巨人

(Laughter)

(眾笑)

Obviously, you see the resemblance.

很顯然，你可以看出我和他有多相似

And this routine went on for some time.

而這個例行公事持續了一段時間

When I was seven I went to summer camp.

我七歲的時候參加了一個夏令營

My parents found it necessary for peace of mind.

我的父母為了耳根清靜不得不這麼做

And at noon each day

每天中午十二點

the campers would go to a pond,

夏令營的孩子們會去一個

where they had floating docks.

有浮動碼頭的池塘

You could jump off the end into the deep end.

你可以從碼頭跳入池塘深處

I was born premature. I was always very small.

我是個早產兒。我一直比別的孩子嬌小

My left lung had collapsed when I was born.

我剛出生的時候左肺曾經萎陷過

And I've always had buoyancy problems.

而我一直有浮力問題

So water was something that scared me to begin with.

因此，我一向都很怕水

But I would go in on occasion.

但我有時還是會跳進池塘

And on one particular day,

有一天，

the campers were jumping through inner tubes,

孩子們在玩跳水穿越游泳圈的遊戲

They were diving through inner tubes. And I thought this would be great fun.

他們跳入水面上的游泳圈。我認為這會非常有趣

So I dove through the inner tube,

所以，我跳水穿入了游泳圈，

and the bully of the camp grabbed my ankles.

而夏令營裡一個愛欺侮人的孩子抓住了我的腳踝

And I tried to come up for air,

我試著浮出水面呼吸空氣，

and my lower back hit the bottom of the inner tube.

但游泳圈壓著我的背。

And I went wild eyed and thought I was going to die.

我殺紅了眼，以為自己就要死了。

A camp counselor fortunately came over and separated us.

幸運的是，一個營地輔導員及時趕過來將我們分開

From that point onward I was terrified of swimming.

從那一刻起，我再也不敢游泳

That is something that I did not get over.

我一直無法克服這個恐懼

My inability to swim has been

身為一個旱鴨子

one of my greatest humiliations and embarrassments.

是我最大的屈辱和難堪

That is when I realized that I was not the Incredible Hulk.

這使我發覺，我不是神奇綠巨人

But there is a happy ending to this story.

但是這個故事有個圓滿的結局

At age 31 -- that's my age now --

31 歲時，也就是我現在的年齡，

in August I took two weeks to re-examine swimming,

在 8 月，我利用兩個星期反思游泳

and question all the of the obvious aspects of swimming.

和所有明顯有關游泳方面的問題

And went from swimming one lap --

我從像個溺水的猴子似的

so 20 yards -- like a drowning monkey,

以大約每分鐘 200 下的心跳，

at about 200 beats per minute heart rate --

游一圈，也就是 20 碼，

I measured it --

我量過，

to going to Montauk on Long Island,

到從長島的蒙托克

close to where I grew up,

離我的故鄉不遠處

and jumping into the ocean and swimming one kilometer in open water,

跳進大海，在公開水域游了 1 公里，

getting out and feeling better than when I went in.

上岸，感覺比跳進去的時候更好。

And I came out,

我在岸上，穿著我的

in my Speedos, European style,

歐式 Speedos 三角游泳褲，

feeling like the Incredible Hulk.

感覺好比神奇綠巨人

And that's what I want everyone in here to feel like,

我希望各位在這場演講結束時

the Incredible Hulk, at the end of this presentation.

都能感覺像是神奇綠巨人

More specifically, I want you to feel like you're capable

更具體地說，我希望你覺得你有能力

of becoming an excellent long-distance swimmer,

能成為一個優秀的遠距離游泳選手，

a world-class language learner,

一個世界級的語言學生，

and a tango champion.

和探戈冠軍

And I would like to share my art.

我想在此分享我的藝術。

If I have an art, it's deconstructing things

如果我有一門藝術，那就是解構

that really scare the living hell out of me.

那些使我恐懼的事物

So, moving onward.

那麼，開始吧

Swimming, first principles.

游泳，第一個原則。

First principles, this is very important.

第一原則，這非常重要

I find that the best results in life

我發現生活中最佳的成果

are often held back by false constructs and untested assumptions.

往往被錯誤的觀念和未經驗證的假設埋沒

And the turnaround in swimming came

我對游泳的轉變源自於朋友的一句話，

when a friend of mine said, "I will go a year without any stimulants" --

他說：「我可以一年不碰咖啡因」—

this is a six-double-espresso-per-day type of guy --

這個朋友是每天得喝6杯濃咖啡的人 —

"if you can complete a one kilometer open water race."

「如果你能完成一公里公開水域游泳賽。」

So the clock started ticking.

於是時間開始倒數

I started seeking out triathletes

我開始尋覓三項全能的運動員

because I found that lifelong swimmers often couldn't teach what they did.

因為我發現，終身游泳選手往往不會教學

I tried kickboards.

我試過浮板

My feet would slice through the water like razors,

我的腳可以像電動剃刀似的切入水面，

I wouldn't even move. I would leave demoralized, staring at my feet.

而我仍無法前進。我只能沮喪的盯著自己的腳。

Hand paddles, everything.

槳狀手板，能試的都試了。

Even did lessons with Olympians -- nothing helped.

我還跟奧林匹克選手上課，但都無濟於事

And then Chris Sacca, who is now a dear friend mine,

然後，我現在一個要好的朋友 Chris Sacca，

had completed an Iron Man with 103 degree temperature,

他在華氏 103 度下已完成了鐵人三項，

said, "I have the answer to your prayers."

對我說：「我有你祈禱的答覆。」

And he introduced me to

他向我介紹了

the work of a man named Terry Laughlin

Terry Laughlin 的事業

who is the founder of Total Immersion Swimming.

他是 Total Immersion Swimming 的創始人

That set me on the road to examining biomechanics.

這讓我走上研究生物力學的道路

So here are the new rules of swimming,

如果你害怕或不擅長游泳，

if any of you are afraid of swimming, or not good at it.

這裡是新的游泳規則。

The first is, forget about kicking. Very counterintuitive.

首先，別管踢水了。這非常違反直覺

So it turns out that propulsion isn't really the problem.

事實證明，推進力並非真正的問題

Kicking harder doesn't solve the problem

踢得更用力解決不了問題

because the average swimmer only transfers about three percent

因為普通的游泳者只利用大約百分之三的

of their energy expenditure into forward motion.

能量開支向前移動。

The problem is hydrodynamics.

問題是流體動力學

So what you want to focus on instead

你應該將重點放在

is allowing your lower body to draft behind your upper body,

讓您的下半身拖在您的上半身後面，

much like a small car behind a big car on the highway.

就像在高速公路上大型車後面的小型車

And you do that by maintaining a horizontal body position.

保持橫向體位就能這樣

The only way you can do that

而做到這一點唯一的辦法

is to not swim on top of the water.

就是不要游在水面上

The body is denser than water. 95 percent of it would be,

人體的密度比水高。至少百分之九十五

at least, submerged naturally.

將自然沈在水中

So you end up, number three,

因此，第三點，當你游自由式時，

not swimming, in the case of freestyle,

不該像許多人認為的，

on your stomach, as many people think, reaching on top of the water.

游在你的肚子上，往水面上伸手。

But actually rotating from streamlined right

而是應該從右邊的流線，

to streamlined left,

轉向左邊的流線，

maintaining that fuselage position as long as possible.

維持這樣的機身姿勢越久越好。

So let's look at some examples. This is Terry.

讓我們來看看一些例子。這是 Terry

And you can see that he's extending his right arm

你可以看到他在他的頭的下前方遠處

below his head and far in front.

伸展出他的右臂。

And so his entire body really is underwater.

而他的整個身體確實是在水底下。

The arm is extended below the head.

延長的手臂在頭的下方。

The head is held in line with the spine,

頭和脊椎成一直線，

so that you use strategic water pressure to raise your legs up --

這樣您可以利用水壓力提高你的腿 —

very important, especially for people with lower body fat.

這非常重要，尤其是對體脂肪較低的人來說。

Here is an example of the stroke.

這是踢水的例子

So you don't kick. But you do use a small flick.

你不用踢。但你得輕微地擺動

You can see this is the left extension.

你可以看到這是左部延伸

Then you see his left leg.

然後，你看到他的左腿

Small flick, and the only purpose of that

輕微的擺動，而這唯一的目的是

is to rotate his hips so he can get to the opposite side.

要轉動他的臀部，讓他到另一邊

And the entry point for his right hand -- notice this,

看好他右手的切入點，

he's not reaching in front and catching the water.

他並沒有向前伸展抓水

Rather, he is entering the water

他的前臂以 45 度角

at a 45-degree angle with his forearm,

進入水面，

and then propelling himself by streamlining -- very important.

然後他用流線的姿勢將自己推進 — 這非常重要

Incorrect, above, which is what almost every swimming coach will teach you.

上圖姿勢不正確，但幾乎每個游泳教練都會這樣教你

Not their fault, honestly.

老實說這不是他們的錯

And I'll get to implicit versus explicit in a moment.

等會兒我會談到內隱和外顯的差別

Below is what most swimmers

以下是大多數游泳選手

will find enables them to do what I did,

發現能讓他們做到我所做到的，

which is going from 21 strokes per 20-yard length

也就是在 20 碼的長度，在兩次訓練，

to 11 strokes

沒有教練，沒有視頻監控的情況下，

in two workouts with no coach, no video monitoring.

從划 21 下，到划 11 下。

And now I love swimming. I can't wait to go swimming.

現在我愛游泳。我迫不及待地想去游泳

I'll be doing a swimming lesson later, for myself, if anyone wants to join me.

我待會要為自己上游泳課，想來的人歡迎加入我。

Last thing, breathing. A problem a lot of us have, certainly, when you're swimming.

最後是呼吸。這是很多人游泳的問題

In freestyle, easiest way to remedy this is

在自由式，最簡單的輔助方法是

to turn with body roll,

頭跟著身體轉

and just to look at your recovery hand as it enters the water.

用眼睛看著你收回進入水裡的手。

And that will get you very far.

這將對你受益無窮。

That's it. That's really all you need to know.

就這樣。你需要知道的不過如此

Languages. Material versus method.

語言。教材與教法

I, like many people, came to the conclusion

我和許多人一樣，

that I was terrible at languages.

認為自己對學習語言沒天分。

I suffered through Spanish for junior high, first year of high school,

國中和高一，我學西班牙文學得很痛苦。

and the sum total of my knowledge

我西班牙文知識的總和

was pretty much, "Donde esta el bano?"

差不多是：「Donde esta el bano？」

And I wouldn't even catch the response. A sad state of affairs.

而我連答覆都聽不懂。挺可悲的

Then I transferred to a different school sophomore year, and

然後，高中二年級我轉到另一個學校。

I had a choice of other languages. Most of my friends were taking Japanese.

我可以選擇學其他語言。我大多數的朋友們都在學日語

So I thought why not punish myself? I'll do Japanese.

所以我想，為何不懲罰自己？我也來學日文！

Six months later I had the chance to go to Japan.

6 個月後，有個去日本的機會。

My teachers assured me, they said, "Don't worry.

我的老師向我保證，他們說：「別擔心。」

You'll have Japanese language classes every day to help you cope.

「每天都會有日文課幫助你學習。」

It will be an amazing experience." My first overseas experience in fact.

「這會是一個很棒的經驗。」而且會是我第一次出國

So my parents encouraged me to do it. I left.

我的父母鼓勵我去。我離鄉

I arrived in Tokyo. Amazing.

到達東京。真不可思議

I couldn't believe I was on the other side of the world.

我簡直不敢相信我在世界另一邊。

I met my host family. Things went quite well I think,

我見到了我的寄宿家庭。一切似乎都還不錯，

all things considered.

至少我這麼認為

My first evening, before my first day of school,

我的第一個晚上，在開學前一天，

I said to my mother, very politely,

我對我的寄宿母親，很客氣地說，

"Please wake me up at eight a.m."

「請在 8 點叫醒我」

So, (Japanese)

所以，日文是 (日文)

But I didn't say (Japanese). I said, (Japanese). Pretty close.

不過，我並沒有說 (日文)。我說，(日文)。相當接近

But I said, "Please rape me at eight a.m."

但那意思是「請在 8 點強姦我。」

(Laughter)

(眾笑)

You've never seen a more confused Japanese woman.

你應該沒有看過一個比她還疑惑的日本女子

(Laughter)

(眾笑)

I walked in to school.

我進學校

And a teacher came up to me and handed me a piece of paper.

一個老師走到我面前，遞給我一張紙

I couldn't read any of it -- hieroglyphics, it could have been --

我一個字也不會念 — 簡直就是象形文字 —

because it was Kanji,

因為那是漢字，

Chinese characters adapted into the Japanese language.

也就是日文從中文借來的文字

Asked him what this said.

我問他上面寫什麼

And he goes, "Ahh, okay okay,

而他說：「啊啊，好的好的，」

eehto, World History, ehh, Calculus,

「嗯嗯，世界歷史，嗯，微積分，」

Traditional Japanese." And so on.

「傳統日語。」等等

And so it came to me in waves.

這對我來說是一波波的震驚

There had been something lost in translation.

有些訊息在翻譯中流失了

The Japanese classes were not Japanese instruction classes, per se.

這些日本課本身並不是日語教學

They were the normal high school curriculum for Japanese students --

它們是普通日本學生的高中課程

the other 4,999 students in the school, who were Japanese, besides the American.

是除了我這個美國人以外，另外 4999 個日本學生上的課程

And that's pretty much my response.

我的反應差不多是這樣

(Laughter)

(眾笑)

And that set me on this panic driven search for the perfect language method.

這驅使我恐慌的尋找完美的語言學習法

I tried everything. I went to Kinokuniya.

我試了所有方法。我去了紀伊國屋書店

I tried every possible book, every possible CD.

我嘗試了所有的書，所有的CD

Nothing worked until I found this.

都沒有幫助，直到我發現這個

This is the Joyo Kanji. This is a Tablet rather,

這是常用漢字表。這是一張 1945 個

or a poster of the 1,945 common-use characters

常用漢字的圖表或海報

as determined by the Ministry of Education in 1981.

由教育部於 1981 年所訂

Many of the publications in Japan limit themselves to these characters,

日本許多出版社都限制自己於這些漢字，

to facilitate literacy -- some are required to.

以促進掃盲 — 有些是規定

And this became my Holy Grail, my Rosetta Stone.

而這成為我的聖杯，我的羅賽達石碑

As soon as I focused on this material,

當我開始專注於這個教材後，

I took off.

我的學習便突飛猛進。

I ended up being able to read Asahi Shinbu, Asahi newspaper,

我最後連朝日新聞都會念，

about six months later -- so a total of 11 months later --

大約半年後，— 也就是總共11個月後 —

and went from Japanese I to Japanese VI.

我從日文一年級，到六年級。

Ended up doing translation work at age 16 when I returned to the U.S.,

16 歲歸國後，我甚至當起翻譯，

and have continued to apply this material

並且繼續應用這種教材強與教法的方式，

over method approach to close to a dozen languages now.

到現在，學習將近 12 種語言

Someone who was terrible at languages,

一個曾經對語言沒天分的人，

and at any given time, speak, read and write five or six.

在任何時刻，能說、讀、寫五或六種語言

This brings us to the point,

這將我們帶到重點，

which is, it's oftentimes what you do,

也就是，往往是你做了什麼，

not how you do it, that is the determining factor.

不是你如何去做，才是決定性因素。

This is the difference between being effective -- doing the right things --

這區別了做事有效 — 做正確的事 —

and being efficient -- doing things well whether or not they're important.

和做事有效率 — 做好不管是否重要的事

You can also do this with grammar.

相同的方式也可以用在語法

I came up with these six sentences after much experimentation.

在許多試驗後，我研究出這 6 個句子

Having a native speaker allow you to deconstruct their grammar,

請一個講母語的人將這些句子

by translating these sentences into past, present, future,

翻譯成過去式、現在式、未來式

will show you subject, object, verb,

好讓你解構他們的語法，可以讓你分別主詞、副詞、動詞，

placement of indirect, direct objects, gender and so forth.

間接賓語、直接賓語、性別，等等的位置

From that point, you can then, if you want to,

從這起點，如果你想要，你可以

acquire multiple languages, alternate them so there is no interference.

掌握多種語言，不受干擾地隨意轉換使用他們

We can talk about that if anyone in interested.

如果任何人有興趣，我們可以更深入去聊

And now I love languages.

現在，我愛各種語言。

So ballroom dancing, implicit versus explicit --

交際舞，內隱和外顯 —

very important.

這非常重要

You might look at me and say, "That guy must be a ballroom dancer."

你可能會看著我說：「那傢伙必定是個交際舞者。」

But no, you'd be wrong

但是，你錯了

because my body is very poorly designed for most things --

因為我的身體構造對大多數的動作來說是很差的設計 —

pretty well designed for lifting heavy rocks perhaps.

也許對舉重石頭來說算還不錯

I used to be much bigger, much more muscular.

我曾經比現在壯很多，有更多肌肉

And so I ended up walking like this.

因此，我走起路來像這樣

I looked a lot like an orangutan, our close cousins, or the Incredible Hulk.