10.趁还小，赶紧教（1260）

Passage Ten

Get them while they're young

趁还小，赶紧教

【1】The simmering row over Spanish-language teaching in Catalan schools，When the PISA worldwide educational comparisons came out late in 2023, most countries fell to wondering how to do better.

加泰罗尼亚地区学校西班牙语教学纷争正在酝酿，2023年末，PISA测试（学生能力国际评估项目）全球教育比较结果出炉，多数国家开始思考如何在这方面做得更好。

【2】In Catalonia the results were seen through the lenses(filters) of nationalism and language—as everything is. Spain had lost ground since the last time the tests were done, in 2018. But students in Catalonia lost even more, and native Spanish-speakers did worse than Catalan-speakers to boot—a failing critics were quick to pin on language policy.

在加泰罗尼亚，人们透过民族主义和语言的滤镜来看待这份结果，就像看待其他一切一样。自2018年上一次测试开展以来，西班牙的排名越发靠后，母语为西班牙语的学生表现得甚至不如说加泰罗尼亚语的学生。而后，批评者们立即将矛头指向语言政策

【3】In the 1980s Catalonia began a transition to teaching all subjects in Catalan, except Spanish. Several years ago the region’s top court ruled that at least 25% of classes must be given in Spanish.

上世纪80年代，加泰罗尼亚实行转型，所有科目改用加泰罗尼亚语而非西班牙语进行教学。几年前，该地区终审法院裁定，至少25%的课程必须使用西班牙语进行教学。

【4】The regional government, led by separatists, then passed a law allowing individual school heads to raise or lower the level of teaching in Spanish, according to need.

由分离主义者领导的地区政府随后通过一项法律，允许个体学校校长根据需要提升或降低西班牙语教学层次。

【5】A new report for the Association for Bilingual Schools in Catalonia (AEB), which campaigns for more Spanish, said that hardly any schools have changed their published policies. And so they petitioned the European Parliament to investigate(survey) what they call a violation(invasion) of pupils’ basic rights.

加泰罗尼亚双语学校联盟（AEB）致力于倡导更多的西班牙语教学，其发布的新报告显示几乎没有学校对已公布的政策做出改变。因此，他们向欧洲议会请愿，要求调查他们所谓的侵犯学生基本权利的行为。

【6】The week before Christmas a delegation made a fact-finding trip. The Catalan education secretary says they came having already made up their minds that the region’s language policy harms pupils’ performance. She blames child poverty, which is above the European average.

圣诞节的前一周，欧洲议会代表团进行了实地调研。加泰罗尼亚教育厅厅长表示，他们在来访时已经对该地区的语言政策对学生表现的影响有了先入之见。她将此归咎于高于欧洲平均水平的孩童贫困。

【7】In the Escola San Jaume, a primary school in El Prat de Llobregat, a heavily Spanish-speaking town near Barcelona, all signs are in Catalan. Only about 10% of the pupils are native Catalan-speakers, says the director, Arturo Ramírez.

小镇埃普拉特约布里加位于巴塞罗那附近，居民多说西班牙语。镇上的埃斯科拉·森·罗姆小学里所有的标识都是用加泰罗尼亚语写的。校长阿图罗·拉米雷斯表示，校内只有10%的学生母语为加泰罗尼亚语。

【8】A pupil who asks a question in Spanish is gently encouraged to try in Catalan, but children may speak to each other in Spanish in class—as they overwhelmingly do in breaks. Everyone eventually learns both languages, Mr Ramírez says.

当学生用西班牙语提问时，老师会温柔地鼓励他/她试着用加泰罗尼亚语，但是学生在课上能相互用西班牙语交流，正如他们在课后大量使用西班牙语一样。拉米雷斯先生表示，最终每个人都能学会这两种语言。

【9】Indeed, that is the stated goal of both his school and that of the AEB: fluency in Spanish and Catalan. Despite the never-ending dispute(argument) across Spain, it is one largely(generally) achieved(realized) in Catalonia, where over 80% of the population speaks and reads Catalan, and everyone barring(except) some immigrants speaks Spanish too.

事实上，这是他的学校以及双语学校联盟的预期目标，熟练掌握西班牙语和加泰罗尼亚语。尽管西班牙国内对此存在着永无休止的纷争，但加泰罗尼亚却大体实现了这一目标， 80%尽管西班牙国内对此存在着永无休止的纷的人能用加泰罗尼亚语进行交流和阅读，除了一些移民外，每个人都会说西班牙语。

【10】Of the happy charges on his playground, Mr Ramírez says “There is no problem here. The problem is outside the building.”

看到学生们在操场上开心地玩耍，拉米雷斯校长说：“校内没有问题，问题出在校外。”