这4位好莱坞女星的母语竟然不是英语[1]

It’s important to have role models who can inspire us and illustrate that learning English can be the first step to a new life and a highly successful career. Teachers can do this, but sometimes it’s nice to have some loftier examples to aspire to.

学英语时，榜样的激励作用至关重要——他们让我们意识到，学英语可能是人生改变和事业成功的第一步。虽然老师能起到这样的作用，但有时受人追捧的名人或许也可以担当此任。

With that in mind, here we reveal four celebrities whom you might be surprised to discover learnt English as a second language. And they all have two things in common – they’re all Hollywood stars, and they’re all women.

抱着这种想法，今天我们将介绍这四位名人：你可能不知道，其实英语只是她们的二外。这四位全都是好莱坞明星，且都是女性。

桑德拉·布洛克 Despite being born in Arlington County, Virginia, Bullock was raised in Nuremberg, Germany, where her American father – stationed in charge of the US Army’s Military Post Service in Europe – met her German mother. Having spent 12 years in Germany, German naturally became her first language.

布洛克虽出生于弗吉尼亚的阿灵顿，却成长于德国纽伦堡。她的父亲是美国人，曾于欧洲负责主管美国陆军邮政局。她的母亲是德国人。纽伦堡是布洛克父母的相遇之处。布洛克在德国生活了十二年，德语自然而然成为了她的母语。

Here’s footage of Bullock speaking to a German journalist after her 2010 Academy Award Best Actress win for her role in the film The Blind Side:

2010年时，布洛克凭借《弱点》斩获奥斯卡金像奖最佳女主角奖项，这是她获奖后接受德国记者采访时的情景：

查理兹·塞隆 Synonymous with Hollywood thanks to her roles in Mad Max: Fury Road, Prometheus and 2003’s Monster, for which she won an Academy Award for Best Actress, Theron is actually from Benoni, a city in the South African province of Gauteng. As a result of being from an Afrikaner family, her first language was Afrikaans – with her surname actually pronounced ‘Tron’ in her native tongue, rather than ‘Ther-on’.

塞隆曾出演《疯狂的麦克斯4：狂暴之路》、《普罗米修斯》和2003年上映的《女魔头》。她凭借《女魔头》荣登奥斯卡金像奖最佳女主角宝座。这些电影让她成为了好莱坞的代名词。塞隆实际上出生于南非豪登省的柏诺奈。成长于南非白人家庭的她，以南非荷兰语为母语——所以，她的姓氏应该读作母语中的“Tron”，而非“Ther-on”。

Here she is showcasing the pronunciation of her name, and speaking some Afrikaans, during an interview with Piers Morgan:

这是她接受皮尔斯·摩根采访时，向观众展示其姓氏正确发音的视频，她还说了几句南非荷兰语：

娜塔丽·波特曼 Portman, whose birth name is Neta-Lee Hershlag, debuted in the thriller Léon when she was just 12 years old. Until the age of three, she lived in Jerusalem, and so spoke Hebrew as a first language. Portman’s fascination with languages continued after her family moved to the US, and she now speaks six languages (Hebrew, English, German, Japanese, Spanish and French!)

波特曼原名娜塔-莉·赫什勒，12岁时，就首次出演了惊悚片《这个杀手不太冷》。三岁之前，她一直住在耶路撒冷，希伯来语是她的母语。家人移居美国后，波特曼对语言学习的兴趣愈发浓厚。现在她会说六种语言：希伯来语、英语、德语、日语、西班牙语和法语！

Here’s Portman conducting an interview in Hebrew:

这是波特曼用希伯来语接受采访的视频：

米拉·库尼斯 The star of Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Black Swan and Ted was born in Chernivtsi in western Ukraine. She moved with her family to Los Angeles when she was seven years old, at which point she couldn’t speak a word of English.

库尼斯曾出演《忘掉莎拉·马歇尔》、《黑天鹅》和《泰迪熊》。她出生于乌克兰西部城市查尼夫兹。七岁时，她随家人移居洛杉矶，那时她一点儿英语都不懂。

Here she is speaking Russian during an interview as her Friends with Benefits co-star Justin Timberlake looks on, impressed:

这是她用俄语接受采访时的视频，和她共同出演《朋友也上床》的贾斯汀·汀布莱克在一旁听着，满脸钦佩：

And, finally, here’s a list of other bilingual celebrities and the languages they speak other than their native one...

最后，我们再列举一下那些除了说母语英语、还会说其他语言的名人，以及他们所掌握的外语……

J·K·罗琳 科林·费尔斯 布拉德·皮特 夏奇拉 威尔·史密斯 维戈·莫特森 金·凯特罗尔 阿尔塞纳·温格 本·阿弗莱克 布莱德利·库珀 格温妮丝·帕特洛 莱昂纳多·迪卡普里奥 朱迪·福斯特 迈克尔·法斯宾德 约翰尼·德普 奥兰多·布鲁姆 威尔·法瑞尔 韦斯利·斯奈普斯 Vocabulary

lofty：高的；高级的

synonymous：同义的；同义词的

look on：观看，旁观