So don't even bother trying.

だから、わざわざ挑戦する必要はない。

So I'm this guy who has over a million followers here at YouTube.

僕はYouTubeで100万人以上のフォロワーを持つ男なんだ。

And I talk about the joys of language learning and how we can all learn and all this stuff.

そして、私は言語学習の楽しさや、私たち全員がどのように学ぶことができるか、そういったことについて話している。

But I have to confess that there are moments when I have my doubts.

しかし、正直なところ、疑念を抱く瞬間もある。

Is it really worthwhile learning languages?

語学を学ぶことは本当に価値があるのだろうか？

Can it be fun?

楽しいだろうか？

And I'm reminded of a story told to me by a friend of mine who was traveling.

そして、旅行中の友人から聞いた話を思い出す。

He was in a, I can't remember whether it was Paris or Tokyo or Istanbul or Buenos Aires, but some city where they spoke a language other than English.

彼はパリか東京かイスタンブールかブエノスアイレスか忘れたが、英語以外の言語を話す都市にいた。

And so he was, uh, at this cafe, he had his, uh, you know, he's going to review his social media or whatever.

それで、彼はそのカフェで、自分のソーシャル・メディアを見直そうとしたんだ。

And he sits beside this, uh, attractive, uh, you know, girl and he starts staring at her.

そして彼は、その、魅力的な、その、女の子の横に座り、彼女を見つめ始めた。

And then he kind of says to her in English, she says, you have a lovely smile, which he thought was a really good sort of, uh, pickup line, you know?

そして、彼は英語で彼女に言ったんだ。彼女は、あなたは笑顔が素敵ね、と言った。

And she looks at him in a very unfriendly way and mutters something in the local language.

そして、彼女はとても愛想のない様子で彼を見つめ、現地の言葉で何かをつぶやいた。

So undeterred, he sort of whips out his iPhone and he speaks into his iPhone in English and the iPhone then speaks in the local language also saying, you have a lovely smile.

そこで彼はiPhoneを取り出し、iPhoneに向かって英語で話しかけると、iPhoneは現地の言葉でこう言った。

At that point, the girl calls the waiter over and she's pointing in at the, at him and, and, you know, uh, obviously very unhappy and she has moved to another part of the cafe.

その時、女の子はウェイターを呼んで、彼を指差して、明らかに不機嫌そうにカフェの別の場所に移動した。

So the moral of the story is to me, like, why bother?

つまり、この話の教訓は、「なぜ悩むのか？

Why bother learning a language?

なぜわざわざ語学を学ぶのか？

You know, he went to the trouble of, you know, using his iPhone to generate his pickup line there in, in the local language and he was still rejected.

彼はわざわざiPhoneを使って現地の言葉で口説き文句を作ったのに、それでも断られたんだ。

So yeah, I question therefore, why bother?

だから、なぜ悩むのか？

Because learning a language, you know, has to be hard work.

言語を学ぶのは大変なことなんだ。

There is an expression, no pain, no gain.

ノーペイン・ノーゲインという表現がある。

And that's certainly true in language learning.

そして、それは語学学習においても言えることだ。

If you don't subject yourself to drills, to quizzes on things that you have hardly had a chance to get used to in the language, like the subjunctive in French or something, if you don't go to a class and sit there and, uh, maybe you have to read in front of other people and if you read well, then people are jealous and don't like you and if you read badly, they are, they laugh at you or they, it's they listen to you, so it's just not a good situation, but you have to do that.

ドリルや、フランス語の接続法のような、その言語でほとんど慣れる機会のないものについての小テストを自分に課さなければ、クラスに行って、そこに座って、他の人の前で本を読まなければならないかもしれません。

You got to review, you know, stacks and stacks of flashcards and of course you keep forgetting them and, and it's just a lot of pain.

フラッシュカードを何枚も何枚も何枚も何枚も何枚も何枚も復習しなければならない。

The whole process is quite painful, you know, and at the end of all this effort, are we going to just be rejected the way my friend was rejected?

このプロセス全体がかなり苦痛なんだ。そして、この努力の果てに、僕の友人が拒絶されたように、僕たちも拒絶されるのか？

I even hear of people who learn a language and go to the country where the language is spoken and they trot out whatever they're able to do in the language.

ある言語を学び、その言語が話されている国へ行き、その言語でできることは何でも持ち出す人の話も聞く。

Like, why should I even bother if you're not going to humor me when I try to use the language that I'm learning?

私が学んでいる言語を使おうとしても、ユーモアを交えないのであれば、なぜ私が悩む必要があるのか？

Uh, now there are people who say the opposite.

その反対を言う人もいる。

There are people who say that in fact, learning can be fun, that the brain will get used to the language.

実際、学習は楽しいもので、脳は言語に慣れるものだと言う人もいる。

The brain is designed to do that.

脳はそのようにできている。

Eventually with enough exposure, we're going to be able to start using even with some difficulty, as long as we are not afraid that gradually we will improve.

十分な経験を積めば、多少の困難があっても使い始められるようになる。

You know, I often mentioned the fact that never has there been so much interesting content available to us in just about any language and never have there been so many people online helping us in the early stages of our learning of any given language.

どの言語でも、これほど多くの興味深いコンテンツがあり、どの言語の学習の初期段階でも、これほど多くの人々がオンラインで助けてくれることはない。

So the conditions have never been better.

だからコンディションはかつてないほどいい。

I hear this message and I personally have delivered this message here, uh, to encourage people, but is that realistic?

私はこのメッセージを聞いているし、私自身、人々を励ますためにこのメッセージをここで伝えてきた。

So today I'm having one of my darker moments and I'm saying, no, it isn't worth it.

だから今日、私は暗い気持ちになって、ノー、それは価値がないと言っているんだ。

You're probably not going to succeed.

おそらく成功することはないだろう。

So don't even bother trying.

だから、わざわざ挑戦する必要はない。

A lot of people pay lip service to the idea that they want to learn another language, my advice is don't bother.

多くの人が、他の言語を学びたいというリップサービスをする。

In the book that I wrote in 2003 about language learning, I mentioned the parable of the butterfly by Zhuangzi, Chinese Taoist philosopher of 2,500 years ago, where he imagined himself a butterfly and then when he awoke and he realized that he wasn't a butterfly, he was Zhuangzi, then he says, I don't know now whether in fact, I'm a butterfly that now thinks he's Zhuangzi or was I a Zhuangzi who imagined himself a butterfly.

私が2003年に書いた言語学習に関する本の中で、2500年前の中国の道教の哲学者である荘子の「蝶のたとえ」に触れた。

So using the parable of Zhuangzi and having exposed to you some of my dark thoughts about language learning, uh, I'm not sure now whether the Steve that questions the usefulness of language learning is the real Steve or whether I was just pretending to be that.

荘子のたとえを使い、私の言語学習に対する暗い考えを皆さんにさらけ出したわけだが、言語学習の有用性に疑問を呈するスティーブが本当のスティーブなのか、それとも私がそのふりをしていただけなのか、今はよくわからない。

And in fact, the Steve, the enthusiastic Steve is the real Steve.

そして実際、熱狂的なスティーブこそが本物のスティーブなのだ。

I leave it up to you to figure that out, but do try to bear in mind the fact that it is the 1st of April.

それを理解するのはあなた次第だが、4月1日という事実を心に留めておいてほしい。