想象一下，你走在路上，你遇见每一个人都要报告一下你朝什么方向前进。
But that would actually get you oriented pretty fast, right Because you literally couldnt get past \you didnt know which way you were going、 In fact, people who speak languages like this stay oriented really well、 They stay oriented better than we used to think humans could、
但这会让你很快获得方向感，不是吗因为如果你不知道你前行的方向的话，你连打招呼都没法进行。事实上，说这类语言的人他们的方向感非常好，远比我们以为人类可以做到的要好。
We used to think that humans were worse than other creatures because of some biological excuse: \have magnets in our beaks or in our scales、\language and your culture trains you to do it, actually, you can do it、 There are humans around the world who stay oriented really well、
我们曾经以为人类的方向感要比其他生物差，而我们也找了生物原因方面的借口：“哦，我们没有可以感测磁场的鸟嘴或鱼鳞”。事实并非如此。如果你的语言和文化给了你这方面的训练，你是可以做到的。世界上有些人的方向感就非常好。
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And just to get us in agreement about how different this is from the way we do it, I want you all to close your eyes fora second and point southeast、
为了确保我们大家都同意在这点上我们的思维方式有多大差异，请大家闭上眼睛，然后指向东南方。
Keep your eyes closed、 Point、 OK, so you can open your eyes、 I see you guys pointing there, there, there, there, there、、、 I dont know which way it is myself You have not been a lot of help、
先不要睁开眼睛，请指向东南方。现在，你们可以睁开眼睛了。我看到你们有指向那儿、那儿、那儿、那儿的……我自己也不知道哪边是东南方，你们也没能帮到我。
So lets just say the accuracy in this room was not very high、 This is a big difference in cognitive ability across languages, right Where one group very
distinguished group like you guys doesnt know which way is which, but in another group, I could ask a fiveyearold and they would know、
暂且就说，在座的大家在这个问题上的准确度不是很高。这就是不同语言之间的认知能力的巨大差异，一群像在座的各位一样非常优秀的人分不清哪里是哪里，而如果换做另一群人，一个5岁的孩子也知道答案。
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There are also really big differences in how people think about time、 So here I have pictures of my grandfather at different ages、 And if I ask an English speaker to organize time, they might lay it out this way, from left to right、 This has to do with writing direction、 If you were a speaker of Hebrew or Arabic, you might do it going in the opposite direction, from right to left、
人们思考时间的方式也非常不同。这里是几张我的祖父在不同年龄段的照片。如果我让一个英语使用者将它们按时间进行排列，他们可以会这样排，从左到右。这跟写字的方向有关。如果你说的是希伯来语或阿拉伯语，你则可能会以相反的方向排列，从右到左。
But how would the Kuuk Thaayorre, this Aboriginal group I just told you about, do it They dont use words like\、\、 When we sat people facing south, they organized time from left to right、 When we sat them facing north, they organized time from right to left、 When we sat them facing east, time came towards the body、
那KuukThaayorre人我刚才提到的土著民会怎么排呢他们没有“左”和“右”的概念。我来提示一下大家。当我们让他们面
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朝南方的时候，他们将时间顺序从左向右排;当面朝北方的时候，他们将时间顺序从右到左排;当他们面朝东方的时候，他们将时间从远到近排。
Whats the pattern East to west, right So for them, time doesnt actually get locked on the body at all, it gets locked on the landscape、 So for me, if Im facing this way, then time goes this way, and if Im facing this way, then time goes this way、 Im facing this way, time goes this way very egocentric of me to have the direction of time chase me around every time I turn my body、 For the Kuuk Thaayorre, time is locked on the landscape、 Its a dramatically different way of thinking about time、
发现规律了么从东到西，对吗因此对他们来说，时间跟身体的方向无关，而是跟地理有关。对我来说，如果我面向这边，时间就是这样走的;如果我面向这边，时间就是这样走的;如果我面向这边，时间就是这样走的完全以我为中心，我每次一转身，时间也要跟着我改变方向。对KuukThaayorre人来说，时间是跟地理有关的。这是一种思考时间的截然不同的方式。
Heres another really smart human trick、 Suppose I ask you how many penguins are there、 Well, I bet I know how youd solve that problem if you solved it、 You went, \、\
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counted them、 You named each one with a number, and the last number you said was the number of penguins、 This is a little trick that youre taught to use as kids、 You learn the number list and you learn how to apply it、 A little linguistic trick、
再给大家说一个人类的聪明之处。假设我问你，这里有多少只企鹅，我敢说我知道你会怎么解决这个问题。你会“一二三四五六七八”地数过去。你让每一只企鹅对应一个数字，你念出的最后一个数字就是企鹅的总数。这是你小时候就学会了的技巧，你学会了数数，你也学会了怎么用它。这是一种语言学的技巧。
Well, some languages dont do this, because some languages dont have exact number words、 Theyre languages that dont have a word like \、\and they have trouble keeping track of exact quantities、 So, for example, if I ask you to match this number of penguins to the same number of ducks, you would be able to do that by counting、 But folks who dont have that linguistic trick cant do that、
但有些语言不是这样的，因为有些语言没有精确的数字词汇。有一些语言是没有比如“七”或者“八”之类的数字的。事实上，对那些使用没有数字的语言的人来说，他们不会数数，计
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TED英语演讲：你以为语言只是交流工具
