HOW MARX LEARNED FOREIGN LANGUAGES
Karl Marx was born in Germany, and German was his native language. When he was still a young man, he was forced to leave his homeland for political reasons. He stayed in Belgium for a few years; then he went to France. Before long he had to move on again. In 1849, he went to England and made London the base for his revolutionary work.
Marx had learned some French and English at school. When he got to England, he found that his English was too limited. He started working hard to improve it. He made such rapid progress that before long he began to write articles in English for an American newspaper. In fact, his English in one of these articles was so good that Engels wrote him a letter and praised him for it. Marx wrote back to say that Engels' praise had greatly encouraged him. However, he went on to explain that he was not too sure about two things —— the grammar and some of the idioms.
These letters were written in 18 53. In the years that followed, Marx kept on studying English and using it. When he wrote one of his great works, The Civil War in France, he had mastered the language so well that he was able to write the book in English.
In the 1870s, when Marx was already in his fifties, he found it important to study the situation in Russia, so he began to learn Russian. At the end of six months he had learned enough to read articles and reports in Russian.
In one of his books, Marx gave some advice on how to learn a foreign language. He said when people are learning a foreign language, they should not translate everything into their own language. If they do this, it shows they have not mastered it. When they used the foreign language, they should try to forget all about their own. If they cannot do this, they have not really learned the spirit of the foreign language and cannot use it freely.
Karl Marx
卡尔·马克思
Germany
n.德国
native
adj.本国的，本土的
force
vt.强迫，迫使
homeland
n.祖国
political
adj.政治的
Belgium
n.比利时
before long
不久以后
base
n.基础；基地，根据地
revolutionary
adj.革命的 n.革命者
limit
vt.限制，限定
limited
adj.有限的
improve
vt.改善；提高
rapid
adj.快的，迅速的
progress
n.进展；进步
make progress
取得进步
article
n.文章，论文；冠词
Engels
恩格斯
praise
vt.&n.赞扬，表扬
greatly
adv.大大地；非常
encourage
vt.鼓励
however
conj.然而,可是；仍然
grammar
n.语法
idiom
n.成语，习惯用语
follow
vt.跟随;(时间等)接着
keep on
继续(做某事)；反复
works
n.著作，作品；工厂
civil
adj.国内的
master
vt.精通；掌握
situation
n.位置；形势；情况
Russia
n.俄国；俄罗斯
translate
vt.翻译
translate...into...
把...译成...
grasp
vt.抓住；领会；掌握
freely
adv.自由地；随意地
youth
n.青年
grammatical
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