Pinyin， the method by which Chinese and foreigners learns Chinese，was designed in the late 1950’s by Zhou Youguang and his team of 20 inunder three years.

拼音是中國人和外國人學(xué)習漢語的一種方法，是由周有光和他的20人團隊于20世紀50年代末在不到3 年的時間里創(chuàng)設(shè)出來的。

Pinyin works to attach1 the Chinese sound and intonations2 of acharacter to the character itself through a system of letters denoting3 thepronunciation.

拼音的工作是通過一套表示發(fā)音的字母系統(tǒng)將漢字的語音和語調(diào)與漢字本身聯(lián)系起來。

The Chinese romanization system has revolutionized4 all facets ofcommunication in China， beginning in 1958 when it was put into thecurriculum5 of compulsory6 education across China as a method forteaching Mandarin. After a revised version of pinyin was adopted7 as theinternational standard in 1982， pinyin became very important to a solutionfor evolving communication technology： users would be able to fluentlytype characters into their phones and computers using a keyboard.

從1958年開始，漢語羅馬化系統(tǒng)作為一種普通話教學(xué)方法被納入全國義務(wù)教育課程中，它徹底改變了中國交際的方方面面。在1982 年修訂版的拼音被采納為國際標準之后，拼音對于不斷發(fā)展的通信技術(shù)的解決方案變得至關(guān)重要：用戶將能夠使用鍵盤在手機和電腦中流利地鍵入字符。

By revolutionizing communication in China， pinyin has also had a majorimpact on China’s modern day emergence8 as a global power， or the“opensesame”effect， as Zhou put it.

通過改革中國的交流方式，拼音也對中國現(xiàn)代崛起成為世界大國產(chǎn)生了重大影響，也就是周有光所說的“芝麻開門”效應(yīng)。

“Language is a key to learning and understanding， and pinyin gave moreChinese the ability to turn this key，”he said. “In the era of mobile phonesand globalization， we use pinyin to communicate with the world. Pinyin is likea kind of ‘open sesame’， opening up the doors. The system is a bridgebetween China and the rest of the world.”

“語言是學(xué)習和理解的一把鑰匙，而拼音讓更多的中國人有能力轉(zhuǎn)動這把鑰匙。”他說，“在手機和全球化的時代，我們用拼音與世界交流。拼音就像‘芝麻開門’，打開了大門。這個系統(tǒng)是中國與世界其他國家之間的橋梁?！?/p>

Zhou Youguang was born in 1906， and spent the greater part of his life asa writer. Throughout his life， he published 30 books， 10 of them beingavailable since the turn of the 20th century. In 1923， Zhou enrolled9 in China’sfirst Western -style university， St. John’s in Shanghai， where he majored ineconomics and minored10 in linguistics11. During the May 30th Movement inthe middle of the Republican period， he transferred to Guanghua Universityand then graduated in 1927. By this time， he was renowned as one of China’sbrightest young scholars. Zhou spent time in Japan as a foreign exchangestudent before moving to London， and then New York to work as a Wall Streetbanker. During his time in New York he built a friendship with AlbertEinstein， although he said those discussions had been lost in time.

周有光出生于1906 年，他一生的大部分時間都在寫作。在他的一生中，他出版了30 本書，其中10 本是20 世紀初出版的。1923 年，周有光就讀于中國第一所西式大學(xué)上海圣約翰大學(xué)，主修經(jīng)濟學(xué)，輔修語言學(xué)。民國中期五卅運動期間，他轉(zhuǎn)入光華大學(xué)，于1927 年畢業(yè)。彼時，他被譽為中國最杰出的青年學(xué)者之一。周有光曾在日本做過交換生，之后前往倫敦，后來在紐約做過華爾街銀行業(yè)者。在紐約期間，他與阿爾伯特·愛因斯坦建立了友誼，盡管他說那些討論已經(jīng)被時間遺忘了。

“Yes， I visited Einstein a couple of times，”Zhou had said matter-of-factly，but with the genuine12 humility13 of a Confucian scholar.“But I didn’t understandrelativity at all so we just chatted about everyday things.”

“是的，我拜訪過愛因斯坦幾次?！敝苡泄鈳е寮覍W(xué)者真正的謙遜實事求是地說，“但我根本不懂相對論，所以我們只是聊日?，嵤隆！?/p>

Later， Zhou Youguang continued to write and tried to understand China.One of his latest books Zhao When Dao Ji ， was based on one of Confucius’ssayings： “He who fully realizes the truth in the morning may die without regretsin the evening.”

之后，周有光繼續(xù)寫作，努力了解中國。他最后出版的著作之一《朝聞道集》是取材于孔子的名言“朝聞道，夕死可矣”。

The centenarian14 scholar’s passion15 over the course of his life had beenlearning and helping others to learn， and for foreigners living in China， Zhou hada simple piece of wisdom： “Do something to help bridge understanding betweenChina’s ancient civilization and the modern world.”

這位百歲學(xué)者一生的熱情在于學(xué)習和幫助他人學(xué)習，對于生活在中國的外國人，周有光有一種樸素的智慧：“做點什么，為中國古代文明和現(xiàn)代世界之間的理解架起一座橋梁。”

（英語原文選自：thechinese.org）