But it must not be supposed that I could really talk in this short time. I had learned only the elements of speech. Miss Fuller and Miss Sullivan could understand me, but most people would not have understood one word in a hundred. Nor is it true that, after I had learned these elements, I did the rest of the work myself. But for Miss Sullivan's genius, untiring perseverance and devotion, I could not have progressed as far as I have toward natural speech. In the first place, I laboured night and day before I could be understood even by my most intimate friends; in the second place, I needed Miss Sullivan's assistance constantly in my efforts to articulate each sound clearly and to combine all sounds in a thousand ways. Even now she calls my attention every day to mispronounced words.
不过,在如此短的时间内学会讲话还是令人难以想象的。事实上,我只是掌握了讲话的要素而已。虽然富勒小姐和苏立文小姐明白我说的话,但是大部分人并不知道我在说什么,我说一百个词,他们未必能听懂一个词。这当然称不上真正的语言,就是说,在我学习了这些要素之后,其余的技能就要靠我自己去摸索了。多亏了苏立文小姐的天才之举,以及她孜孜不倦的奉献精神,否则,我是无法在学习自然讲话的过程中取得进步的。首先,要想让我最亲密的朋友们听懂我说的话,我必须要夜以继日地加强练习;其次,我需要苏立文小姐的持续帮助,就是说,让她帮我纠正每一个发音,然后再用上千种方式将所有的音节组合在一起。直到现在,她仍会在日常交流中提醒我读错的音。
All teachers of the deaf know what this means, and only they can at all appreciate the peculiar difficulties with which I had to contend. In reading my teacher's lips I was wholly dependent on my fingers: I had to use the sense of touch in catching the vibrations of the throat, the movements of the mouth and the expression of the face; and often this sense was at fault. In such cases I was forced to repeat the words or sentences, sometimes for hours, until I felt the proper ring in my own voice. My work was practice, practice, practice.
聋哑学校的所有老师都知道这意味着什么,对于我偏向虎山行的勇气,他们也表示出了赞同意见。在阅读课上,我完全依靠手指来感受老师嘴唇的动作:我用触觉感知喉咙的振动,口腔的开启和老师的面目表情。在通常情况下,触摸的方式总是出错。因此,我只能强迫自己一遍遍重复单词或句子,有时候,这种重复过程会持续好几个小时,一直到发音正确为止。我的作业就是练习,练习,再练习。
来源:可可英语 //www.utensil-race.com/Article/201706/512152.shtml