How to Make Learning as Addictive as Social Media | Duolingo's Luis Von Ahn | TED · TED
Luis von Ahn分享Duolingo如何借鉴社交媒体和游戏的心理机制，使语言学习变得有趣且具有吸引力。适合练习语言学习方法和教育创新。
So, I'm from Guatemala.
我来自危地马拉。
This is a public service announcement, that is where Guatemala is.
这是一则公共服务公告，它展示了危地马拉的现状。
Also, that is not where they keep the prisoners.
另外，他们并不是把囚犯关在那里的。
That is called Guantanamo.
那个地方被称为关塔那摩（Guantanamo）。
Not the same place.
这不是同一个地方。
So Guatemala's right below Mexico.
所以，危地马拉位于墨西哥的正下方。
And for the Americans in the audience, and let this sink in, because it really applies in most ways,
对于在场的美国观众来说，请认真思考这一点——因为这在大多数情况下都是适用的。
for the Americans in the audience, you can think of it as Mexico's Mexico.
对于在场的美国观众来说，你们可以把这里想象成“墨西哥的墨西哥”——也就是墨西哥最具有墨西哥特色的地方。
Just like the US doesn't want illegal immigration from Mexico, Mexico doesn't want illegal immigration from Guatemala.
正如美国不希望有来自墨西哥的非法移民一样，墨西哥也不希望有来自危地马拉的非法移民。
It's a smaller country.
这是一个较小的国家。
It's a poor country.
这是一个贫穷的国家。
And well, what can I tell you, it has much better Mexican food.
嗯，我只能告诉你们：这里的墨西哥菜确实好吃得多。
Guatemala is a very poor country.
危地马拉是一个非常贫穷的国家。
And a lot of people talk about education as something that brings equality to different social classes.
很多人认为教育能够促进不同社会阶层之间的平等。
But I always saw it as the opposite, as something that brings inequality.
但我一直认为情况恰恰相反——这种制度实际上加剧了社会不平等。
Because what happens in practice is that people who have a lot of money can buy themselves a really good education
因为在实际生活中，那些拥有大量财富的人能够为自己提供优质的教育。
and therefore continue having a lot of money.
因此，他们仍然能够拥有大量的财富。
Whereas people who don't have very much money barely learn how to read and write and therefore never make a lot of money.
而那些没有多少钱的人，几乎连读写能力都学不会，因此也永远赚不到很多钱。
And this is especially true in poor countries.
尤其是在贫穷国家，这种情况更为明显。
Now, I was fortunate that I received a rich person's education even though I didn't grow up rich.
现在，我很幸运，尽管我并非在富裕的环境中长大，却接受了来自富裕家庭的教育。
And it’s because I’m an only child.
这是因为我是独生子女。
And my mother, who was a single mother, spent all of her resources on my education.
我的母亲是一位单亲妈妈，她将自己所有的资源都投入到了我的教育上。
And this allowed me to come to college to the US and eventually get a PhD in computer science.
这让我得以来到美国上大学，并最终获得了计算机科学领域的博士学位。
Now because of all of this about 10 years ago, I decided I wanted to do something that would give equal access to education to everyone.
大约10年前，由于上述种种原因，我决定要做一些能够让每个人都能平等地获得教育机会的事情。
Oh, by the way, this is what I want to talk to you about today, giving equal access to education to everyone.
哦，顺便说一下，今天我想和大家讨论的就是这个话题：让每个人都能平等地接受教育。
At the time, I was a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University, and I decided to work on this with my PhD student, Severin.
当时，我是卡内基梅隆大学计算机科学专业的教授，于是决定与我的博士生塞弗林（Severin）一起开展这项研究。
The way my brain works, all of education is just too general of a problem.
以我大脑的运作方式来看，整个教育体系所涉及的问题实在过于笼统（或者说缺乏具体针对性）。
So I decided, let's start by teaching one thing.
于是我决定，先从教某一样东西开始吧。
And then I started thinking, OK, well, what should we teach first?
然后我开始思考：好吧，我们应该先教什么呢？
Should we teach math?
我们应该教数学吗？
I mean, we both love math.
我的意思是，我们都非常喜欢数学。
Me and my cofounder, we both love math.
我和我的联合创始人都非常喜欢数学。
And, you know, we didn't decide to do math.
你知道的，我们并没有决定去做数学计算。
Then we started thinking, well, maybe we should teach computer science.
然后我们开始思考：也许我们应该教授计算机科学。
But eventually, and this is maybe surprising to people in North America, eventually, we decided that the best subject to start with was teaching foreign languages.
但最终，这或许会让北美的朋友们感到意外——我们决定，最好的切入点应该是教授外语。
And let me tell you why.
让我来告诉你们原因。
There's a number of reasons.
原因有很多。
One of them is that there's a huge audience for it.
其中一点是：这类内容拥有庞大的受众群体。
There’s about two billion people in the world learning a foreign language, both in school and outside of schools.
全世界约有20亿人正在学习外语，这些学习者既包括在校学生，也包括校外学习者。
Most of these people, by the way, are learning English.
顺便说一下，这些人中的大多数都在学习英语。