我们为什么对待老年人像婴儿一样？这是年龄歧视
Why do we treat old people like babies? That’s ageism.
“老年人语”是耶鲁大学心理学家贝卡•利维创造的一个术语
Elderspeak is a term coined by Yale psychologist Becca Levy
指的是很多人都会用幼儿化的语言
for the condescending language that so many people revert to.
对于老年人来说就像跟小孩子谈话一样
Almost like baby talk for older people.
亲爱的 甜心 宝贝儿……
Honey, sweety, deary…
这是屈尊和贬低
That is condescending and diminishing.
当然 没有人喜欢被人屈尊俯就
And no one likes to be condescended to, of course.
她的研究表明 用这种方式与之交谈的人
Her studies show that people, who are spoken to in this way,
他们的言行举止会发生改变
actually start to think and move and act differently,
即使是患有严重痴呆症的人也是如此
even people with severe dementia.
你可能会认为他不会察觉到这一点
You might assume he wouldn’t be perceptive to that.
没有人喜欢被人屈尊俯就
Nobody likes to be condescended to,
当然老年人也不例外
and certainly older people are no exception.
在美国
In the US,
参加一个包括所有年龄段在内的活动非常少见
it is really rare to be at an event that includes all ages.
除非是家庭聚会或大型社交活动
Unless it’s a family gathering or a big social event
比如体育活动或更大的活动
like maybe a sports event or larger something.
过去并不是这样
And it didn’t use to be this way.
在150年前
In…as recently as 150 years ago
大多数美国人 可能不知道他们的年龄 不庆祝他们的生日
most Americans em…might not even know their age,didn’t celeberate their birthdays.
然后 随着工业革命的开展
And then it began to be, along with the Industrial Revolution,
年龄开始变得重要
age began to become important.
它开始被用作一个法律指标
It’s started to be used as a legal indicator of
来决定你什么时候可以做什么 结婚 上学
when you could have access for things. Marry, go to school.
学校开始分年级
School began to be divided into grades.
托儿所诞生了
Nursery school came into existence,
养老院出现了
Old People’s Homes came into existence.
当所有这些机构 有了教育 隔离的作用时
And when and all those institutions has the effect of fostering segregation,
人们开始与同龄人交往 接受教育 等等
people started to socialize and be educated and so on with their age peers.
当有了这种隔离
And when you have segregation,
就助长了歧视
you foster discrimination.
于是年龄歧视就出现了
So ageism came along.
提出质疑是非常重要的
And it is really really important to question why,
如果你在一个房间里
if you are in a room
每个人年龄都一样大
and everyone is the same age,
为什么会这样？
why is that the case?
除非有很好的理由跨越年龄界限
And unless there is a good reason to reach across age boundaries.
我们认为年龄是一个巨大鸿沟
We have this idea that age is a huge gap.
但实际上
But in fact
年龄并不能告诉你
age tells you very very little
一个人对什么感兴趣或能做什么
about what a person is interested in or capable of.
我认为这个鸿沟比阶级小得多
It’s a much smaller gap than class I think.
或者比很多……
Or than a lot of um…
其他的事情决定了我们是谁
you know other things that shape who we are
我们是什么样的
and how we are in the world.
当然 年龄歧视是基于刻板印象
Ageism is based on stereotypes, of course.
假设群体中的所有成员都是一样的
The assumption that all members of a group are alike,
当然 这从来就不准确 也从来就不正确
which is, of course, never accurate and…never…right.
尤其是在衰老方面
Very specially down when it comes to aging.
因为我们活得越久
Because the longer we live
彼此之间的差异就越大
the more different from one another we become.
一组7岁的孩子
You know, a group of seven-year olds,
很明显 每个7岁的孩子都是独一无二的
obviously, each seven-year old is unique,
但是他们在发展和社交上有很多共同点
but they have a lot more in common developmentally and socially
相对于一组17岁的孩子来说
than a group of seventeen year olds,
他们比47岁的长辈更加同质化 等等
who are way more homogenized than forty seven-year olds and so on.
所以 我们倾向于认为所有老年人都像老年人一样
So we tend to think of all older people as like old.
好像他们不愿意归入某个类别
As though they, you know, reluctant into some category,
这也是我非常讨厌“老年人”这个词的原因之一
which is one reason I so hardly dislike the term the elderly.
就好像有一天 你会从悬崖上摔下来
As though you some how,you know, fall of the cliff one day
和这些一样的老年人混在一起
and get lump with all these same, you know,
同样的长相 同样的行为 同样的想法
same looking and same acting, and same thinking older people.
事实上 我们越老 我们就越不一样
When in fact the older we are the more heterogeneous we are
我们的实际年龄越无法说明我们是谁
and the less our chronological age says about us.