小酌不僅怡情，還能讓你的外語說得更流利

Take a quick tipple and you could find yourself speaking a second tongue more naturally, according to new research.
一項新的研究顯示，一杯酒下肚以後，你的外語會說得更加流利。

The foreign language skills of participants in the study were found to be improved after a drink of alcohol, which suggests the way booze can put us at ease outweighs the negative effects on our brain – at least for the first drink, anyway.
研究發現，實驗對象在喝下酒精飲料後，外語能力得到提高，這表明酒精令人身心放鬆的程度超過其對大腦產生的負面影響——至少喝完第一杯酒以後是這樣的。

The international team of researchers is warning against reading too much into their experiment, but it could reveal some interesting insights into the anxiety associated with speaking another language, and how alcohol can help us overcome it.
這支國際化的研究團隊提醒人們，不要對他們的實驗做過分解讀。不過，在講外語時大腦的焦慮程度、以及酒精如何幫助我們克服這些情緒的問題上，該研究還是提供了一些有趣的洞見。

"Our study shows that acute alcohol consumption may have beneficial effects on the pronunciation of a foreign language in people who recently learned that language," says one of the team, Inge Kersbergen from the University of Liverpool in the UK.
英國利物浦大學的英奇•克斯伯根博士是該研究團隊的成員，他表示：“我們的研究表明，快速喝下酒精飲料(俗語一口悶)可能對初學外語的人在發音上有所幫助。”

The study involved 50 native German speakers studying Dutch at a Dutch university, who had recently learned to speak, read, and write in the new language.
這項研究招募了50名在荷蘭大學學習荷蘭語的德國人，他們都是最近才學習荷蘭語的聽說讀寫的。

Based on random selections, participants were either given alcohol or water as a control beverage. The amount of alcohol varied based on body size, but was the equivalent of just under a pint (460 millilitres) of 5 percent beer for a 70kg male.
研究人員隨機發給實驗對象酒精飲料或作爲對照實驗的水。酒精飲料的量根據個人體型而異，相當於一名體重70公斤的男性要喝下460毫升酒精濃度爲5％的啤酒。

They then chatted to a researcher for five minutes, before an audio recording was assessed by two native Dutch speakers who weren't told whether alcohol had been consumed or not. The participants were also asked to rate their own Dutch language skills over the course of the chat.
隨後，他們與一名研究人員進行五分鐘的閒聊，談話錄音交由兩位荷蘭人評估，評委不清楚錄音中的學生是否喝了啤酒。研究人員還要求參與者對聊天過程中自己的荷蘭語水平做出評價。

While the alcohol didn't affect how the students rated themselves, those people who had been given the alcoholic drink were given better ratings by the observers, especially for their pronunciation.
雖然酒精沒有影響學生的自我評價，但評委卻認爲，喝過啤酒的實驗者的荷蘭語更好，尤其是發音更標準。

So what's going on? We know that alcohol has a detrimental effect on our brain's executive functioning, including our memory, our attention, and our inhibitions. A lot of these functions are important for speaking a non-native language.
所以究竟發生了什麼？我們知道酒精會對大腦的執行能力產生負面影響，比如我們的記憶力、注意力和控制力。而這其中有很多功能對於講外語來說十分重要。

At the same time, we know that booze also improves confidence and reduces social anxiety, which is also helpful when you're trying to talk in another tongue, especially if you've only just learned it.
同時，我們知道，酒精還可以提升飲酒者的自信，緩解社交焦慮。當你試着講另外一種語言時，這也是有幫助的，特別是如果你只是初學者的話。

"One possible mechanism could be the anxiety-reducing effect of alcohol," says one of the researchers, Jessica Werthmann from Maastricht University in the Netherlands. "But more research is needed to test this."
來自荷蘭馬斯特裏赫特大學的研究人員傑西卡•威爾斯曼稱：“這其中的原理可能是酒精降低了飲酒者的焦慮感。但我們需要進行更多研究來證實這一點。”

With only 50 people involved in the research, we should be wary of making too many generalizations on this study alone, but it's an interesting pointer towards how a little bit of drink could grease the wheels as far as talking in a foreign language is concerned.
由於這項研究的樣本只有50個，我們注意不要就此得出普遍性的結論；但是用外語交流前，喝點酒可以讓我們外語講得更加流利，這確實是一個有趣的發現。

"It is important to point out that participants in this study consumed a low dose of alcohol," adds one of the team. "Higher levels of alcohol consumption might not have beneficial effects on the pronunciation of a foreign language."
一位研究人員稱，“需要指出的是，實驗對象攝入的酒精劑量很低，酒精攝入量增加可能不會對飲酒者的外語發音產生有益影響。”

In other words, this effect probably doesn't get better if you just keep on drinking – eventually no one will be able to understand you at all.
換句話說，如果你飲酒過量，這種作用可能就會消失，因爲沒人能聽懂喝醉後口齒不清地胡言亂語。

The research has been published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology.
該研究結果已發表在《精神病理學雜誌》上。