From: 亲历澳洲
1月26日晚上，在悉尼音乐厅，Eddie Woo成为了澳洲史上第一位在国庆庆典上进行演讲的华裔（马来西亚华人，他的祖父母在上个世纪二十年代举家迁往马来西亚）。
2012年，Eddie的一位学生由于罹患癌症而不能来校上课，Eddie开始录制自己上数学课的视频，从此一炮而红。他用非常生动和有创意的方法让学生不再对数学望而生畏，他的Youtube （他自己的视频界面命名为Wootube）在全世界都有众多粉丝，已经有超过100,000的订阅量，超过9,000,000观看过他的教学视频。
32岁的Eddie现在已经是三个女儿的父亲，他有非常广泛的爱好，在Wootube上他也定期上传并教授如何自学吉他。
同时，Eddie也是一个热衷公益的年轻人，课余，他是悉尼大学Sydney’s Widening Participation and Outreach program公益组织的志愿协调人，通过个人的努力帮助并激励了超过1400位处于社会底层的学生能够继续并完成学业。
基于他在教学及公益上的杰出贡献，Eddie获得了2015 Premier’s Prize for Innovation in Science and Mathematics in NSW; the 2016 ChooseMATHS Teacher Excellence Award; the 2017 Sydney University Alumni Award: Outstanding Achievements for Young Alumni; 2017 Commonwealth Bank Teaching Fellowship; 2018 NSW Australia’s Local Hero; and a top 50 finalist in the 2018 Global Teacher Prize.
以上是澳大利亚国庆日庆典上对Eddie的介绍，我做了简单的翻译。
This English speech is great and it is worth to read by any immigrants carefully.
Eddie Woo是标准的学霸，高中就读于新州排名第一的James Ruse,毕业时成绩排名处于全澳最顶尖的2%之列， 并在排名全球前三十的悉尼大学获得他的教育专业学位。Eddie 现在是全澳最大公立中学Cherrybrook Technology High School（2000余名学生）的首席数学老师。
视频来自Eddie Woo的facebook.
Address
His Excellency the Governor of New South Wales and Mrs Hurley – the Honourable Gladys Berejiklian, Premier of New South Wales – Chairman and board members of the Australia Day Council of New South Wales, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen.（这一段翻译就免去了，正式演讲前的礼貌问候）
It’s a great privilege and joy to stand on the land cared for by the Gadigal people of the Eora nation. I want to recognise and honour the elders, past and present, of this beautiful country that we call home and celebrate today. Thank you for stewarding this wonderful place and making it an environment we can all enjoy and cherish together, both in our everyday lives and in special times like this.
非常荣幸能够站在这里（the Gadigal people of the Eora nation是指澳洲的真正主人，Eddie用这句政治正确的话表达对澳洲土著的尊重）。感谢过去，现在以及未来所有为这个国家奉献的人们，正是因为他们，才有了我们今天一起庆祝的美丽国家，才有我们如此优美的环境和彼此尊重的人们。
The theme of Australia Day this year is Everyone, Every Story. It’s a strange honour to have been invited to give this address and share my story with you. It’s obviously an honour to stand in this amazing tradition, following so many incredible individuals - and to be tasked with giving you a spoken celebration of what it means to be Australian is a unique and special gift. Being a teacher gives me the opportunity to see and savour the very best of what Australia is. I get to see students dream of what they might one day become and achieve. I see them aspire to cure disease, to tackle climate change and fight for the rights of the disenfranchised. I get to watch them grow into pastry chefs, engineers, nurses and even fellow educators - citizens who will make a positive difference in Australian society.
今年国庆的主题是“一个人，一个故事”。非常的荣幸能够追随那么多杰出的个人站在这个舞台，分享我的故事，我知道这是我们澳洲的一个传统，对于我个人而言，这显然是一个独特而特别的礼物。作为一位教师，我能够见证很多美好的澳洲人和他们的故事，我见证每一个孩子在为梦想而奔跑并最终实现的美妙过程，或许他们梦想着攻克那些顽疾，拯救全球气候变化，成为人权斗士。我也默默的祝福那些梦想成为一名厨师，工程师，护士以及和我一样的教师，如此种种，每个人都在追逐梦想中为这个国家奉献着自己的亮和光。
And what makes it all the more meaningful is that I see students make and reach these goals in the nitty gritty mess of everyday life. I get to see my students face and overcome enormous challenges: from severe learning needs to socioeconomic disadvantage, from broken families and domestic violence to substance addiction. I have the weighty privilege of seeing not just my students but entire school communities respond with care, integrity and kindness in some of the most harrowing circumstances.
但是，我们显然不应该忽略每个人为梦想所付出的艰辛，有时候甚至是痛苦。我看到过很多学生所面临的巨大挑战：来自贫穷家庭的孩子不得不面对经济和心理的双重压力，很多孩子或许还要承受破裂的家庭，家庭暴力以及物质成瘾所带来的身心压力，这些都是我作为教师每一天所要面对的事情，幸运的是，在很多时候我们也能看到当学生面对非常严峻的生活困境时我们这个国家总有那些善良的人们会伸出他们热情的双手。
I think back to the terrible tragedy at Banksia Road Public School in November last year when two students died in a car crash accident. Those two boys were in Year 3 - the same year as my daughter - and I know I’m not the only one for whom that awful incident struck so very close to home. As time wore on, though, what became increasingly clear amid all that unimaginable grief was the profound outpouring of love, sympathy and service that centred on that school. I remember my feeling of surprise when I heard that the school was going to reopen the very next day. And then I read what was said by our Secretary, Mark Scott: “The strong view of the principal and the school community was the school is so vital as part of the healing process. It’s where students are going to want to come. It’s where community members are going to want to come.” As a teacher, I get to see those great Australian qualities of courage, compassion and mateship in action every day.
我回想起去年的十一月，两个学生在一次车祸中丧生。他们才仅仅小学三年级，和我的女儿同龄。事故距离我家非常的近，而我肯定不是唯一一个为这次事故而悲伤的人们，有太多的陌生人为那两位孩子的家庭送上安慰。当整个社区依然沉侵在悲痛中的时候，那所学校在事故的第二天就宣布重新开学，我们的教学秘书宣读了那所学校校长的信：整个社区和学校依然为两位逝去的孩子悲伤不已，但我们清楚的知道学校是疗伤的重要一部分。每一个学生都渴望来上学，社区里的每个人也期待着能回到学校的怀抱。作为老师，我再次见证了伟大的澳洲人在面对困难时所展现出的齐心协力的勇气，爱心和互助。我感动不已。
So it’s wonderful to have the honour of celebrating that. But it’s also strange for me to be the one standing here today, being a person who grew up harassed and isolated for not being Australian. When I was a kid, it didn’t seem to matter that I was born in Camperdown, or that I spent my entire childhood in North Rocks supporting the Parramatta Eels. It didn’t seem to matter that I grew up listening to Crowded House, or that my favourite food was the potato scallop I religiously purchased for 20 cents at the tuck shop on my walk home from school each day.
站在这里是我的莫大荣耀，同时也诚惶诚恐。因为我也曾为自己不被承认，不被认可为一名澳洲人而暗自神伤。人们并不会因为我出生在Campertown, 我在North Rocks度过了我的童年，我是Parramatta Eels(当地的澳式橄榄球队）的忠实拥趸等等这些而认为我是澳洲人，即便我是听着“Crowded House”长大，我最喜欢的食物是扇贝土豆，我清楚的记得我像澳洲孩子一样每天在放学的路上都不忘花两毛钱去买一个边走边吃。
No, what seemed to matter was that I didn’t look Australian - or at least that I didn’t fit what my peers thought an Australian was supposed to look like - so I grew up thinking of Australians as other people. It took me many years to not just realise I was genuinely Australian but to feel that I was - and then it took me several more years to see how being Australian has fundamentally shaped me as a person. And that conviction has somehow led me here, to stand before you today.
无论如何，我都不被认为是澳洲人。因为我看起来太不像澳洲人。或者说我的外貌根本不是我的澳洲小伙伴认为的那样。所以很长时间我都被孤立，我也在孤独中度过。我用了很多年才最终意识到我自己就是真正的澳洲人，我也用很多年建立了作为澳洲人的自信，这些都不关乎我的外貌，我的祖先，我的肤色。
I believe one of the defining characteristics of Australian society is that we seek to offer a world class learning environment to every child in every school. Whenever I speak with teaching colleagues from around the world, it fills me with pride to describe the way our schools labour to accommodate everyone who walks in the door. This is actually the reason why my brother, sister and I are Australians in the first place.
澳洲社会的典型价值观是我们在寻求让澳洲成为世界级的学习成长天堂，每一个孩子都有同等的机会，每一个学校都秉承同样的价值观。无论我走到何处，这一价值观都让我可以骄傲的对所有人表达，正因为此，我的哥哥姐姐和我一样为身为澳洲人而无比自豪。
For the three of us, being Australian wasn’t just a coincidence of birth location. It was a very deliberate choice from my father who left his birthplace of Malaysia because its education system didn’t favour someone with his Chinese heritage. He did his matriculation in Melbourne, studied to become a tax accountant at the Australian National University, and when the time came to raise a family, remaining in Australia seemed the obvious choice. It was so clear, in fact, that Mum and Dad made their commitment visible in our names. Anglo-saxon first names; Anglo-saxon middle names. Mum and Dad raised us with English as our first language because they wanted us to grow up without accents and all the related challenges that had come with them when they first moved here. They didn’t just want us to live here; they wanted us to belong here.
对于我们兄妹三人，成为澳洲人并非是因为这里碰巧是我们的出生地，而是我的父亲深思熟虑的选择，他出生在马来西亚，而父亲在那里并没有接收到能够良好传承中国文化的教育，而在他眼中，这是华人永生不能忘记的根基。父亲在墨尔本通过了大学入学考试，并在澳洲国立大学毕业后成为了税务会计，于是父亲很自然的在澳洲建立了家庭，养育了我们，你可以很清楚在我们的名字里看到父母的用心良苦，都是父母在Anglo-Saxon命名体系中的精心选择。英语是我们的第一语言，因为父母亲不愿意让我们兄妹再次面对他们当初所承受的挑战-带有浓厚口音的英文和第一代移民所遭遇的所有质疑。他们认为成为一名澳洲人不仅仅只是住在这片土地，他们想让我们融入其中。
This was part of what made the everyday racism that I grew up with so frustrating. It wasn’t the intimidation, or the mocking, or the loneliness that really bothered me - so much as it was my inability to understand what people wanted that would satisfy them and make them stop. I dreaded every morning because I knew I’d have to get ready for school and I knew what was waiting for me. I became what as a teacher I would now call a “school refuser”: there were days when I willed myself to stay in bed and hoped that my mum would give up on trying to get me to school because it was too late.
尽管如此，在我成长过程中我每一天都要面对的隐形，显性种族歧视依然让我如坐针毡。我很难准确定义到底是恐吓，嘲弄或者孤独中的哪一个让我无比困扰，我只知道我都很无助的面对这些，我不知道如何取悦他们从而让这一切不再重来。每一天早晨我都在恐惧惊慌中度过，因为我知道我必须做好一切准备去上学，我也知道那里有什么在等待着我。现在作为老师的我很清楚这种现象叫做”恐惧上学者“。我还清楚的记得，在那些日子，我最大的愿望就是我能躺在床上而妈妈因为我起得太晚决定不去送我上学。
Poor mum was then stuck with me as she went about her errands. Sometimes, in an effort to cheer me up and encourage me to attend school the next day, she’d buy me a book - I would collect little puzzle books and “choose your own adventure” paperbacks - and for a few hours I would lose myself in another world and become a hero instead of a loser. I loved those books so much - and apparently I made that too obvious because when I returned to school, it didn’t take long for my bullies to find my treasured belongings in my bag and steal them. I’d always find them eventually, ripped to pieces and scattered across the playground, another symbol of how poorly I fit in.
回想起来，都愧对母亲，每一天她除了要辛苦的去为了生活打拼，还要想方设法的鼓励我，激励我勇敢的去上学去面对一切。为了做到这一点，她不得不时常通过买我喜欢的书来奖励我，我很快就沉浸在我钟爱的拼图游戏中，尽管母亲只能买得起平装本的“选择你自己的冒险”。我可以在另一个世界里忘掉一切，在那里我是一个英雄而不是现实中不堪的样子。我深深的爱着这些书和书里的世界，但当我回到学校，我依然不得不面对可怕的现实，用不了一会儿，我的这些宝贝就会被那些欺负我的孩子们很快发现并偷走，最终被撕成碎片，扔到操场遍地都是。想想看，我经历的那是怎样的生活。
In time, I learned that there was nothing I could do to stop others viewing me as someone who didn’t belong. But I think, deep down, my parents understood that it was worth playing the long game on this one. That their sacrifices in coming here, and our sacrifices in staying here, would be worth it. That the access to schools and universities, the access to a better life than the one they left behind, would be worth the price we paid. They hoped that we would have opportunities and freedom to make choices like they never could.
随着时间的推移，随着我们一天天长大，我渐渐明白，我根本无力改变别人的看法。但我的父母坚定的认为，从长远来看，他们在做一件正确的事情，为了我们能受更好的教育，未来去更好的大学并过上更好的生活，他们放弃过去的一切来到这里，在这里艰苦打拼，这一切牺牲都是值得的。他们坚定的认为这片土地会给我们更多的机会，更重要的是给我们选择的自由，而这些对他们而言，曾经遥不可及。
But that was where the next challenge came up. My brother used that freedom to enter the IT industry right as the dot-com boom swept the globe. My sister chose to become a dentist, the first “doctor” in the entire Woo dynasty. I gained entry into an academically competitive selective high school and it looked like everything was on track for a perfect three children out of three who would make it into a lucrative and socially respectable profession. The migrant’s dream come true. No one saw what was coming next: I discovered that I wanted to be a teacher.
然而，挑战无处不在。我哥哥追随信息化时代做出了他的选择进入了IT行业，我的姐姐成为“Woo”家族第一位医生-牙医，而我也进入了新州学术成绩最好的精英中学。一切都出奇的顺利，新移民的三个孩子都非常优秀，亮丽的职场前景和受人尊重的职业选择似乎水到渠成，近在眼前，我的父母所有的梦想几乎全部实现。然而，没有人能够想到：成绩如此优秀的我竟然梦想成为一名教师而不是人们认为的律师或者医生。
In the fifteen years since I made this discovery, many people have questioned me on this decision. An old friend once put it to me like this: “Every year you teach the same syllabus, every day you march to the same bell times. You leave school exhausted, mark papers and write reports all night till you fall asleep, then an alarm jolts you awake and you do it all over again. It’s like Groundhog Day with teenagers. Why would you do this to yourself?”
直到我做出这样的选择很多年后，人们依然在问我同样的问题：每一年你都重复教授同样的课程，每一天你要在铃声响起前走进课堂，你拖着疲惫不堪的身体离开学校，回到家还要批作业，写报告直到你昏昏睡去，然后被闹钟叫醒，在重复同样的一天。你过着像土拨鼠一样的生活，周而复始，为什么要这样难为你自己？
I didn’t always want to teach. Like many young boys I’d wanted to be a firefighter. Sadly, I found out that having chronic asthma didn’t exactly place me at the top of the eligibility list. I thought I’d follow my brother into IT, but in the middle of my high school years the dot-com bubble burst. I pictured myself completing university with a useless piece of paper in my hands. Then all at once, through being an army cadet, a prefect, a leader in my school’s Christian group and a peer support mentor to Year 7 students as they entered high school, I realised that I loved helping people learn. Seeing them grow - in their knowledge and skill, in their understanding of the world and in their realisation of what they themselves were capable of - was an immense source of joy that’s still the reason why I love teaching today.
其实教书也并非一直是我的梦想。我也像很多男孩子梦想成为一名消防员，但遗憾的是，慢性哮喘让我不得不放弃这个梦想。我也梦想追随哥哥的脚步进入IT行业，但dot.com的泡沫在我高中时代就已近破裂，我很怀疑如果我做了这个选择，等我毕业的时候我只能拿着各种证书而一文不值。在我对未来迷茫的时候，我参加了学校的一系列项目，帮助刚进入中学的学生适应中学生活，我突然意识到这就是我想要的生活，我喜欢帮助别人学习，看他们成长，看到别人在我的帮助下明白这个世界，弄懂一些知识，我很享受这样的生活，直到今天。
Teaching’s more than just a source of joy for me, though. It’s also a source of moral purpose. The last 18 months have been a powerful reminder of how important education is to our world. If the Trump presidency, Brexit and our own recent political conversations have taught us anything, it’s that while we live in an age where we hear more information than ever, we haven’t learned to listen to those around us and appreciate points of view other than our own.
然而，对我而言教书不仅仅给我带来快乐，还有很多，譬如可以对学生有道德及品行上的帮助。过去的18个月这个世界发生的一系列事情提醒我，教育对于整个世界有多么重要。你是否曾经从川普当选总统，英国脱欧公投以及我们自己国家发生的一系列政治对话中学到点什么？我们身处一个信息爆炸的年代，然而我们似乎并没有学会聆听世界的声音并从中学到点什么。
Like every year before it, 2017 was littered with political debates. But this year something was different. Though each of the examples I mentioned earlier was certainly a landmark decision, the most striking thing about this most recent season wasn’t purely the outcomes. No, for me the most striking thing has been our consistent failure to open dialogue and form a nuanced understanding of others across political and ideological lines. In the US, the UK and here in Australia we’ve shown that while we live in structurally democratic societies, we’ve struggled to cultivate personally democratic relationships. Instead of using social media to connect with those who have different perspectives to us, we’ve created echo chambers where we hear precisely those views that affirm our own beliefs and denigrate those of others.
如同过去的每一年，2017充满了政治争论。但依然有些许不同。我在前面提到的那些世界大事当然都是里程碑式的事件，然而，最触动我的并非是最近发生的某个具体事件结果本身，而是我们其实一直徘徊在选择政治正确还是选择尊重人类自身价值观之间那个巨大的鸿沟，这导致了我们很难保持一个有效公开的对话。无论在美国，英国还是澳洲，我们无处不张扬鼓吹我们身处的民主社会，然而我们总是打着民主的旗号，我们尽可能的敞开怀抱让那些支持的声音共鸣，倾听所有的声音却有意无意的忽略了那些持有不同意见的人们。
I’ll openly admit that my generation is the worst at this. Instead of seeking multiple independent reports about current affairs, we submit ourselves to the yoke of informational slavery that comes from consuming a curated news feed. We scroll and swipe our way through whatever’s received the most likes and shares with little care for its journalistic integrity. This simplistic approach toward understanding the world has begotten a simplistic approach toward relating to others.
关于这一点，我公开承认现在是最坏的年代。这是一个信息爆炸的时代，然而人们很容易陷入其中而成为信息本身的奴隶，人们更倾向于相信社交媒体中那些拥有最多分享和点赞的信息，宁愿相信那些是真的。却不愿意在众多独立报告中分析寻找真相。这个世界慢慢在失去媒体的可贵公正。
While my generation is the poorer for it, we’re not the only ones. Anyone who reads news from just one paper or hears reports from a single radio station renders themselves equally subject to the biases of whoever has their ear. And we all suffer for it. We suffer in the way that it makes us judge our neighbours who dress differently, who vote differently, who speak differently. We suffer in the way that we ourselves are judged, just like I was judged and bullied as a child.
我们这代人无疑已经沦陷，但我们并不是唯一受害者。我们常常仅仅看了一份报纸，听了一个电台就很轻易的相信了他们的判断，或许这其中信息有很多偏差。我们很容易被媒体诱导仅仅因为别人的外貌衣着，因为别人的不同意见，别人的不同观点而评头品足，而我们自己也这样被别人评判着，甚至如同孩子般被欺凌着，每个人都是受害者。
But this cycle can be broken. And if it is, then education will be at the heart of how it happens. This is why, through a life of fighting discrimination and government-sanctioned oppression, the late Nelson Mandela declared: “Education is the most powerful weapon which we can use to change the world.” How can this be? Well, my school is a perfect example. Almost 2000 children. More than 60 cultures and languages. Our school motto is: Achieving Together. Our students form their identities in the context of grappling with different accents, different values and different ways of thinking. Our students grow as citizens while learning every day to suspend their instinct to judge by appearances. Our students’ daily experience is that strength is found in working hand-in-hand with those who are different to us, appreciating the things that unify us without diminishing the qualities that distinguish us.
这样的怪圈能够也应该被打破，教育就是那剂灵丹妙药。承受过几十年被歧视和政治迫害的纳尔逊曼德拉有句名言：教育是改变世界最强大的武器。我的学校就是极好的例证。我们学校的信条是：一起成就。接近2000名学生来自于60个不同的语言和文化背景。我们很清晰的通过学生的口音，思考方式和价值观来判断他（她）来自于哪里？我们一直在努力通过教育能让这些学生慢慢的不被他们的外表，口音而贴上标签，我们一直努力把这些区别带来的歧视降到最低。
This is just one aspect of why teaching is so filled with purpose for me. School is about so much more than learning facts; it’s about fashioning citizens and giving them a passion to make the world a better place. As the ancient Greek writer Plutarch put it, “education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire”.
这只是我选择做教师的原因之一。学校不应该只是学习知识的地方，它更应该是培养主人翁公民精神的圣地，要让每一个人都直到自己的使命是让这个世界更美好。古希腊作家普鲁塔克的话完美的诠释了这一使命：教育不应该只满足灌满一桶水，更应该点亮生命的光芒。
That’s why I teach. But the next question that people usually ask me is: why maths? The truth is, I never planned to teach this subject. My Higher School Certificate was stacked towards the humanities: I took Drama, Modern History, History Extension and English Extension 2. So when I turned up at the University of Sydney, it seemed natural for me to write on my enrolment form: Bachelor of Education, Secondary, majoring in English and History.
这也是我为什么选择教书的原因。人们还是会追问，为什么教数学？说心里话，教数学原来并不在我的计划里。在我高考选择的科目里，都是人文学科。我选择了戏剧，现代史，历史进阶，英语进阶2. 当我进入悉尼大学的时候，很自然的我选择了教育学，专注历史和英语。你看不到任何数学的影子。
What I didn’t count on was one of the Faculty of Education professors at the time, who was walking up and down the queue of new students. He came to me, and without so much as saying hello, plucked the academic transcript out of my hand. He looked it up and down, and seeing that I’d done a reasonable amount of mathematics at school, told me on the spot that I should consider becoming a mathematics teacher. Then he spent the next 20 minutes convincing me about Australia’s critical shortage of skilled, passionate mathematics teachers and how desperately we needed people to take up their mantle.
我要感谢我的导师，他拿起我的成绩单上下打量，看到我在学校一直出色的数学成绩，当场就建议我应该考虑去做个数学老师。他用了接下来的20分钟时间告诉我澳洲数学老师奇缺的窘境，鼓励我去接上这份衣冠和荣耀。
There’s an old joke that primary teachers go into teaching because they love kids, secondary teachers go into it because they love their subject and tertiary teachers go into it because they love themselves. Maybe that means that deep down I’m a primary school teacher, because the thing that drew me to education in the beginning was the desire to work with children and help them flourish. It didn’t matter to me so much what subject I would teach. I just wanted to be useful.
在澳洲有个古老的笑话：小学老师是因为爱孩子才去教书，中学老师是因为喜欢某个学科决定去做老师，而大学老师之所以去教书其实是因为他们很自恋。如果按这个逻辑，我其实应该是个小学老师，我在前面提到，最初是因为我喜欢和孩子们一起工作，看他们成长才决定去做老师。于我而言，教什么课程一点不重要，重要的是我被认为有益于社会。
And that’s how I found myself preparing to teach mathematics. But while I was at university studying my mathematics degree, a funny thing happened. I discovered what mathematics actually was. I’d always struggled with mathematics in high school. It never came easily to me and I realise now it’s because I fundamentally misunderstood it. To teenage me, mathematics was about memorising arcane rules I didn’t comprehend to solve contrived problems that I didn’t care about. It was about getting answers, and getting them quickly. But in university, I started to learn that mathematics is less about finding answers fast and more about slowing down to ask the right questions. I learned that mathematics is not about mindlessly stepping through algorithms, but rather about imagining new ways to see problems so they can be solved with creative and unexpected techniques.
我来谈谈为什么我最终决定做个数学老师吧。那其实是一个有趣的经历。在高中的时候，我也觉得数学很难。尽管我的成绩一直很好，但数学对我留下的记忆是我不得不去记住那些生涩我根本不明白的公式，进而去尝试回答那些一点不好玩人为设计的题目，并尽可能的准确，尽可能的快。但在大学，我才发现其实数学原本可以变得更有趣，不仅仅只是为了那个答案，更多的是为了去发现问题，是为了用更有创意的想法从而去帮助解决一些悬而未决的问题。
I began to understand that far from being an abstract pursuit reserved for those in ivory towers, mathematics is woven into absolutely every aspect of our lives - from the patterns of nature all around us to the structures on which we’ve built all of human society. The beautiful spiral of seeds on the face of a sunflower. The pristine crystalline symmetry of a snowflake. The millions of perfectly hexagonal cells flawlessly crafted by the world’s greatest civil engineers in beehives around the planet. The enormous prime numbers that keep your credit cards safe online. The reason why when you microwave your lunch, half of it burns your mouth while the other half is still icy cold! All of it is mathematics.
我渐渐发觉数学远远不是以前认为的那样枯坐在象牙塔里的人们殚思竭虑的用抽象的公式去回答问题，数学在生活中无处不在，在上帝创造的这个美妙世界，在每一朵向日葵种子表面那些巧夺天工的螺旋，在每一片雪花上如水晶般对称的美，在小小蜂巢上那些美到窒息的六边形，别忘了为了保障信用卡的安全而设计的那些一连串的数字。所有的一切都可以用数学去诠释，当你用微波炉热你的午饭，发现一半已经开始烫嘴而另一半却还带着冰碴，这背后也蕴含着数学。
So, I started to appreciate why mathematics finds its way into everything. It’s because mathematics is about far more than just numbers. It’s about patterns and relationships. It’s about the logic that animates the universe and the connections between everything around us. And because mathematicians speak in patterns, we’re uniquely positioned to recognise the common realities hiding underneath things that seem completely different on the outside. Have you ever noticed that lightning bolts, river deltas, sprawling gum trees and the network of blood vessels running through your body all have the same characteristic shape that starts from a central line and splits off into ever-smaller branches? Every single one of them belongs to the same mathematical family - we mathematicians call them fractals.
我被数学的无处不在而惊叹不已，数学绝不仅仅只是些数字，它包含着关系和模式，它关注那些组成宇宙的逻辑以及解释我们周遭一切的联结。数学喜欢用图案来说话，它通过现象来描述本质，你一定注意过打雷闪电，河水中的三角洲，蔓延的桉树，还有满布全身的血管，所有这些都有个共性，从一个中心开始然后不断开叉蔓延到四面八方。这在数学上叫做“分形学”。
You see, poetry is the art of calling the same thing by different names. But mathematics is the art of calling different things by the same name. It takes a mathematician to see such different objects - rivers, trees, arteries - and recognise that they’re all related, that they all share the same DNA.
我们都知道，诗歌是用不同方式说话的艺术，而数学反其道而行，是用同一种方式描述不同事物的艺术。仅仅用数字就能表达河流，树木，血管，所有这一切在数学中都相互关联，他们拥有同样的基因。
This power of mathematics has unlocked the mysteries of the cosmos. As Galileo said, “Mathematics is the language with which God has written the universe.” It’s enabled us to perceive the curvature of spacetime and the microscopic structures of the quantum realm. But the thing I want to highlight for you in closing is the way that, just as mathematics has scientific power, mathematics has social power.
伽利略说：上帝用数学的方法撰写宇宙。它让我们可以用来想象无边无际的宇宙空间，也让我们畅想看不见的微观世界。数学不仅有科学的力道，它也有社会的权柄。
One of my favourite things I’ve done as a high school teacher is be a touch football coach. You can probably tell that I’ve never been an especially athletic person, so I relished the opportunity to vicariously live out my sporting dreams through the teams I used to coach. But the reason I loved coaching touch football was not because of the sport itself. It was nothing to do with the tries or the passes or the clever strategies. It was all about the kind of people my students became when they played. They became disciplined. They learned to rely on each other. They came to appreciate the diverse strengths of their teammates. By playing this sport, each player became a different person and their character would grow.
作为中学老师，除了教书，我另一个爱好是做足球教练。你可能会质疑无论怎么看我都不是一个合格的教练人选。所以我非常珍惜作为代理教练的这些时光，我喜欢做教练并非仅仅是因为运动本身，这和你尝试了多少次传球或者你才用了怎样的策略毫无关系。我看重的是孩子们能从运动中获得什么？他们变得更有纪律更自律，他们学会了依靠彼此，学会依靠团队。他们开始明白尺有所长，寸有所短，因而懂得尊重别人。通过运动，每个人的潜能都被挖掘，每个人因而发现最好的自己。
This is the same reason why I’m a mathematics teacher. The main thing I love about teaching mathematics to my students isn’t the subject itself, though there’s plenty to love about it. The main thing I love is that through learning mathematics, each student becomes a different person and their character grows. They learn to persevere through difficulty when an answer isn’t obvious. They develop clarity of thought and the ability to argue logically. And most importantly, they learn to see from different perspectives.
这和数学老师异曲同工。我喜欢教数学并非因为数学本身，尽管我深爱着这门学科。很重要的是我看到每一个学生通过我的教学变成了不同的人，他们的个性更为鲜明。他们学会坚韧，他们可以理性有逻辑的辩论，更重要的是，他们学会了从不同的角度看这个世界。
You see, mathematicians are like jewellers. We treat every object like a diamond because we know that looking at it from just a slightly different angle will reveal a whole new kaleidoscope of colours and faces. This is what I do in my classroom every day. We take a single idea and we examine it algebraically. Then we graph it and consider it visually. Then we deconstruct it into its trigonometric components. Then we express it as a polynomial and we work on it with calculus. Every time we take a new perspective we learn something new.
数学在某种程度上像珠宝商，当我们学着用不同的视角看事物，你就会看到不同的风情，即便只有微小的差别，生活就像万花筒，你总能看到不同的色彩和光亮。我尝试着每一天都这样去做。每每有个小的念头我们总会尝试用数学来检验它，然后我们用图表把它变得可视化，然后我们再用三角函数来分解它，我们用多种方式来解释它，最终把它变成微积分。每次你用不同的视角，每一次都有新的发现。
This is how mathematical knowledge advances. And unlike in any other field of knowledge, once we prove something is true mathematically, it’s true forever. Mathematics is never revised or refined in terms of new evidence. It never needs to be because mathematical reality is timeless in its truth and beauty. It’s why the oldest names we study in school - Pythagoras and Euclid - are mathematicians, because the theorems they articulated are as true now as they were the day were discovered. In an age where postmodern relativism has gone mad, where fake news and alternative facts spread far and wide, I think we could all do with a good dose of rock solid provable truth.
数学就是如此神奇，它不像其他的学科那般模棱两可，一旦一件事情被数学证明，那么它就永远正确。数学无需任何修改，数学的真相和美无关时间和空间。就如那些远去的古老数学家-Pythagoras and Euclid，他们的研究结果并不会因为时光远去而有任何更改，即便在后现代现实主义盛行的今天，假消息和模凌两可的理论无处不在，我们依然可以通过数学给予这个世界钻石般坚信不疑的品质。
To conclude, there are three messages that I’d like you to take away and contemplate as we celebrate our nation this Friday.
在这个周五，当我们庆祝澳洲国庆的时候，我总结以下三点作为我的结束语并希望引起大家的思考。
Firstly, this Australia Day I invite all of you to be mathematicians. Don’t run for the hills yet! Let me explain what I mean. Mathematics has enabled us to design machines at subatomic scales. It’s the backbone of artificial intelligence that can play chess, drive cars and identify cancers far better than humans ever could. But the thing I feel most strongly about, more than all the futuristic technology, is how mathematics can make us more human. You can be a mathematician by learning to see things from a new perspective. When you do that with a fellow human being, we call it empathy. You can be a mathematician by being curious about patterns. Think about your community and ask the tough questions about why the social patterns around us exist and how we can change them for the better. When you look at people who seem so different throughout our country, who look different and sound different and believe different things - you can be a mathematician by looking at different people and yet calling them all by the same name: Australians.
首先，在这个举国欢庆的日子我想邀请所有的人在今天成为和我一样的数学老师。不必惊慌，让我解释。数学可以让人们在亚分子水平去进行设计，这是人工智能的基石，人工智能能用超过人脑的智力去下棋，开车，鉴别诊断癌症。但让我更自信的其实是数学的存在，超越了所有未来的科学让人们更加接近上帝所创造的“人类”，你可以从更为全面的角度看待彼此，我们称之为“同理心”，你可以用更细致的眼光观察我们身处的世界甚至更精准的鉴查我们周遭，你会发现这是唯一的方法可以让这个世界变得更好。我们或许眼界不同，信仰不同，境遇不同，但如果你尝试用数学的眼光看世界，，那么我们就会看到共性，伟大的澳大利亚人民。
Secondly, there’s something I want to emphasise to the current generation of young people. So many of the stories you hear and the films you watch tell you that if you want to find fulfilment, then you need to listen to your heart and follow your passion. But I don’t buy that. I didn’t come out of high school passionate about mathematics - quite the opposite! If you’re a young person trying to find your way in the world, I don’t think you need to follow your passion. I think you have to become passionate about following need. Seeing a need is what set me on the path of teaching mathematics. Seeing a need is what led me to start filming my classroom lessons five years ago and putting them on the internet. Fulfilment isn’t found in looking into yourself, it’s found in looking to others and having a heart to serve them with the gifts that you’ve been given. This is one of the things I love best about teaching: every child is gifted. I get the joy of discovering how they’re gifted and helping them learn to use their gifts. That’s why I’m passionate about what I do. Passion isn’t something we follow, passion is something we form, over time, as we discover what matters in our world and how we can make an impact on it.
第二，我想给年轻的一代说些话，太多的书籍和鸡汤告诉你要聆听你的内心，追随你的热忱。但我想说，不全是这样。我就是个例证，我在高中的时候从未想过要做个数学老师。作为一个高中生，你想在这个世界找到你的位置，你不能仅仅追随你的热忱，这完全不够，你需要拥有敏锐的眼光看到需求，我在当年看到了澳洲缺乏有热情的数学老师这一需求，我看到了很多年轻人需要在网上学习这一需求，所以我决定录制视频放到网上。一个人的成就感并非来自自我认知，他来自你发觉上帝给你的恩赐并恰当的把它用在了别人身上从而帮助了他们。这是我喜欢教书很重要的原因。每个孩子都有不同的天赋，我不断的发掘他们的天赋并帮他们学会使用，我享受其中。这是我的热忱，热忱不只需要追随，它还需要我们完善并坚持使用它，它更像一丝光亮，它可以点亮很多人的路途。
Third and lastly, let’s learn to truly value our schools and our teachers. Education’s been one of Australia’s greatest assets, but things won’t stay that way unless we give educators the cultural and capital support that they need to do their jobs. For instance, that shortage of mathematics teachers I was telling you about has only become more severe since my university days. As a field, education struggles to attract students with a lifelong passion to change the world for good - and it’s even more of a challenge to keep them there, with almost half of our early career teachers leaving the profession in their first five years. They want a job with better work-life balance and much more respect from society, and who can blame them? Australian teachers are undervalued and overworked, so only those who are willing to make the sacrifices stay. That needs to change. Valuing education isn’t about awards and accolades. It’s much more about trust and respect. Parents, politicians, managers and the media - we all must play our part in honouring our schools and those who work in them.
第三也是最后一点，请重视每一个老师和每一所学校。高质量的教育是澳洲的立国之本，但如果没有足够的资金支撑和社会支持这一切都会被慢慢消弱。举个例子，数学教师的奇缺现在甚至比我读大学时还要严重。相比如何保持教师的教学热情，如何吸引年轻人成为教师成为这个行业之痛，据统计，超过半数的年轻教师在职业生涯的前五年便选择了离开。他们只是想要一个能更好平衡工作与生活以及更多的社会尊重。我们怎能责备他们？澳洲的老师多数都必须承担高负荷的工作，而同时又欠缺社会的尊重，所以现实是只有那些对教育至爱的人们不忍心离开。这个现象需要立即改变。教师需要的不仅仅是各种奖牌，奖项，信任和尊重更容易让他们获得满足。政治家们，职业经理人，所有的媒体，请我们一起来给教师更多的尊重给教育更高的荣耀。
How do we do this? We just need to open our eyes to the everyday heroism happening all around our great country. Australia Day is a time to sit up and marvel at the wonderful acts of selflessness and sacrifice that go unnoticed around us each day. As I mentioned before, working in a school gives me a vantage point to so much of this care and dedication. I know teachers who run early morning breakfast clubs because they know that’s the only way many of their students can start the day with a square meal. I know a man who moved more than 500km east of Kalgoorlie because he knows that the tiny indigenous community where he’s a principal can achieve learning outcomes as high as anyone else in the country. I know two of my own colleagues at Cherrybrook who spent a whole year training with a group of at-risk teenage boys to take them on a 24-hour 50 km endurance hike. They did it to raise funds for the children of fallen Australian soldiers, to give them a sense of camaraderie, to help them understand they’re more than just troublemakers, and to show them what can be achieved when they work together for the sake of others.
我们该怎么做？我们只需要稍微停下脚步，张开我们的双眼去关注这个国家行行业业，角角落落每一个默默奉献的人们，为他们送上感恩，赞赏的目光。我喜欢这个职业，是因为我看到了太多的人们在默默奉献，我知道很多老师在为学生争取在校早餐，是因为他们看到很多学生为了赶来上课而错过了早餐。我知道有人搬家去500公里外，仅仅是为了能给那里的原住民学生一个对等的学习机会。我也知道我的两位同事用一年的艰苦训练只是为了确保他的问题学生们可以完成一个24小时的耐力徒步，他们这么做是为了给那些受伤的士兵子女筹集资金，让参与的孩子明白人间大爱，让他们明白他们不仅仅是麻烦制造者，让他们知道只要通过努力他们也可以给别人送去温暖。
These are the stories unfolding in schools around Australia that show what we are made of as a people. And these stories are everywhere. They’re over your back fence and beside you on the train. Everyone has one, and everyone’s story is worth learning from. I hope over the last half an hour you’ve learned from mine.
这些都是发生在澳洲学校的故事，这些故事让我们明白是我们这些平凡的人们组成了这个伟大的国家。每一天类似的故事在我们这片土地不断上演，或许他就是你的邻舍，或者他就坐在你搭乘火车的旁边。每个人都是独立的个体，每个人的故事都值得聆听，每一个动人的故事都会点亮别人的心灯。当然，在过去的半个小时里，你从我的故事里有所触动，我会非常感恩。
Being a teacher is why I know that regardless of who they are or where they live, all children can flourish in this ever-changing world if they receive a great education.
作为一个老师，让我明白在这个高速运转的时代，每个孩子都该配得最好的教育，无论他是谁，她住在哪里，她从哪里来。
Being a lover of English and history is why I know that mathematics can help us appreciate and understand the world more deeply and richly than any of us ever imagined.
作为一个曾经的英文和历史的爱好者，教授数学让我更清楚的厘清是数学让我们更深入更充分的理解这个世界，而且远超我们的想象。
Being a Christian is why I know that serving others through self-sacrifice is always, always worth the cost.
而作为基督徒，让我明白尽最大的可能去帮助别人，即便是要通过自我牺牲，那也是值得的，是配得赞美的。
Being an Asian and the son of migrants is why I know that hard work and perseverance are more important than talent.
作为亚裔移民的儿子，让我深深体会，相比天赋，后天的努力和坚韧不拔其实更为重要。
And being an Australian is why I know that all of those qualities are worth valuing and paying forward to the community that I’m so proud to be a part of.
作为一个骄傲的澳洲人，我明白每个人身上的闪光点都值得赞美和尊重，我深深的为自己身处其中而自豪不已。
These are lessons from my story. Yours will be different and that’s why we need to hear each other’s. As you celebrate Australia Day, commit yourself to discovering someone’s story and appreciating their unique contribution to our country.
这是我的故事，你一定有你的故事，我们需要彼此聆听。当我们庆祝澳大利亚国庆的时候，一定不要忘记去用欣赏的眼光看别人的故事，让后感恩每个人为我们这个国家所做的贡献。
Happy Australia Day
国庆快乐