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#Post#: 19723--------------------------------------------------
Quotes about foreign language learning
By: SHL Date: January 7, 2020, 9:04 pm
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I was searching the Internet to find a quote I knew I had read
over 40 years ago, „to speak a foreign language is to be another
person.“ I read that some 43 years ago, but as memories fade the
quote might not be exact. Plus, I though it had originated from
Winston Churchill, but again that could be wrong.
The closest I came to it is this:
“Learning another language is like becoming another person.” –
Haruki Murakami
Then followed this other quote, I really like, and I’ll have to
ask Nikola if it indeed is a Czech proverb:
„You live a new life for every language you speak. If you know
only one language, you live only once.” – Czech proverb
I like that one too.
Source:
HTML https://www.ef.edu/blog/language/17-language-quotes-to-turbocharge-your-learning/
#Post#: 19725--------------------------------------------------
Re: Quotes about foreign language learning
By: NealC Date: January 8, 2020, 8:24 am
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"Why waste your time with that foreign gobbledygook, they all
know English anyway. At least the important ones do".
Unfortunately, the typical American
#Post#: 19728--------------------------------------------------
Re: Quotes about foreign language learning
By: Nikola Date: January 8, 2020, 4:15 pm
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[quote author=SHL link=topic=1413.msg19723#msg19723
date=1578452660]
„You live a new life for every language you speak. If you
know only one language, you live only once.” – Czech
proverb
[/quote]
I'm not sure about this one. It sounds a bit like they were
trying to paraphrase no. 14 "The more languages you know, the
more you are human." – Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (our
first president, I'm not sure he really said it, though). That
one's more like the Czech "kolik řečí znáš,
tolikrát jsi člověkem", literally how many languages
you know, that many times you're a human (as in being multiple
humans in one body). It's a very common proverb here. So common
there is a joke about it.
A tourist comes up to a police officer in Prague and asks:
"Do you speak English?"
"Ne."
"Sprechen Sie Deutsch?"
"Ne."
"Parlez-vous Français?"
"Ne."
"говорите
по-русски?"
"Ne."
The guy shrugs his shoulders and leaves. The police officer
turns to his buddy: "Isn't it funny how they say you're as many
times a human as many languages you speak... I mean, look at
him. He speaks so many and still - completely useless!"
#Post#: 19733--------------------------------------------------
Re: Quotes about foreign language learning
By: SHL Date: January 8, 2020, 11:22 pm
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[quote author=Nikola link=topic=1413.msg19728#msg19728
date=1578521752]
[quote author=SHL link=topic=1413.msg19723#msg19723
date=1578452660]
„You live a new life for every language you speak. If you know
only one language, you live only once.” – Czech proverb
[/quote]
I'm not sure about this one. It sounds a bit like they were
trying to paraphrase no. 14 "The more languages you know, the
more you are human." – Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (our first
president, I'm not sure he really said it, though). That one's
more like the Czech "kolik řečí znáš, tolikrát jsi
člověkem", literally how many languages you know, that
many times you're a human (as in being multiple humans in one
body). It's a very common proverb here. So common there is a
joke about it.
A tourist comes up to a police officer in Prague and asks:
"Do you speak English?"
"Ne."
"Sprechen Sie Deutsch?"
"Ne."
"Parlez-vous Français?"
"Ne."
"говорите
по-русски?"
"Ne."
The guy shrugs his shoulders and leaves. The police officer
turns to his buddy: "Isn't it funny how they say you're as many
times a human as many languages you speak... I mean, look at
him. He speaks so many and still - completely useless!"
[/quote]
That’s good Nikola. :)
But, the Czechs have the right idea about foreign languages- the
more you know the better. Thumbs up to them.
#Post#: 19736--------------------------------------------------
Re: Quotes about foreign language learning
By: Nikola Date: January 9, 2020, 2:30 am
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If you come from a small country whose language isn't spoken
anywhere else, learning languages is a must. I remember asking
my mum, when I was a kid, why we had to write in a Christmas
card to our German friends in German when they wrote us in their
own language. Czech and German were just two equal languages to
me. I didn't see why they couldn't learn Czech. It's a real
eye-opener when you first realise you live in a small, fairly
obscure country.
#Post#: 19737--------------------------------------------------
Re: Quotes about foreign language learning
By: SHL Date: January 9, 2020, 11:55 am
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[quote author=Nikola link=topic=1413.msg19736#msg19736
date=1578558646]
If you come from a small country whose language isn't spoken
anywhere else, learning languages is a must. I remember asking
my mum, when I was a kid, why we had to write in a Christmas
card to our German friends in German when they wrote us in their
own language. Czech and German were just two equal languages to
me. I didn't see why they couldn't learn Czech. It's a real
eye-opener when you first realise you live in a small, fairly
obscure country.
[/quote]
I’ve always noticed that too Nikola. Can you imagine living and
being a native of Iceland, a country of 325,000? That’s not even
a good sized city in Germany with its 80,000,000. So, in Iceland
you have to learn a foreign language (which is usually English)
or you’re not getting off that island and traveling very far,
because no one speaks Icelandic but the Icelanders.
#Post#: 19740--------------------------------------------------
Re: Quotes about foreign language learning
By: Nikola Date: January 10, 2020, 3:49 am
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[quote author=SHL link=topic=1413.msg19737#msg19737
date=1578592532]
I’ve always noticed that too Nikola. Can you imagine living and
being a native of Iceland, a country of 325,000?
[/quote]
Sorry, you lost me after that sentence.
[img width=300
height=200]
HTML https://p1.pxfuel.com/preview/507/432/944/iceland-houses-atlantic-waterfall-nature.jpg[/img]
[img width=300
height=225]
HTML https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/de.costa.dam/zc11_25ab5fc91cd34fda82afb237eb501979/f_im_jpg_750x563.jpg[/img]
Still daydreaming.
#Post#: 19741--------------------------------------------------
Re: Quotes about foreign language learning
By: SHL Date: January 10, 2020, 12:28 pm
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[quote author=Nikola link=topic=1413.msg19740#msg19740
date=1578649746]
[quote author=SHL link=topic=1413.msg19737#msg19737
date=1578592532]
I’ve always noticed that too Nikola. Can you imagine living and
being a native of Iceland, a country of 325,000?
[/quote]
Sorry, you lost me after that sentence.
[img width=300
height=200]
HTML https://p1.pxfuel.com/preview/507/432/944/iceland-houses-atlantic-waterfall-nature.jpg[/img]
[img width=300
height=225]
HTML https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/de.costa.dam/zc11_25ab5fc91cd34fda82afb237eb501979/f_im_jpg_750x563.jpg[/img]
Still daydreaming.
[/quote]
I don’t know why I lost you after that sentence Nikola. If you
live in a small country like Iceland, isolated as they are in
the North Atlantic, with their native language being the only
one spoken by anyone in the world, learning at least one foreign
language is a necessity. So, when you go there English is almost
a second unofficial language (but I think they work very hard at
preserving their native Icelandic and rightfully so). The polar
opposite is true in the US. With the US population so large and
English being the lingua Franca it’s hard to motivate people to
get out of English and learn another language. Spanish has had
some success I should say.
#Post#: 19742--------------------------------------------------
Re: Quotes about foreign language learning
By: Nikola Date: January 10, 2020, 6:21 pm
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I understood your post. The reason why you lost me was because I
started imagining living in Iceland :)
#Post#: 19743--------------------------------------------------
Re: Quotes about foreign language learning
By: SHL Date: January 10, 2020, 7:54 pm
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Nikola,
Oh I love Iceland. What a cool little country.
The only drawback is you do feel a bit isolated up there, and
the weather might take some getting used to, unless you like
highs of 50F (10 C) in August and sunrise at 3:00 :)
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