言語学習に関する30の心に響く名言
TABLE OF CONTENTS
言語を学ぶことがすべてを変える理由について、哲学者、多言語話者、作家、リーダーたちの言葉。
言語が思考を形作る
“The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.”
— Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921)
“Language is the dress of thought.”
— Samuel Johnson, Lives of the English Poets (1779–81)
“Language is the blood of the soul into which thoughts run and out of which they grow.”
— Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., The Professor at the Breakfast-Table (1860)
“A different language is a different vision of life.”
— Federico Fellini, イタリアの映画監督
“Learning another language is not only learning different words for the same things, but learning another way to think about things.”
— Flora Lewis, The New York Times 海外特派員
“The diversity of languages is not a diversity of signs and sounds but a diversity of views of the world.”
— Wilhelm von Humboldt, ドイツの哲学者・言語学者
“I was beginning to think in Greek. That is the great Rubicon to cross in learning any language.”
— C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy (1955)
言語を学ぶ理由
“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.”
— Nelson Mandela, 南アフリカ共和国元大統領
“He who knows no foreign languages knows nothing of his own.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, ドイツの詩人・政治家
“Knowledge of languages is the doorway to wisdom.”
— Roger Bacon, 13世紀イギリスの哲学者
“One language sets you in a corridor for life. Two languages open every door along the way.”
— Frank Smith, 心理言語学者
“You can never understand one language until you understand at least two.”
— Geoffrey Willans, イギリスの作家
“To have another language is to possess a second soul.”
— Charlemagne（神聖ローマ皇帝）に帰される言葉。この帰属は広く繰り返されているが、歴史的に検証されてはいない。
“You live a new life for every new language you speak. If you know only one language, you live only once.”
— チェコのことわざ（ことわざより：Kolik řečí znáš, tolikrát jsi člověkem. — 「知っている言語の数だけ、あなたは人間である。」）
“To learn a language is to have one more window from which to look at the world.”
— 中国のことわざ
多言語話者の思考の中へ
“Language is the only thing worth knowing even poorly.”
— Kató Lomb, ハンガリーのポリグロット・同時通訳者（16言語でプロとして活動）
“Language is not a genetic gift, it is a social gift. Learning a new language is becoming a member of the club — the community of speakers of that language.”
— Frank Smith, 心理言語学者
“We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.”
— Toni Morrison, ノーベル文学賞受賞講演 (1993)
“He that is acquainted with only one language, will probably always remain in some degree the slave of language. But the man who is competent to and exercised in the comparison of languages, has attained to his proper elevation. Language is not his master, but he is the master of language.”
— William Godwin, The Enquirer (1797)
“Reality is constructed by languages, and the existence of a variety of languages means the existence of a variety of realities, a variety of truths.”
— Minae Mizumura, The Fall of Language in the Age of English
“In what language am I, suis-je, bin ich, when I am inmost? What is the tone of the self?”
— George Steiner, After Babel (1975)
“Every word is a bird we teach to sing.”
— Daniel Tammet, 自閉症サヴァン・多言語話者, Every Word Is a Bird We Teach to Sing (2017)
旅路：練習、失敗、そして継続
“Invested Time × Motivation / Inhibition = Result.”
— Kató Lomb, ハンガリーのポリグロット — 彼女の言語学習成功の公式。モチベーションは分子に、失敗への恐れは分母に。
“Not having heard of it is not as good as having seen it. Having seen it is not as good as knowing it. Knowing it is not as good as putting it into practice.”
— Xunzi（荀子）、中国の哲学者、紀元前3世紀 — 後に「聞けば忘れる、教えれば覚える、巻き込めば学ぶ」へと発展した言葉の原典。
“Sbagliando s’impara.” (失敗することで学ぶ。)
— イタリアのことわざ
“I have learned more languages since the age of 60 than prior to the age of 60.”
— Steve Kaufmann, カナダのポリグロット、LingQ創設者（20言語以上を話す）
“If you’re going to learn a new language, you can’t try to be perfect. You’ll stop yourself from talking. You just have to let go.”
— Yao Ming, NBA移籍後に英語を学んだ中国のバスケットボール選手
“There is no such thing as an ugly accent. Saying there is, is like saying there’s an ugly flower.”
— David Crystal, イギリスの言語学者
“Aim to make at least 200 mistakes a day. The more mistakes you make, the faster you become a confident language learner.”
— Benny Lewis, アイルランドのポリグロット、Fluent in 3 Months 著者
“We acquire language in only one way: by understanding messages, or obtaining ‘comprehensible input’ in a low-anxiety situation.”
— Stephen Krashen, 言語学者・言語習得研究者, The Power of Reading
言語学習とは到達することではなく、拡張することです。新しい単語、新しいフレーズ、新しい失敗の一つひとつが、より広い世界への一歩なのです。カトー・ロンブが言ったように、これほど多くの言語があり、それを学ぶための年月がこれほど多く残されているのです。
これらの名言に触発されて新しい言語を学びたくなったなら、OpenL は100以上の言語に対応した無料翻訳を提供しています。学び始めたばかりの言語でフレーズをざっと理解したいときに便利です。特定の言語をより深く知りたい場合は、豊かな政治的・文化的歴史を持つロマンス語であるカタルーニャ語のガイドもご覧ください。
出典
- Ludwig Wittgenstein — Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus — Proposition 5.6
- Samuel Johnson — Lives of the English Poets — “Life of Cowley”
- Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. — The Professor at the Breakfast-Table (1860) — Chapter II
- Wilhelm von Humboldt — Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy — on the diversity of worldviews
- C.S. Lewis — Surprised by Joy (1955) — Chapter IX
- Nelson Mandela — Oxford Essential Quotations — verified quote
- Goethe — Britannica — widely anthologized in Maxims and Reflections
- Roger Bacon — Durham University — on languages and knowledge
- Charlemagne “Second Soul” — Quid Plura? blog — tracing the misattribution to 1989 UPI
- Czech proverb — Wikipedia Reference Desk — analysis of the proverb’s origin
- Kató Lomb — Polyglot: How I Learn Languages — free English translation (TESL-EJ)
- George Steiner — After Babel (1975) — on translation and multilingual identity
- William Godwin — The Enquirer (1797) — on the multilingual mind
- Minae Mizumura — The Fall of Language in the Age of English — Columbia University Press
- Toni Morrison — Nobel Lecture (1993) — Nobel Prize in Literature
- Daniel Tammet — Every Word Is a Bird We Teach to Sing — memoir (2017)
- Xunzi — Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy — Chapter 8, “The Achievements of the Ru”
- Quote Investigator — “Tell Me and I Forget” — origin tracing to Xunzi
- David Crystal — official site — British linguist and author
- Steve Kaufmann — Montreal Gazette — profile of the Lingly founder
- Benny Lewis — Fluent in 3 Months — Daily Mail interview on embracing mistakes
- Stephen Krashen — The Power of Reading — on comprehensible input and language acquisition
- EF Education First — 50 Inspiring Quotes About Languages — reference quote collection
- Flora Lewis — New York Times obituary — career overview; the language quote is widely attributed to her body of work as a foreign correspondent
- Frank Smith — psycholinguist bibliography — Ourselves: Why We Are Who We Are (2006); his language quotes circulate widely in literacy and language education contexts
