언어 학습에 관한 30가지 영감을 주는 명언

철학자, 폴리글롯, 작가, 그리고 지도자들이 언어 학습이 모든 것을 바꾸는 이유에 대해 남긴 말들.

언어가 사고를 형성하는 방식

“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, 이탈리아 영화 감독

“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 해외 특파원

“The diversity of languages is not a diversity of signs and sounds but a diversity of views of the world.”

— Wilhelm von Humboldt, 독일 철학자이자 언어학자

“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)

---

언어를 배워야 하는 이유

“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, 남아프리카공화국 전 대통령

“He who knows no foreign languages knows nothing of his own.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 독일 시인이자 정치가

“Knowledge of languages is the doorway to wisdom.”

— Roger Bacon, 13세기 영국 철학자

“One language sets you in a corridor for life. Two languages open every door along the way.”

— Frank Smith, 심리언어학자

“You can never understand one language until you understand at least two.”

— Geoffrey Willans, 영국 작가

“To have another language is to possess a second soul.”

— Charlemagne (신성 로마 제국 황제)의 말로 전해짐. 이 귀속은 널리 반복되지만 역사적으로 검증된 것은 아님

“You live a new life for every new language you speak. If you know only one language, you live only once.”

— 체코 속담 (Kolik řečí znáš, tolikrát jsi člověkem. — “아는 언어의 수만큼, 당신은 그만큼의 인간으로 존재한다.”)

“To learn a language is to have one more window from which to look at the world.”

— 중국 속담

---

폴리글롯의 마음속

“Language is the only thing worth knowing even poorly.”

— Kató Lomb, 헝가리 폴리글롯이자 동시통역사 (16개 언어로 전문 통역 수행)

“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, 심리언어학자

“We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.”

— Toni Morrison, 노벨 문학상 수상 연설 (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, 자폐 서번트이자 폴리글롯, Every Word Is a Bird We Teach to Sing (2017)

---

여정: 연습, 실수, 그리고 끈기

“Invested Time × Motivation / Inhibition = Result.”

— Kató Lomb, 헝가리 폴리글롯 — 그녀가 제시한 언어 학습 성공 공식. 분자가 동기 부여라면, 분모는 실수에 대한 두려움이다.

“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.”

— 순자(荀子), 중국 철학자, 기원전 3세기 — 훗날 “들으면 잊고, 가르치면 기억하고, 참여하면 배운다”로 발전한 말의 원천.

“Sbagliando s’impara.” (실수를 통해 배운다.)

— 이탈리아 속담

“I have learned more languages since the age of 60 than prior to the age of 60.”

— Steve Kaufmann, 캐나다 폴리글롯이자 LingQ 설립자 (20개 이상 언어 구사)

“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 진출 후 영어를 배운 중국 농구 선수

“There is no such thing as an ugly accent. Saying there is, is like saying there’s an ugly flower.”

— David Crystal, 영국 언어학자

“Aim to make at least 200 mistakes a day. The more mistakes you make, the faster you become a confident language learner.”

— Benny Lewis, 아일랜드 폴리글롯이자 Fluent in 3 Months의 저자

“We acquire language in only one way: by understanding messages, or obtaining ‘comprehensible input’ in a low-anxiety situation.”

— Stephen Krashen, 언어학자이자 언어 습득 연구자, The Power of Reading

---

언어 학습은 도달하는 것이 아니라 확장하는 것이다. 새로운 단어 하나, 새로운 문장 하나, 새로운 실수 하나가 더 넓은 세상으로 나아가는 한 걸음이다. 커털 롬브가 말했듯이, 그렇게 많은 언어가 있고, 그것들을 배울 수 있는 그렇게 많은 시간이 남아 있다.

이 명언들이 새로운 언어를 배우고 싶다는 영감을 주었다면, OpenL은 100개 이상의 언어에 걸쳐 무료 번역을 제공합니다. 이제 막 배우기 시작한 언어의 문구를 빠르게 이해하고 싶을 때 유용합니다. 특정 언어에 대해 더 깊이 알아보고 싶다면, 풍부한 정치적·문화적 이야기를 지닌 로망스어인 카탈루냐어 가이드를 확인해 보세요.

출처

• 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