30 вдохновляющих цитат об изучении языков

Слова философов, полиглотов, писателей и лидеров о том, почему изучение языка меняет всё.

Язык формирует наше мышление

“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, итальянский кинорежиссёр

“Learning another language is not only learning different words for the same things, but learning another way to think about things.”

— Flora Lewis, иностранный корреспондент The New York Times

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

— Wilhelm von Humboldt, немецкий философ и лингвист

“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)

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Зачем учить язык

“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, бывший президент Южной Африки

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

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, немецкий поэт и государственный деятель

“Knowledge of languages is the doorway to wisdom.”

— Roger Bacon, английский философ XIII века

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

— Frank Smith, психолингвист

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

— Geoffrey Willans, британский писатель

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

— Приписывается Charlemagne (император Священной Римской империи); эта атрибуция широко распространена, но исторически не подтверждена

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

— Чешская пословица (из поговорки: Kolik řečí znáš, tolikrát jsi člověkem. — «Сколько языков ты знаешь, столько раз ты человек.»)

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

— Китайская пословица

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В сознании полиглота

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

— Kató Lomb, венгерский полиглот и синхронный переводчик (профессионально работала на 16 языках)

“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, психолингвист

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

— Toni Morrison, речь на вручении Нобелевской премии по литературе (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, аутичный савант и полиглот, Every Word Is a Bird We Teach to Sing (2017)

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Путь: практика, ошибки и настойчивость

“Invested Time × Motivation / Inhibition = Result.”

— Kató Lomb, венгерский полиглот — её формула успеха в изучении языков. Мотивация в числителе; страх ошибок в знаменателе.

“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), китайский философ, III век до н. э. — первоисточник того, что позже превратилось в «Скажи мне, и я забуду. Научи меня, и я запомню. Вовлеки меня, и я научусь.»

“Sbagliando s’impara.” (You learn by making mistakes.)

— Итальянская пословица

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

— Steve Kaufmann, канадский полиглот и основатель LingQ (говорит на 20+ языках)

“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, китайский баскетболист, выучивший английский после перехода в НБА

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

— David Crystal, британский лингвист

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

— Benny Lewis, ирландский полиглот и автор Fluent in 3 Months

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

— Stephen Krashen, лингвист и исследователь усвоения языка, The Power of Reading

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Изучение языка — это не достижение цели, а расширение горизонтов. Каждое новое слово, каждая новая фраза, каждая новая ошибка — это шаг в более широкий мир. Как сказала Kató Lomb: так много языков, так много лет впереди, чтобы их выучить.

Если эти цитаты вдохновили вас на изучение нового языка, OpenL предлагает бесплатный перевод на более чем 100 языков — полезно, когда вам нужно быстро понять фразу на языке, который вы только начинаете изучать. Для более глубокого погружения в конкретный язык, ознакомьтесь с нашим руководством по каталанскому — романскому языку с богатой политической и культурной историей.

Источники

• 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