Dil Öğrenimi Hakkında 30 İlham Verici Alıntı
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Filozoflardan, poliglotlardan, yazarlardan ve liderlerden, bir dil öğrenmenin neden her şeyi değiştirdiği üzerine sözler.
Dil Düşünme Şeklimizi Nasıl Şekillendirir
“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, İtalyan film yönetmeni
“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 dış haberler muhabiri
“The diversity of languages is not a diversity of signs and sounds but a diversity of views of the world.”
— Wilhelm von Humboldt, Alman filozof ve dilbilimci
“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)
Neden Bir Dil Öğrenmeliyiz
“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, Güney Afrika eski Cumhurbaşkanı
“He who knows no foreign languages knows nothing of his own.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Alman şair ve devlet adamı
“Knowledge of languages is the doorway to wisdom.”
— Roger Bacon, 13. yüzyıl İngiliz filozofu
“One language sets you in a corridor for life. Two languages open every door along the way.”
— Frank Smith, psikodilbilimci
“You can never understand one language until you understand at least two.”
— Geoffrey Willans, İngiliz yazar
“To have another language is to possess a second soul.”
— Charlemagne’a (Kutsal Roma İmparatoru) atfedilir; bu atıf yaygın olarak tekrarlansa da tarihsel olarak doğrulanmamıştır
“You live a new life for every new language you speak. If you know only one language, you live only once.”
— Çek atasözü (deyişten: Kolik řečí znáš, tolikrát jsi člověkem. — “Bildiğin dil sayısı kadar insansın.”)
“To learn a language is to have one more window from which to look at the world.”
— Çin atasözü
Bir Poliglotun Zihninin İçinde
“Language is the only thing worth knowing even poorly.”
— Kató Lomb, Macar poliglot ve simultane tercüman (16 dilde profesyonel olarak çalıştı)
“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, psikodilbilimci
“We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.”
— Toni Morrison, Nobel Edebiyat Ödülü kabul konuşması (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, otistik savant ve poliglot, Every Word Is a Bird We Teach to Sing (2017)
Yolculuk: Pratik, Hatalar ve Azim
“Invested Time × Motivation / Inhibition = Result.”
— Kató Lomb, Macar poliglot — dil öğrenme başarısı için formülü. Motivasyon payda; hata yapma korkusu paydada.
“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), Çinli filozof, MÖ 3. yüzyıl — daha sonra “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I remember, involve me and I learn.” sözüne evrilen düşüncenin orijinal kaynağı
“Sbagliando s’impara.” (Hatalar yaparak öğrenirsin.)
— İtalyan atasözü
“I have learned more languages since the age of 60 than prior to the age of 60.”
— Steve Kaufmann, Kanadalı poliglot ve LingQ kurucusu (20’den fazla dil konuşuyor)
“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’e transfer olduktan sonra İngilizce öğrenen Çinli basketbolcu
“There is no such thing as an ugly accent. Saying there is, is like saying there’s an ugly flower.”
— David Crystal, İngiliz dilbilimci
“Aim to make at least 200 mistakes a day. The more mistakes you make, the faster you become a confident language learner.”
— Benny Lewis, İrlandalı poliglot ve Fluent in 3 Months kitabının yazarı
“We acquire language in only one way: by understanding messages, or obtaining ‘comprehensible input’ in a low-anxiety situation.”
— Stephen Krashen, dilbilimci ve dil edinimi araştırmacısı, The Power of Reading
Dil öğrenmek varmakla ilgili değildir — genişlemekle ilgilidir. Her yeni kelime, her yeni ifade, her yeni hata daha geniş bir dünyaya atılan bir adımdır. Kató Lomb’un dediği gibi: o kadar çok dil, o kadar çok öğrenilecek yıl.
Bu alıntılar sizi yeni bir dil öğrenmeye teşvik ettiyse, OpenL 100’den fazla dilde ücretsiz çeviri sunar — yeni öğrenmeye başladığınız bir dildeki bir ifadeyi hızlıca kavramanız gerektiğinde kullanışlıdır. Belirli bir dil hakkında daha derinlemesine bilgi için, zengin bir siyasi ve kültürel hikayeye sahip bir Latin dili olan Katalanca rehberimize göz atın.
Kaynaklar
- 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


