Quotes About Learning a Foreign Language

There have been several inspiring quotes about learning a foreign language that linguists, writers and historians have written in order to fully grasp the significance of language learning, especially when encountering a foreign language from a non-native speaker perspective.

Oliver Wendell Holmes once said “language is the blood of the soul into which thoughts run and out of which they grow.” Edward R. Murrow put language learning in a lighter note when he said “our major obligation is not to mistake slogans for solutions.” What does this mean for language learners? These quotes about learning a foreign language represent a couple of different things. First, in the Oliver Wendell Holmes quote, it can be agreed that language provides the very foundation for our physical, emotional and spiritual selves and without it, our thoughts, stories and interactions with other would not have a means to grow into greater forms of communications. Ideas would be static and unable to develop.

Second, the Edward R. Murrow quote is an important lesson for learners of a foreign language in that the casual language, the “street” slang and the vernacular that is specific to any given language is something that is widely used both in personal conversation on an informal basis as well as in advertising and other means to communicate. But, this casual form of speaking should not be considered truths. Often these slogans are passed on through generations as urban myth or old-fashioned wisdom that may no longer be valid. It is an interesting starting point for language learning, but it should not be mistaken as “solutions,” as Murrow stated.

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