Quotes on learning Chinese & languages

We love quotes because they’re nuggets of wisdom, condensed life-lessons into bite-sized sentences. A good quote is memorable and inspirational. So we’ve lined a few up for you, you amazing Chinese-learner. Jiāyóu!

Language tethers us to the world; without it we spin like atoms.
– Penelope Lively

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

Anyone can speak Troll. All you have to do is point and grunt.
― J.K. Rowling

 

He who knows no foreign languages knows nothing of his own.
– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

 

The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word ‘crisis.’ One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of
the danger–but recognize the opportunity.
― John F. Kennedy

Language isn’t a genetic gift, it’s a social gift. Learning a new language is becoming members of a club; the community of speakers of that language.
– Frank Smith

 

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

 

Language is the only homeland.
― Czesław Miłosz

 

Do you know what a foreign accent is? It’s a sign of bravery.
― Amy Chua

 

Inspired? Come learn in Shanghai, at our Yangpu campus or French Concession campus, or learn Chinese online with GoEast.