Johann Wolfgang von Goethe — He who knows no foreign languages knows nothing of his own.
He who knows no foreign languages knows nothing of his own.Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Goethe, 'Maximen und Reflexionen'
We rarely see our own language clearly until we step outside it. Inside, its rules feel like the only way things could be. Learn another, and suddenly your first language reveals itself as one choice among many.
English will hand you a mirror for your mother tongue. You'll notice what it does gracefully, what it can't say at all, and the quiet assumptions baked into both. That double vision is a gift only a second language gives.
Words that widen the world
Belonging to or coming from a country other than your own.
Synonyms: external, unfamiliar, overseas
A foreign language can make your own feel new again.
To make something previously hidden known or visible.
Synonyms: show, uncover, disclose
Travel revealed habits she never knew she had.
Common questions
It means you can't fully understand your own language until you learn another — the contrast reveals what was invisible from the inside.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was an 18th–19th century German writer and thinker, one of the most influential figures in European literature.
Carry it with you
In your own words, what does this thought mean to you? Write three or four sentences in English about a moment when it felt true — saying it yourself is how it stays with you.
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