To learn a new language is, therefore, always a sort of spiritual adventure; it is like a journey of discovery in which we find a new world.
Interpretation
Learning a new language is an enriching experience that opens up new perspectives.
Ernst Cassirer suggests that acquiring a new language is not merely about vocabulary and grammar, but is a transformative journey that allows individuals to explore and understand a different culture and worldview. This process of discovery broadens one's horizons and deepens personal growth, akin to embarking on a spiritual adventure.
In practice
This quote can inspire students in a language class to see beyond just learning words.
Man is always inclined to regard the small circle in which he lives as the center of the world and to make his particular, private life the standard of the universe and to make his particular, private life the standard of the universe. But he must give up this vain pretense, this petty provincial way of thinking and judging.
Knowledge of the name gives him who knows it mastery even over the being and will of the god.
There is only one justification for universities, as distinguished from trade schools. They must be centers of criticism.
World's children cannot wait any longer. While international community debates and issues recommendations, statements and fine speeches, world's children - marginalised, socially excluded, poor and vulnerable - continue to suffer.
School has become the world religion of a modernized proletariat, and makes futile promises of salvation to the poor of the technological age.
It's always easier to learn something than to use what you've learned. . . . You're alone when you're learning. But you always use it on other people. It's different when there are other people involved.
This is the practice school of writing. Like running, the more you do it, the better you get at it. Some days you don't want to run and you resist every step of the three miles, but you do it anyway. You practice whether you want to or not. You don't wait around for inspiration and a deep desire to run ... That's how writing is too ... One of the main aims in writing practice is to learn to trust your own mind and body; to grow patient and nonaggressive.
There are some people who read too much: the bibliobibuli. I know some who are constantly drunk on books, as other men are drunk on whiskey or religion. They wander through this most diverting and stimulating of worlds in a haze, seeing nothing and hearing nothing.
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