What motivates you to learn Chinese as a second language?

Why do you learn Chinese as a second language? To enhance your competitiveness, to make yourself handy for travelling, make yourself even better at your mother language? Whatever reason you have, check how these great men say about the importance of learning a second language. 

- Nelson Mandela 纳尔逊.曼德拉 

If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart.  

如果你用别人能理解的语言与对方谈话，那么谈话会进入对方的大脑。如果你用对方的语言与之谈话，那么谈话会进入对方的心里。

rú guǒ nǐ yòng bié rén néng lǐ jiě de yǔ yán yǔ duì fāng tán huà, nà me tán huà huì jìn rù duì fāng de dà nǎo. rú guǒ nǐ yòng duì fāng de yǔ yán yǔ zhī tán huà, nà me tán huà huì jìn rù duì fāng de xīn lǐ. 

- Frank Smith 弗兰克.史密斯 

One language sets you in a corridor for life. Two languages open every door along the way. 

一种语言可以为人生开启一条走廊。两种语言则会使这条人生走廊的沿途上处处开启大门。

yì zhǒng yǔ yán kě yǐ wèi rén shēng kāi qǐ yì tiáo zǒu láng. liǎng zhǒng yǔ yán zé huì shǐ zhè tiáo rén shēng zǒu láng de yán tú shàng chù chù kāi qǐ dà mén. 

- Ludwig Wittgenstein 路德维希•维特根斯坦 

The limits of my language are the limits of my world. 

语言的限制就是对我的世界的限制。

yǔ yán de xiàn zhì jiù shì duì wǒ de shì jiè de xiàn zhì.  

- Sarah Caldwell 萨拉.考尔德韦尔 

Learn everything you can, anytime you can, from anyone you can; there will always come a time when you will be grateful you did.  

学习一切你所能学，任何时间，无论向谁；总有一天你会为你所做感到欣慰。

xué xí yí qiè nǐ suǒ néng xué, rèn hé shí jiān, wú lùn xiàng shuí; zǒng yǒu yì tiān nǐ huì wèi nǐ suǒ zuò gǎn dào xīn wèi. 

- Charlemagne 查理曼大帝 

To have another language is to possess a second soul. 

掌握另一门语言，拥有第二个灵魂！

zhǎng wò lìng yì mén yǔ yán, yōng yǒu dì èr gè líng hún! 

- JohanWn von Goethe 约翰•沃尔夫冈•冯•歌德

Those who know nothing of foreign languages know nothing of their own. 

不了解外语的人也无法真正了解自己的语言。

bù liǎo jiě wài yǔ de rén yě wú fǎ zhēn zhèng liǎo jiě zì jǐ de yǔ yán. 

- Rita Mae Brown 瑞塔.梅.布朗 

Language is the road map of a culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going. 

语言是文化的地图。它为你解答人们从哪里来到哪里去。

yǔ yán shì wén huà de dì tú. tā wèi nǐ jiě dá rén men cóng nǎ lǐ lái dào nǎ lǐ qù 

- Oliver Wendell Holmes 奥利佛•文德尔•荷默斯

Language is the blood of the soul into which thoughts run and out of which they grow. 

语言是灵魂的血肉，有了血肉，思想就可以奔跑，有了灵魂，语言才得以成长。

yǔ yán shì líng hún de xuè ròu, yǒu le xuè ròu, sī xiǎng jiù kě yǐ bēn pǎo, yǒu le líng hún, yǔ yán cái dé yǐ chéng zhǎng.