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About this quote

What does it mean?
When speaking French in Paris, locals were surprised and the speaker felt unable to make them understand their own language.
In plain terms
Even speaking a language doesn’t guarantee being understood.
What can you take from it?
Language proficiency isn’t enough without cultural context.

Where it applies

  • travel
  • language learning

Putting it to work

  • learn cultural cues
  • listen before speaking

Questions to consider

  • Why do we sometimes fail to connect even when we speak the same language?
  • What role does cultural awareness play?

Another view

Language barriers persist despite basic fluency.

More from Samuel Langhorne Clemens

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  2. Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts.

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  3. Enough, enough, enough! Say no more! Lump the whole thing! say that the Creator made Italy from designs by Michael Angelo!

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