"Every ViewPoint is a View from a Point"

 

Recently, I discovered that ninety-two in French is called ‘quatre-vingt douze’ which means ‘four times twenty plus twelve.’ What an interesting way to think of the number. While the same number in Mandarin Chinese is “jiǔ shí èr” which translates to ‘nine ten two.’ Isn’t it fascinating how the ability to visualize a number changes with the language?

Interestingly, what I’m trying to assert is that the tool of language is so powerful that it narrates the history, manifests the intellect, and acquaints the opinions of the entirety of its speakers. It enables one to think from a certain perspective and what a trump card it is for multilinguals. They get to see the world from not one, not two but from many perspectives. It's like each language is a different shade of sunglasses. Just like the color of the vision changes as we switch, likewise, one’s approach to the world changes as one juggles through diverse languages.