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

The quote from Nelson Mandela might be the most spot-on description on why language learning is important for the modern world. Many people are being raised bilingually by either more families from different backgrounds, migration or studying at school.

But what's behind the quote? Why is it important to speak to a person's heart? You might say it's too much effort for some bonding between people. I daresay the opposite: it is the most fulfilling feeling to conversate with a person and him/her being able to completely express him/herself.

The moment I think of right now, while working at my part-time job or going to the college gym and seeing these people converse in a different language. One person was unable to speak fully understandable English to the people at my work, and I chipped in and discovered he spoke Swedish. A man probably enjoying his late 60s on vacation to a different country speaking a language he isn't able to speak well. He was using all this brain capacity for talking... Torture for any retired man.

Needless to say, he was dumbfounded and humbled to speak to a non-native that spoke his own language. The glimmer in his eyes. You feel the relief. And then the conversation begins. Smooth, no stutters. I was speaking to his HEART.

He was open, friendly, amiable. He didn't know what my interests were, hell, he didn't even know my name. Still doesn't. Probably never will. But that doesn't matter. I spoke to him as HIM, and not as a tourist. The power behind this psychology is amazing.

This works in business, traveling, everything. People won't treat you like a tourist. People will be 'humbled' in a kind of chauvinistic way. Your potential business partner has a higher chance of leaving as an actual business partner. The doors it opens are endless.

This happens because when a person sees as an object that object might be so linked to a word that the barrier of the word and the object fades in the mind. In a second language, this is still a barrier to overcome. Hence the 'feeling' of the word, and the actual feeling of comprehension.

'The limits of my language means the limits of my world' - Ludwig Wittgenstein

So, someone who understands a language cannot feel in the language unless it's on native or near-native level. To feel a language should be the goal. By feeling the words you are speaking you open the way to your heart. Or someone else's. The secret language to a person's heart is the language he speaks everyday.

'If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.' - Nelson Mandela