Valentine to Educators

A French teacher once said to our class “French is not a translation of English.” One of my classmates was trying to say a simple phrase such as “I am excited to go to the movies with you this weekend.”

Verbs, adverbs and adjectives run in a different order in different languages, and the student was struggling with the basic grammatical differences between English and French. Each culture on Earth has developed language over centuries, some over millennia. The quote has stuck with me ever since. It is a great reminder that there is so much happening under the surface of our actions.