A lack of words leads to violence. But to master one’s language, one must speak another, in order to see one’s own culture from the outside. Only thus can one gain access to other worldviews.
Plus d’une langue (“more than one language”) is to motto inscribed on Academician Barbara Cassin’s sword. A lack of words is one of the causes of violence among teenagers. But to master one’s own language, one must speak another, which allows one to see one’s language, and thus one’s culture, from the outside. The monolingual person is a one-legged person... One who speaks (or, as Barbara Cassin beautifully puts it, one who “sniffs”) several languages, one is granted access to other worldviews.