Wonderful article by John le Carré in the Sunday Times about how Germany and German are an abiding influence on his life and writing. He mentions that while at school his teacher told him that "the love we have for other languages intensifies and explains the love we have for our own". Le Carré then quotes Charlemagne that "to possess another language is to possess another soul." Difficult to think of a more eloquent reason for why it is worth the effort of learning a second language and why we in the UK deprive our children if we don't give them the opportunity to explore different cultures in depth by learning other languages.

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