Weather is a literary specialty, and no untrained hand can turn out a good article on it
Mark TwainRead
It is not like studying German, where you mull along, in a groping, uncertain way, for thirty years; and at last, just as you think you've got it, they spring the subjunctive on you, and there you are. No- and I see now plainly enough, that the great pity about the German language is, that you can't fall off it and hurt yourself. There is nothing like that feature to make you attend strictly to business.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Learning German can be frustrating because of its complexities, but those challenges are what keep you focused on mastering it.
Mark Twain expresses the challenges of learning the German language by comparing it to a situation where one might easily fall off to emphasize the importance of being fully engaged in the learning process. He humorously illustrates that the difficulties and unpredictabilities in mastering a language compel learners to pay attention and work hard, while the relatively safe nature of learning German may make it less urgent or engaging.
Themes
LanguageLearningEducationFocusChallenges
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about language education, highlighting the complexities of different languages.
More from Mark Twain
All quotes →The easy part of being an artist is figuring out the message that everyone else is ready to hear. The hard part is waiting for the proper lull to make the announcement.
Mark TwainRead
You can't reason with your heart; it has its own laws, and thumps about things which the intellect scorns.
Mark TwainRead
To be good is noble; but to show others how to be good is nobler and no trouble.
Mark TwainRead
Name the greatest of all inventors. Accident.
Mark TwainRead
In Paris they just simply opened their eyes and stared when we spoke to them in French! We never did succeed in making those idiots understand their own language.
Mark TwainRead
Similar quotes
In the field of higher ed, many have asked whether (or when) digital education will replace on-campus education. I wonder the opposite. Cinema never replaced theatre. TV didn't replace radio. I wonder how different digital education will be from classrooms, and where it will lead us.
Sebastian ThrunRead
This assumption that the blue collar crowd is not supposed to read it, or a farmer in his overalls is not to read poetry, seems to be dangerous if not tragic.
Joseph BrodskyRead
In the end, what makes a book valuable is not the paper it's printed on, but the thousands of hours of work by dozens of people who are dedicated to creating the best possible reading experience for you.
John GreenRead
You will also find that help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it.
J. K. RowlingRead
Every fool believes what his teachers tell him, and calls his credulity science or morality as confidently as his father called it divine revelation.
George Bernard ShawRead
The studious silence of the library ... Thought is the thought of thought. Tranquil brightness.
James JoyceRead