"*Chinese* (Mandarin or Cantonese): Studies have found that doing math is more intuitive in Chinese than English for a variety of reasons. Firstly, counting in English is not intuitive. After the numbers 1-10, we have new names like "eleven" and "twelve", etc. In Chinese, eleven is literally ten-one (twenty is two ten and so on). Young children can count up to one hundred in Chinese much more quickly than can English speaking children". (...) // *Pormpuraaw* (aboriginal Australian): This language does not have equivalent terms for "left" and "right" so they rely on cardinal directions (i.e., east, west, etc) instead. Thus, no more confusing directions if you're a speaker of Pormpuraaw. (...) // *French* is the greatest source of words, advanced structures and cultural development in to English. French is a favorite with English majors. If you want to write better English learning French is good. *German* is the language most like the root of English. If you want to more solidly grasp the grammar and core words of English, say for linguistics or history. (...) German has some very deep concepts and distinctions, and seems well-designed for argumentation. (...) " - Amira

*Latin* is the language that established how a big language used by many different people in a vast area would work. In Latin the first forms of grammar and early word roots that English shares with all European family of languages. (...) In *Greek* our core framework of how western society thinks was first constructed. Greek is probably the ultimate westerns deep thinker language. Our concepts of drama, politics, law, grammar and philosophy were all first written in Greek." - Amira

See also: The Paradox of the Alphabetic Literacy Narrative http://ff.im/AmBkV Life without language. Greg Downey on language, thought and time http://neuroanthropology.net/2010... - Amira