I love languages. I enjoy learning words in languages I have never heard of and listening to languages that I'm not familiar with and trying to figure out what the language is, and then talking about language, and teaching about the relationship of education and language. I've had different success with my attempts to learn the languages of Denmark, Namibia and Rwanda. It was always a wonderful opportunity to connect with people in their respective communities. That's why I also am awed by this quote from Nelson Mandela:"If you talk to an individual in a language that he can understand it goes straight to his head. The quote has been recited numerous times. It's on numerous pages called "Mandela in his own words", has been used by well-established publishers, language schools, so it's not a surprise to see it in books, academic publications, and high-school student presentations. I was able to see it in a talk by a respected professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. It's an impressive assertion, made by an admirable man. I love it so much that I'd like to employ it often in writing or teaching about the language. Therefore, as I've learned in my research training I searched for the correct source. This is where the issue began. This is when the problem began. But to no avail. The only thing I could find was a thread on reddit that pointed me to a book from 1996 about the Peace Corps Story. Patricia Garamendi uses the (mis)quote in her forward. This appears to be the first time that I have seen the quote being written down according to what I've been able to determine.
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