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Roughly 365 million people
have English as their mother tongue.

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More than two billion others
learn and speak English

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as a second or third language.

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If you speak English,

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you can make yourself understood
to almost 2.5 billion people.

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Why would you need to learn
any other foreign language?

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Isn't that just
a ridiculous waste of time?

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Nelson Mandela was fiercely criticized

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by black South Africans
for speaking Afrikaans.

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He replied,

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"When you speak to man
in a language he understands.

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that goes to his head.

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When you speak to him in his own language,

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that goes to his heart."

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So here's the thing:

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if you want to win somebody over,

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you need to speak to their heart.

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Popes know that.

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John Paul II spoke
like ten languages fluently

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and a dozen others
on a more elementary level.

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Wherever he went,
he would greet the people

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with at least a few sentences
in their native language;

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and that was an important key
to his popularity.

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People with foreign mothers-in-law,

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or foreign mothers-in-law-to-be,
know it, too.

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They may speak English
with their girlfriends,

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but when they want to be
on good terms with the girl's mom,

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young men are willing to learn
the craziest languages,

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including Dutch.

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(Laugher)

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And it usually does the trick.

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Why?

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Well, our native language
is totally entwined with

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our personality, with our identity.

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Our whole personal history
is deeply rooted,

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it's soaked in our mother tongue.

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There are so many memories and feelings
connected to words, expressions,

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even to the grammar
that we have grown up with.

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So, If you learn
another person's language,

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you show that you are genuinely interested

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in their life. in their personality.

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What mother-in-law wouldn't be flattered?

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When you hear your own language
you feel connected.

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When you're traveling,

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and you've been speaking
a foreign language for days or weeks,

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the moment you board a plane

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where cabin crew greets you
in your own language,

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you know you're going home.

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If mother tongues had fragrances,

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I think they would smell of cookies,

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and of comforting chicken soup,

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and of granny's cologne –

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maybe even a little bit of mothballs.

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This may very well be the reason
why constructed languages,

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like Esperanto, have never caught on
as broadly as could have been expected.

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However cleverly designed,

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and simple, easy to learn,

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no country has ever adopted
an artificial language as their own.

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Nor as a foreign language
to be taught systematically

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on a large scale
over a longer period of time,

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though it has been tried.

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But somehow, despite the difficulties
with natural languages –

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like frustrating irregularities,

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the discrepancy between
spelling and pronunciation,

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sometimes, absurd complexity
of the grammar –

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but despite all that,

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we prefer to learn languages
that have grown organically with people.

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Constructed languages speak to the head.

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Natural languages smell of cookies.

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To Nelson Mandela, learning Afrikaans
was all about "knowing your enemy".

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He said, "You have to know
their language, and their passions,

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and hopes, and fears,
if you want to defeat them."

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He did. It worked.

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But it's not all about enemies
all the time, is it?

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This applies to
all kinds of human relationships.

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And I'll be the last person to claim
that mothers-in-law are enemies –

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per definition.

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Some seven or eight years ago,

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I was driving through Poland
with my family.

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And the shops were about to close,
and we needed to buy food.

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Finally, we saw a supermarket
on the other side of the street.

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The only way to get there in time
was by making a U-turn.

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So that's what I did.

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That was probably dangerous.

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It was definitely illegal.

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On the car park, before I even
had a chance to switch off the engine –

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– I heard a knock-knock.

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So I buzzed down the window,
and two pairs of eyes appeared.

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Each pair of eyes was attached
to a policeman.

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Now, I cannot claim
any level of real fluency in Polish

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at the best of times,

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but I used to be able to keep
a simple conversation going.

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But in that setting, though,
with a guilty conscience,

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eye in eye with two men
of the law, in uniform,

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every sensible Polish word I had
ever known just drained out of me.

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Yet, I didn't consider for a moment,

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trying to deal with
this situation in English.

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English would most probably
have given me the linguistic advantage,

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but that might have made
the policemen uncomfortable.

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So, I was determined to stick to Polish.

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How?

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That tiny Polish corner
of my brain had just gone blank

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except for one thing.

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There was one thing
that I had repeated so often

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that I could have recited it in my sleep.

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It was a children's poem,

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about a sick frog.

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(Laughter)

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That's what I had.

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I know it was a bizarre thing
to do, but I blurted out:

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(Polish) So-called a frog felt weak

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so she went to a doc
and said, "I feel sick."

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The doctor puts his glasses on
because he was rather old."

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I glanced at the policemen.

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And they were like staring at me.

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(Laughter)

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I seem to recall that one of them
like scratched his head.

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And then they smiled.

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They smiled.

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And that, in turn, put me at ease,

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well, enough so that a few
more relevant words

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could come tumbling back into my head,

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I could stammer
a few half sentences like,

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"Very sorry, needed food,
will never do it again."

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They let me off the hook.

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As I ran into the shop, they called, 
(Polish) “Szczęśliwej podróży!"

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"Have a nice trip!"

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It is not my intention
to incite you to learn languages

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so that you can travel around the world,
break laws, and get away with it.

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But this little episode illustrates
how a few words,

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however simple or silly, just a few words,

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can go straight to the heart and melt it.

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By the way, there was
an alternative to the sick frog.

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There was one thing
I knew equally well:

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a drinking song.

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(Laughter)

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That might not have earned me a smile

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probably a trip
to the local police station

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for a blood test.

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You don't need to learn many languages,

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and you don't need
to learn them thoroughly.

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A little can go a long way.

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Ten words to the heart
can have a bigger impact

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than a thousand words to the head.

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You can choose to always use
English and meet in the middle.

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But you can also choose to be
the person to cross that middle line

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and meet your new acquaintance,
or your opponent, whoever it is,

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meet them on their own territory.

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Speaking the other's language
does not make you weak,

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it proves you strong.

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It's the person who has the courage,
and makes the effort to cross lines

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that wins in the end.

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Don't be afraid to make mistakes.
Mistakes make you human.

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And in this case, there's a bonus:

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If you make a mistake out there,

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you give the others an opportunity
to help you, to come and meet you.

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And in this way, the connection
you have just initiated will be stronger.

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So, do you want
to make yourself understood

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or do you want to connect?

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Let's all continue to learn
and to use English.

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So that we can interact with mixed
audiences, like we're doing here at TEDx.

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English is a powerful tool
for sharing knowledge,

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for international conventions
on global problems, above all.

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English is the highway
to 365 million hearts.

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To 365 million people,
the English language smells of cookies.

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But why stop there?

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Why not make the extra effort

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and learn at least
one other foreign language?

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There are many flavors
of cookies out there.

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Let's go and taste a new one.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)