I love languages. Languages are my love. I love discovering new terms, listening to other languages, figuring out which language is spoken, and discussing languages. I also love teaching about the connection between education and language. I've had different success with my attempts to learn languages in Denmark, Namibia and Rwanda. It was always an exciting chance to get to know people from their own communities. That's why I am awed by Nelson Mandela's famous quote: "If you speak to a man using the language he can understand it will go to the top of his head." This quote has been used so many time. It's featured on a number of pages that are titled "Mandela in his own words" and has been utilized by well-known publishers and language schools, so it's not surprising to find it appearing in scholarly publications, books as well as high-school student presentations. It was used by an Harvard Graduate School of Education professor that I admire. It's an incredibly powerful quote and a great one from an admirable man.I find this quote to be so inspiring so much that I've thought of using it frequently when writing or teaching about language. Therefore, as I've learned in my training in research, I looked for the correct source. This is when the issue came up. The dilemma was born. But to no avail. The best I found was a reddit thread which pointed me to a 1996 book on the Peace Corps Story. The (mis)quote is utilized in the book's forward by Patricia Garamendi. It is the first time that I have seen the quote in writing as far as I've gathered.
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