Voltaire on Languages

Soundtrack: Rolling Stone's Sympathy for the Devil
"je ne suis pas comme une dame de la cour de Versailles, qui disait: c'est bien dommage que l'aventure de la tour de Babel ait produit la confusion des langues; sans cela tout le monde aurait toujours parle francais."

"I'm not like a lady of the court in Versailles, who said it was unfortunate that the adventure of the tower of Babel has produced confusion of languages; otherwise everybody would always speak French."
-Voltaire in 1767

Voltaire speaks to the French stereotype (reiterated in The Onion's Our Dumb World entry France: One Nation Above God, read it, its hilarious) that the French believe French is the one true language. Living in France, you definitely get that impression. In Japan, however, it is quite the opposite. A foreigner speaking Japanese is regarded as a novelty, even in Tokyo where there are entire districts dedicated to reproducing Americana, Britannia and the other _anias.
Even the simplest usage of the language impresses. I remember asking a concierge where the bathroom was (less than 5 words) and being complimented on my "beautiful Japanese."
Here are two more quotes, that open Charles DeWolfe's book on sounding intelligent in Japanese, that I believe are now quite out of date, but still amusing:
"The foreigner in Japan, so long as he is not thought to be permanent immigrant, is treated very politely, but always as an outsider. If he speaks Japanese at all, not matter how badly, he is praised for this remarkable accomplishment, as though we were an idiot child who suddenly showed a streak of intelligence." -Edwin O. Reischauer, 1977
and
"...Seeing that you speak Japanese, they will wag their heads and smile condescendingly, and admit to each other that you are really quite intelligent- much as we would do in the presence of a pig or an ape of somewhat unusual attainments." - Basil Hall Chamberlain, 1904