English is an interesting language. There are all sorts of harmless-sounding expressions that are sexual references or racial slurs. When Paul was 13, an American kid asked him why he left Russia, and Paul said that it's because “in Russia, the Jewish
people do not feel themselves at home.” I matched him when I was giving a speech to my classmates at St. Stephen's and said that “we must reach our peak.”

Probably the funniest situation on this matter was when a long-time Russian immigrant was talking to my father. In Russian, the word for “condom” is “preservativ.” She told him that yogurt was made with “preservativs.”

I was highly commended by some people on my command of the English language. They thought it hard to believe that such can be achieved by a non-native English speaker. In fact I posit that the non-native English speakers are likely to be better at
expressing themselves in English than are native English speakers. They've had to learn it consciously rather than unconsciously. And a person who has had to learn something consciously will have more insight into the matter than someone whose learning
has been unconscious.

There are implications for this in all sorts of other things than understanding the English language. A person who went from being a bad human being to being a good human being will have more insight into the subject than someone who's always been a good
human being. That is because he had to get from Point A to Point B; and a person who's had to get from Point A to Point B will understand what it takes to get to Point B than someone who's always been there.

I found it interesting that English was a completely illogical language, whereas languages such as Italian and Spanish were very logical. Meanwhile the English culture places a priority on reason, and the Italian and Spanish cultures do not.

Some people were telling me that the Russian language affords more room for poetry than the English language. I do not believe that to be the case. The people who believe such things are mostly people from Russia who understand Russian better than
English. I had no problem at all writing well-received poetry in English language. There is opportunity for expressing yourself in any language, if you are good enough at expressing.

One statement I've heard from Eastern religions is that spiritual truth is “unexpressible.” I likewise do not believe that to be the case. I believe that anything is expressible, and that the solution is to get good enough at expressing that you can
express things such as the Tao and things such as the will of God.

Sometimes having brain abnormalities can actually help in that regard. Dostoyevsky was an epileptic; and in epilepsy, the right brain and the left brain are in heightened contact with one another. He was able to verbally express all sorts of things that
others had trouble expressing; and the result was one of the most well-read authors of all time.

https://sites.google.com/site/ilyashambatbiography

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