Mastering several languages is not prove of any superior cognitive capacity, but it is a channel so that this 'speaker of other languages' can aquire awareness of other cultures and therefore have a different reading of the reality around himself, and so be more prepared for facing the challenges of a globalized world.

The more you try to learn a new language, the less time you have to think about other things of life?

It depends on the comfort-ability and fluency with the language using skills. Preferably mixing language delivery to suit with the participants is well accepted, In case of international audience English is best.

Linguistic determinism is the idea that language and its structures limit and determine human knowledge or thought, as well as thought processes such as categorization, memory, and perception. The term implies that people of different languages have different thought processes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_determinism

ARE OUR THOUGHTS  CONSTRAINED BY LANGUAGE? MIT story about the issue.

An excellent inteview!

"MISHLOVE: It's a pleasure to be with you. You know, I have to confess, I have always assumed that our thoughts are constrained by the limitations of the language that we use. For example, I'm very interested in consciousness, and it's always struck me that people who use languages like Sanskrit have a much richer texture in which to look at the various nuances of consciousness. I know that you take a different point of view, I think, about language.

PINKER: Yes, I don't think that we think in language, or think in words. I think we think in visual images, we think in auditory images, we think in abstract propositions about what is true about what. And I think that language is a way of communicating thoughts, of getting them out of one head and into another by making noise. I think that even if you look at language itself, you see that there's got to be something underlying the words themselves, because words can be ambiguous. So if you take one of those unintentionally ambiguous newspaper headlines, like "Stud Tires Out," which was in a New Hampshire newspaper when they banned stud tires, but most people give it a different interpretation, the fact that there can be two ideas underlying the word stud, for example, or underlying the word tires, shows that words and thoughts can't be the same thing..."

Dear @Nicholas, I am sure that you will learn as many languages as you wish, @George is right, it is about pleasure!

http://www.williamjames.com/transcripts/pinker1.htm

Any language whether our Mother tongue - regional language- national language- International language all may be a part of knowledge as we all know that Knowledge is power . their is no limit to the knowledge & in hyper bole language we may also say that the sky is the limit.

Language cannot be restricted to thoughts .Knowledge of any language brings something new to our mind which can be a part of our thoughts .

This is my personal opinion 

As a teacher of mathematics at a bilingual high school - Slovak pupils, scientific subjects taught in French language - I made a great personal discovery (you may agree or not):

Thinking operates independently of the language.

In mathematics, this was evident for me.

Objects and relations between them are treated deeper than where we are constructing formulations. Naturally, for the understanding and ability to express their own ideas, the level of the language is important. But not for thought. 

The language is a means of communication.

Dear Nicholas:

My view on this topic, which owes much to Piaget and Vygotsky, is as following:

a) Thought is more than language. It consists of mental operations that are accompanied by symbols (images, words, mathematical symbols, etc.) but are not reducible to a mere "representation". These operations are (neural / mental) actions.

b) Thought acquires a clear and definitive form when it is communicated (to others or to ourselves). 

Dear Nicholas,

Yes, according to me languages indeed limitations of thoughts. 

It is believed that -- In far remote past when humans just started making tools - the one who is expert in making tools (Stone tools) taught the other how to make one and they started verbal communication means attaching meanings to sounds (This concept of sounds with meaning is culture dependent-- Different cultures have different meaning to same sounds) . Humans are the one born completely dependent on their parents and have the longest childhood. this is an important stage when children learn languages specially their native ones. And every native langue has its own world and natives see the world through their language eye. For example in some tribal communities of south east Asia only have two colour terms (Dark and Light) and in almost every community of India has very complex kinship terminology. So the bottom line is that what we think depends on our culture and the culture express itself in language so language and culture becomes the domain of our thoughts. 

Kind Regards,

Bahadur Singh

Yes, different languages promote different values and thoughts.

All languages are a vehicle of communication and as such they are its limit.

Language and thought are always correlated but mentalese [cognitive understanding, thought patterns] comes first, language comes second. 

Our thought patterns and complexity will intensify with the growing number of languages but thoughts can never come where there is no capacity for them [in our brains...]

There are many factors contributing to the language-thought relationship such as quality learning in childhood, multicultural environments, daily efforts of learning incl. intensity and diversity of learning resources but the most important for me is our genetic make-up [what we are programmed for]. I have seen thousands of people struggling learning languages despite efforts and hours of learning and those talented ones who achieve a lot with little or no efforts at all simply because this is their calling.

Certainly different languages promote distinct values but they do not control them, meaning that just because there is no word for ''light green'' in your language, this does not stop you from seeing and appreciating the colour nuance.

The answer laid in to "root word-alphabet" development of language, how ever the language is a medium to represent the events in sense able patterns for mind understanding and usually consider relative to observer & observation but in real relevancy with events can enhance the ability of word and languages.

 Dear Mr. Jeneski,

I'm not a fan of Noam Chomsky, but your question in a way has brought his name to my mind. As far as I can understand his views, there is a difference between language itself and the capacity to use language. Language is a cognitive structure that we all have, but we may not be capable of using it--for some reasons. So this may be why some limitations occur in expressing our thoughts.    

He also saw that language is part of our thinking process. This may be why once we learn one language, we spontaneously develop the frame of reference that such language brings. And we become so fossilized in this familiar frame of reference that adopting new ways of thinking becomes difficult; this may explain why learning new languages in adulthood is so exhausting.   

He also suggested that language learning is genetic, so I guess this means it's a biological reason why some people can learn languages better than others. 

Well, just from one perspective; hope it's relevant.

Sincerely,

Cameen

I see a dialectic, as usual. There are limitations to transference of thoughts, obviously for every instance a limitation arises from incompatibilities between languages or the way they are used.

But therein lies the ingenuity of what we do to bridge those gaps, which still in volves language, even if reduced to non verbal signalling or intuitive/improvised/dialogic vocalisations.

Maybe i'll suggest a dialogic between languages and patterns. Problematic limitations of languages can be mitigated or gaps filled with patterning expressions to completely and mutually improvise solutions- which become (even if finite) language :)

And I guess what i'm saying is that yes languages limit thought but they create it anew as well, and in the dialectic struggle I think perpetual motions of this ensure whatever the limit is it is over come by someone somewhere :) Temporal and spatial factors of course mean you may be dead by the time you having the same problem of thought limitation as another, is solved by them, or you but not everyone at once... or everyone ever becoming aware of the solution.  :)

Wow I've given my answer but can keep going with caveats forever now :P The main part I intend is the answer :D

Language commonly stresses only one side of any interaction.

---Gregory Bateson

Learning another language is not only learning different words for the same things, but learning another way to think about things.

--- Flora Lewis

Languages break boundaries and make different cultures closer! There is no absolute knowledge of a certain language, even native. As dear @Martina has stated, different languages communication certainly open new worlds of thinking. 

Sometimes, cultural meaning has been lost in translation. When book/article was translated from native language A to foreign language B, it is almost impossible to go backwards in translation, from language B to language A, as you will never get the original.

Further more, being good in some language does not necessary suppose that you do understand the culture. There are many issues that have been raised by this very fine question.

These very fine answers to my question have given me great material for morning reading, insight and reflection. I suppose, I've come to conclude now, that the only true matter, is that friendship and understanding are limited by language (among other things). The number of friends you have is, in many ways, constrained by the number of languages you speak.

It requires a lot of practice, one such is  prefacing the writing by talking through their thoughts. Writing assignments should cover a range of types of writing: summarizing, justification, argument, opinion, and research

https://www.nea.org/assets/docs/15420_LongTermEngLangLearner_final_web_3-24-14.pdf

I would say that languages do not necessarily limit thought. Although for sure, some concepts are easier to express in one language than in another. So perhaps, languages might sometimes be a limitation in how one might articulate a thought.

Think of humor. There is no question that some jokes are hilarious in one language, but fall flat in another. There. That's proof enough for me!

It depends on if you allow yourself to develop your language to include another form of relating things and sending (not just "packing" meanings into words) messages, and adding words, or not, and how easily that language will adopt itself to additional methods and words? Which in a sense you can get somebody's mind as a language, then its capacity to learn new things and relating them in another ways (including new languages) would be its capacity.

Well well well, not really. Coin new words that may describe the unexpressed thoughts and the soul states. Living languages have ample room for that. See for example James Joyce' s 'ephiphany'. 

There is children's novel that I had the good fortune to teach when I first became a teacher that applies perfectly to this subject. If you want to have a few enjoyable hours of reading purchase or take out from your local library. Nick Allen learns how language is developed and with his active imagination sets off on an unexpected journey after he renames his pen as a 'frindle.' The ensuing story is about the friction that occurs between the 'establishment/society' and his decision to develop this new word - language.

I have occasionally thought that I would like to teach as part of a high school writing course as it provides an easily accessible approach to the philosophy of language development.

Variables introduced in the novel and accurate to the development of language:

culture,

education,

religion,

geography,

health,

exposure to other cultures,

nutrition etc.

https://www.amazon.ca/Frindle-Andrew-Clements/dp/0689818769

I remember reading 'Frindle' many years ago, sometime in my elementary years!  So glad to have heard the reference, as I had nearly forgotten the title entirely.  Certainly a novel that can be read on many levels.

a somewhat equivalent question would be 'Is foreign tongue the only path to a 'new' revelation? '... yes? no? perhaps?

I believe it's even possible to learn at least 70 languages within our lifetime if we properly harness the bio-electrical potential of our human minds and DNA. Obviously, our boundless ability to think is a sign of the possibility to assimilate and express as many languages to communicate the limitless thought. I love your desire to learn as many languages possible, and I'm taking a queue from you.

"Language does not shape our view of the world. It is culture, rather than language, the one that affects your thinking.

Language is a reflection of thought, not the other way round..."

https://www.quora.com/Linguistic-Relativity-Does-language-constrain-thought

Yes,language is essential for effective communication with people around the globe.

Thought is language, surely. Not just simply expression.

Good question and informative answers.

language is the means of thought manifestation. we can think without expressing it. language can enable us to express our views differently. different languages have the potential to express our beliefs and thoughts. why limitation?