How to brush up ideas.

These days Rakuten and Uniquro decided to make English their official language. The news provoked widespread discussion because those companies were very famous growing companies in Japan and many Japanese were not good at English.

Many Japanese have talked about merits and demerits of making English the official language.
I'd like to talk about a merit of learning English that I found.

Last week I had an English lesson, at the lesson we discussed about architecture. My teacher asked me, Which is better for you design the old type buildings like temples or new modern buildings. I instantly answered "new buildings" without giving a reason. After I tried to explain the reason.

It was not easy for me. Because I had never been asked a question like this. However finally I found the reason. While explaining it, I found an answer and a deeper and fundamental question what is design for me. (I will talk about this some other time.)

I was surprised that I found a new and important idea through this conversation. It was a rare case even if it in Japanese. In many cases good ideas come into my mind while I'm alone.
I think there are two reasons. One is the teacher. My teacher asked me with good questions. When I get stuck, she summed up my idea and added new questions to shift my reference.

The other reason is English. It is easy to understand to compare to Japanese.I know many Japanese words and phrases. I remember all words with some scenes, memory, related words. When I am thinking about something in Japanese, my thought is unconsciously influenced by phrases I know.

For example, I had a pet dog named Gin, it means silver in English. When I heard the word silver, I am reminded of my pet, so I like silver accessory and encourage silver medal athlete.

But I have only a few images or memories about English words.
It means that I am not good in English but at the same time I'm completely free from word images like Gin

If language is a tool to frame my idea, It is natural that the tool influences the idea. Different tools make different ideas. I think there are some possibilitied to reach different conclusions using different languages. People who can speak two languages, it means he or she has two ways to brush up ideas. This is the merit I found. What do you think about this ?