Language Learning as Spiritual Practice?

I was thinking for quite some time about the connection between language learning (particularly Mandarin, in my case) and spirituality. Is there a connection between spirituality and the process of learning a language? I believe that there are parallel elements which I would like to describe in terms of sense of discovery, humility, and seeing language as a layered, conditioned process. Many of these processes could parallel those which are found in traditional sitting meditation practices.
     Learning a new language (particularly as an adult) can yield interesting discoveries about one's mental processes. When I was a child, I had picked up language without really reflecting too much on how I learned it. However, as an adult, I have to admit that language is much more challenging for me to learn. I am starting to observe the process in which I start to recognize patterns in the language as well as the correspondence of sound, symbol and meaning. I do notice how the process of learning itself is conditioned, and it has given me a sense of wonder. Even though we talk about learning something as a process of 'absorbing' or ''soaking in" images and symbols, I find it hard to really understand what is happening when I pick up a new language, and start to realize how little a person can know about it. There is simply no way to fully grasp intellectually, and I am prone to regard language as more of a process of dedicating to one thing, even if there is no guarantee when it will yield a result. When I turn toward the process of language and examine how I at times shut out, surrender to it, become open to it, then zone out again--I can see how the way I learn language is a reflection of how the mind moves and often makes comparisons between one state of being and another. I start to observe also how my mind balks at unfamiliar sounds, only to find tricky ways to try to link them to other sounds with which I am familiar. In this sense, language is a holistic, often psychological process of making and sometimes not making meaning.
    Learning a new language is also a practice of humility, as I take in the fact that I am a beginner all over again. With a new language, it is hard to express what I know in the few words I have learned so far, and this can make it difficult to see the process as meaningful. I might sometimes stop to wonder, why am I learning this new language if it will take me so many years even to express a very simple statement? But by going back to a beginner's mode, I can appreciate the process for what it is and also accept the fact that I am able to return to a beginning mode and still thrive there. Perhaps it takes a lot of humility to realize that I need others to help me in learning the new language as well.
   Finally, learning a new language seems to suggest language as highly conditioned and contextual. Language learners quickly start to realize that there are many words to express the same thing, and this can create a frustrating sense of insufficient context. But by being sensitive to the nuances of a new language, one is picking up the conditioned and dependent arising of conceptual knowledge. This is also humbling because I start  to realize that there are no substantial solid objects in language, only symbolic pointers that never quite materialize into something fixed or singular.