This paper presents the argument that second language learning is likely to involve new systems of cultural conceptualisations, that is, new cultural schemas, categories, metaphors, etc. By providing examples from Persian-speaking learners of English the chapter discusses how L2 learners may draw on the cultural conceptualisations that have originally been associated with their L1. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of such processes in second language learning for the debates surrounding the notion of English as an International Language.