This paper forms part of a wider research project which examines how the Kantian concept of "Mundigkeit" or "maturity" may be represented in subjective accounts of language learning, known as "language learner narratives". It is shown that the metaphors used in these texts frequently do not so much represent congenial relations of hospitality between native and non-native speakers as unequal power relations, in which the non-native speaker feels "imprisoned" or "infantilised". The paper also considers some of the other metaphors common to such texts, which may represent universal conceptualisations of language learning experiences. (Contains 16 notes.)