Quotes About Language

They always say that. 'One was a woman. A mother.' It's such sexist crap, isn't it? A civilian is a civilian. The men were fathers. No one ever says that. 'A mother and a woman.' Like that makes it worse than a father and a man.

Wow." "You've got quite the vocabulary." "Never use a big word when a small one will suffice." "I could make a crack here, but I won't.

We believe the Senate language provides for federal subsidies for abortions. Plus there's a language in there where you have to pay one dollar per month, every enrollee, to pay for a fund for reproductive rights which include abortion. And that's totally against federal law. So we are saying take that out.

That helped me to keep in touch with myself and to keep in touch with this really quite extraordinary language and literature into which I had pushed a little way.

There is no aspect of our experience not molded in some way by metaphor's almost imperceptible touch.

When I was 11, I developed a new symptom - the worst one yet: I had to touch people before I talked to them. When I say 'had to,' that's exactly what I mean: if I didn't touch them first, I literally couldn't form the words.

The ethos of 50 years ago was that there was one kind of English that was right and everything else was wrong; one kind of access that was right and everything else was inferior. Then nobody touched language for two generations. When it gradually came back in, we didn't want to go back to what we did in the 1950s. There's a new kind of ethos now.

The first song I remember listening to in a language other than German was 'Goldfinger,' by Shirley Bassey. I was seven years old at the time and I had no idea which language it was or who the lady was singing it, but it touched me and I realised that it was the sort of music I liked.

I hate all that nonsense about not touching the colonialists' language. All that about it being corrupting and belonging to the master and making you Caliban. That thinking just denies you an outlet. You deny everything that is great from a language, whether it is Conrad or Shakespeare.

My name can't be that tough to pronounce!

I would guess that the decision to create a small special purpose language or use an existing general purpose language is one of the toughest decisions that anyone facing the need for a new language must make.

Trying to speak English, to learn what my teammates were saying, to learn what I wanted to say - basketball, you have to learn the way to play here and get used to your teammates, but for me the toughest part was communication.

When I bagged the role of Swadheenta Ramakrishnan, I was expected to learn Tamil. I think getting the accent was the toughest thing.

There's a lot of things that go on when you're on tour that cannot be controlled. I'm not even talking about myself, but of course there's sexual activity and drugs, fighting and language; it is certainly not a place to raise a family.

I think English is very important for tennis players. To be on the tour, it's much more easier if you speak English. So that's why I knew that I have to improve my English.

I once worked as a tour guide in the Costa del Sol of Spain.

I write in English. My first album came out in Italy, and I toured and did gigs.

I really wanted to speak English because I started touring the world, and I wanted to communicate with people directly.

I have had strangers come up to me and attempt to mimic the Chinese language in a derogatory manner. I have been told countless times that I speak 'good' English. I have been asked why someone like me would be interested in watching NFL football. On any given day, if I walk around with a camera, I will be mistaken for a tourist from Asia.

We were worried at first that our music and message wouldn't get across because we were singing in Japanese. But as we continued doing world tours, we realized and felt that music surpasses such things as language barriers, countries and race.

Through our concerts and tours, we learned that our music is capable of bringing people together, breaking borders and genres. To symbolize all of that, we decided to sing 'The One' in English.

The attitude of independence toward a constructed language which all national speakers must adopt is really a great advantage, because it tends to make man see himself as the master of language instead of its obedient servant.

I think one of the things that language poets are very involved with is getting away from conventional ideas of beauty, because those ideas contain a certain attitude toward women, certain attitudes toward sex, certain attitudes toward race, etc.

As the numbers of native-born Europeans begin to fall, with their anemic fertility rates, will the aging Europeans become more magnanimous toward destitute newcomers who do not speak the national language or assimilate into the national culture but consume its benefits?