Quotes About Multilingualism

One can, of course, speak several languages. There are speakers who are competent in more than one language. Some even write several languages at a time (prostheses, grafts, translation, transposition) . But do they not always do it with a view to an absolute idiom? and in the promise of a still unheard-of language? of a sole poem previously inaudible?

There is a slam-dunk case for extending foreign language teaching to children aged five. Just as some people have taken a perverse pride in not understanding mathematics, so we have taken a perverse pride in the fact that we do not speak foreign languages, and we just need to speak louder in English.

The man who does not know other languages, unless he is a man of genius, necessarily has deficiencies in his ideas.

A man who is ignorant of foreign languages is also ignorant of his own language.

I have every reason to believe that an individual man or woman fluent in several tongues seduces, possesses, remembers differently according to his or her use of the relevant language.

I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. It took seven languages to make me; it would be nice if I could have spoken just one.

It took seven languages to make me; it would have been nice if I could have spoken just one. But I couldn't, so he leaned down and kissed me.

My mind speaks English, my heart speaks Russian, and my ear prefers French.

The Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, king of Spain, archduke of Austria, and master of several European tongues, professed to speaking "Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men, and German to my horse.

The idea of Homo monolinguis - one-languaged man - the idea of children having to grow into one system before we confuse them with another mental system, is an idea with which, unfortunately, many people are brought up now.

Every child needs to become literate in one or more languages, and every child should become comfortable in the major scholarly disciplines - historical, scientific, mathematical, and artistic-humanistic thinking. Beyond that, I am not in favour of a uniform system. I think there should be some choices.

I'm a professor of comparative literature, among other things, so I'm able to read in a couple of other languages, and I understand that not everyone is, not everyone can, although it is quite stunning how many people do read Spanish in the United States, but moving between languages is also extremely helpful.

The first question is always, 'We loved him on 'Dancing with the Stars,' we loved him in the Olympics, but can he speak English?' Yes I speak English. Yes, I can.

Apparently, there are as many as 880 spoken languages in India, out of which 31 languages have been given an official status. To hear, decode, process, understand, speak, wait for the next person to decode your message, process, understand and then reply is to have a conversation.

The vocabularies in the world add up, they do not overlap. Translation is something else.

I have a weird obsession with people who can speak multiple languages. I'd love to be able to do that.

Yiddish is the Robin Hood of languages. It steals from the linguistically rich to give to the fledgling poor. It shows not the slightest hesitation in taking in house-guests—to whom it gives free room and board regardless of genealogy, faith, or exoticism. A memorable remark by a journalist, Charles Rappaport, runs: "I speak ten languages—all of them in Yiddish.

I have acted in all four film industries in the South. I speak all four languages because of my upbringing in various cities.

Most educated Indians are bilingual. Amongst the urban elite though, there is a disdain for regional languages. That's unfortunate.

I speak Urdu quite a lot, too, and I read a lot of Persian.

Since my schooldays, I've read the translations of Bengali writers. I'm Punjabi, but I read a lot of Bengali and Urdu literature.

Speaking in Irish he explained that while he would like to deliver his speech in Irish he did not have enough command of the tongue to express himself properly and therefore he was going to continue in English. However when he spoke in English it was to begin by saying: 'Some of the members do not know Irish, I think, and consequently what I shall say will be in English.

My opinion is that more languages you speak, better it is, but when you come to America, you speak English.

She does speak Bengali, doesn't she? Morrow had asked over the phone. Sure, I'd said. Actually, Amrita spoke Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, and a little Punjabi as well as German, Russian, and English, but not Bengali.