Quotes About Multilingualism

I can speak passable Mandarin. I will not be translating at the U.N. anytime soon.

Henry spoke to Dog. "Hinananjin." Dog went over and sat beside him. It had already been established that the furry brute was conversant in Cheyenne, Shoshone, Arapaho, Crow, and Lakota; English was the language he chose to sometimes ignore.

But my dad had argued that he didn't know the language of cars. To him, everything had its own language—the language of breakfast, the language of business, the language of politics, and on and on. In Spanish he knew all the languages, but for as long as he'd been speaking English, he believed he knew it only in certain realms.

Lucian doesn't seem to have mastered the English language but is fast forgetting all his German; this seems to be quite a good argument against his taking up French.

Just learning to think in another language allows you to see your own culture in a better viewpoint.

English is not my language.

I was very adept at acquiring languages.

I've been working in three-four languages. I'm happy to do it.

I wish I knew more languages.

I like all languages equally.

I learnt French in school and can already speak English.

Move beyond the educated elite, and the great majority in most countries outside Europe don't speak English.

It was interesting to see the change that came over Boris when he was speaking another language—a sort of livening, or alertness, a sense of a different and more efficient person occupying his body.

It is a noteworthy feature of 20C culture that for the first time in over a thousand years its educated class is not expected to be at least bilingual.

There aren't a lot of humans who speak more than one dialect of Forshan. I know all four of the major ones.' 'Impressive,' Duvall Said. 'I'm good with my tongue,' Dahl said. 'Now who's being forward?' Duvall asked.

Shall I tell you a joke about languages? Abulfaz asked. A joke. Yes, okay. What do you call a Russian who speaks four languages? I don't know. A Zionist. What about a Russian who speaks three languages? I don't know. A spy. And two? ... No? A nationalist. And only one? ... An inter-nationalist.

A mis traductores, que han tenido la paciencia y el arte de reconstruir el habla y los silencios de mis montevideanos en más de veinte lenguas. (La borra del café)

Muchos romanos ricos hablaban algo de griego, mejor que el latín que podían saber los teanos, pero no siempre demasiado bien. Se sabía que los griegos de verdad se burlaban despiadadamente del terrible acento romano.

Eu já me estou a desmulatar. (...) Eu estou é a ficar branco de língua, deve ser porque só falo português....

Every American child should grow up knowing a second language, preferably English.

It has been said ever since that the Brankoviches of Erdély count in Tzintzar, lie in Walachian, are silent in Greek, sing hymns in Russian, are cleverest in Turkish and speak their mother tongue --Serbian-- only when they intend to kill.

When Naasir was yet a child, Dmitri had told him he must learn as many languages as possible, so no one could keep secrets from him. This wasn't the first time that advice had held Naasir in good stead.

le bilinguisme est une stimulation intellectuelle de tous les instants.

How does the brain wire words? Why do the Swiss manage three languages, while most Americans have trouble with one?