Anne Carson Quotes

In addition to the research, I enjoyed learning French and assimilating the culture of another country.

They say that immigrants don’t speak English. So? Who cares. Even the Irish learned English after a while.

Here in South Korea, I'm continuing to learn English in order to boost my prospects. When North Korean defectors try to get a job to stabilize their lives, their lack of English is a handicap. It was the same story while I was living in China. It took an enormous amount of time and enthusiasm to learn Chinese.

Do you know what a foreign accent is? It's a sign of bravery.

Whoever lives in whichever state should learn the culture of thestate and its language.

If a child from an Amazonian hunter-gatherer tribe comes to Boston, is raised in Boston, that child will be indistinguishable in language capacities from my children growing up here, and vice versa.

I went to an English school and was brought up in English. So I don't feel Czech.

I was born in a tiny little enclave of terrified Jewish refugees, less than half a million of them, with no clear perspective of a future - hopes, yes, but no clear perspective.

The Tamil audience has accepted me and given me a place to establish myself. I'm not taking things for granted... I've learnt the language.

I think I've started to dream in American a little bit.

Having arrived in London to seek refuge during the civil war in Sudan, where I was born, the thing I'm most proud of is having totally evolved. I came here not knowing how to speak English, but I went to school and learned; I adapted to this new culture.

Being involved in sports and having a very sport orientated family just helped the transition extremely well. I guess, in a way, your school colleagues saw you out and about, and you were part of the team you were getting into the Australian way, learning the language. The transition was extremely smooth.

I never actively went out and studied the American accent. I just came over here to the States, and it was something I was able to do. Like, I never struggled with it.

The fact that I didn't speak English I think was the most difficult thing for me.

My family settled in Cairo in 1980. I was nine. I missed Libya terribly, but I also took to Cairo. I perfected the accent. People assumed I was Egyptian.

I remember when I was a kid, as a refugee in Egypt, every day, there was always a hope that we'd get to leave tomorrow and we'd get to go somewhere.

As I grew, I began learning and speaking a word or two in Bengali and that increased my friends circle.

A common language doesn't soothe dry tongues and thirsty throats.

Learning another language is like becoming another person.

I certainly enjoyed having my sister, because when she came I felt a certain responsibility to help her fit in, and help her learn English. I wanted her to play with all my toys. I was actually, I think, really scary to her, because I had so much energy.

Because education is such a broad area, I chose to focus on language learning.

I think that foreignness is always with you. Indeed, I find California more foreign to me the longer I live here. In thirty years of living here on and off, it hasn't lost anything of foreignness. If anything, it has gained.

Usage is the best language teacher.

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

Sports just happen to be excellent for avoiding foreign-language stage fright and developing lasting friendships while still sounding like Tarzan.