David Crystal Quotes

I grew up speaking both languages, and for me that's really important.

It is asked of me that I give my first speech in this house in a language [English] other than my mother tongue [French.] …. Even if I knew English as intimately as I knew French, I would still give my first speech in the language of my French Canadian compatriots

Latinos are learning English. That doesn't mean that they should sacrifice their original language or that they should give up this in-betweeness that is Spanglish.

A young man who is here speaks the Panis language, and in many other respects, is preferable.

I think in my mother tongue. That's Hindi.

When I took part in European leaders summits, it was sometimes unpleasant for me to hear Romanian, Polish, Portuguese, and Italian friends speak English, although I admit that on an informal basis, first contacts can be made in this language. Nevertheless, I will defend everywhere the use of the French language.

Hindi is my mother tongue. Even though I do not get to use it as often, it's still a part of me.

People who grow up with two or more languages understand that each can express certain aspects of reality better than the other.

Happily, financial capitalism and free trade have not done away with national languages and literatures, as Marx rather too blithely hoped.

Most of my family doesn't speak English. It's so important for the baby. He's going to know all his American roots, but he also needs to know about his Brazilian side.

Even though I grew up in America, at home we spoke mostly Chinese, because my mom is from Taiwan.

Neither of my parents had English as a first language.

My mother tongue is Telugu. I was born and brought up in Tamil Nadu.

Within a language, you have your roots, your culture, and I think and dream in Bassa. We have 260 languages in Cameroon, but the official ones are French and English.

I belong to a specific category of writers, those who speak and write in a language different from that of their parents.

I want to keep talking about my people and my country in my own language.

It is my great good luck the words I use are English words, which means I live in a very old nation of open borders; a rich, deep, multi-layered, promiscuous universe, infused with Latin, German, French, Greek, Arabic and countless other tongues.

I grew up, as many Indians do, in an archipelago of tongues. My maternal grandfather, who was a surgeon in the city of Madras, was fluent in at least four languages and used each of them daily.

I'm Canadian, but no, I don't speak French.

I had the luck that my parents educated me in three languages. With my mother I spoke Dutch, with my father Italian, and in the school I learned German. But my host language is Italian.

I don't feel guilty about expressing myself in French; nor do I feel that I am continuing the work of the colonizers.

He who does not love his own language is worse than an animal and smelly fish.

I learned Spanish at home and, since half my family doesn't speak English, it's my first language.

Without culture, and the relative freedom it implies, society, even when perfect, is but a jungle. This is why any authentic creation is a gift to the future.

I grew up having two different perspectives - one in English, one in Spanish. Two different cultures, very different - but I think that, to me, it's one. I'm just as American as I feel Latin.