Michael Erard Quotes

My parents have a brilliant ear for languages and mimicry and accents, which I think I've inherited - that I can listen to things and pick them up.

I have an impeccable memory, and I can learn dialogues in any language in 20 minutes, including Telugu and Malayalam.

A lot of people who live in Denmark will understand Danish but not necessarily speak it.

In our generation, everybody told us that it's really important and it's nice to be able to speak a lot of languages. It's an art, too. It really impresses me, people who speak, like, seven languages. I admire them so much, so I began with English, and then Spanish and maybe Portuguese.

I have a good ear for languages.

I actually speak fluent English and Spanish and... I dabble in a couple of languages, but I'm not fluent in German, Russian and Arabic.

I speak Hebrew excellently.

I've got some gift for languages. You follow your gift. But Latin's not easy.

I wish I was not such a very bad hand at languages. That is one thing I cannot do, that and ride.

I don't know Arabic. I can't speak or write it.

I learned by watching my favorite shows. I would just rewind and say the words back, until they sounded right to me. I never studied the American accent, in terms of getting a teacher or taking phonetics classes. I've always been a good mimic. It really wasn't that hard for me.

I learned English, my sixth language at this point, quite quickly.

I speak fluent Kosovan.

I think we should have a President who is fluent in at least one language.

I have a good memory for words, and when I come upon a word I don't know, I remember it, or try to - it's almost like a tic. I also just have a good feeling for how words are made and formed in English and the etymologies that give you prefixes and suffixes.

I'm not a bad mimic, and I can pick up speech cadences that I would not pick up if I didn't hit the road.

Fluency in even one other language would be fantastic.

I would write down the lyrics to 'C.R.E.A.M.' in Korean - not translating it, but phonetically writing out each word. I didn't know what they were saying, so I would just write everything down as I heard it. I would recite it and imitate it like that. That's how I started to write my own raps.

My Hindi is OK. I think I am better with Tamil. I remember the Tamil words.

Besides Hindi and English, I can speak in Maithli, my native language, and in Bangla and Nepalese too. But I can just about make a smattering at Marathi.

Everyone learns how to talk by doing an impression of their parents. I'm one of many people who has a highly developed ability to do that.

I can read and write in Hindi.

I can speak a bit of German.

I do speak a bit of Bengali.

It took me just a couple of months to pick up Telugu.