Russell Freedman Quotes

My children speak very good Chinese, and they translate for our American friends.

I was six or seven and an interpreter.

Only with maturity did I come to appreciate my own Chinese roots: not just the food and the ancient history, but also the philosophy of child-rearing and the respect for education and knowledge.

I have two sons in America, and all they care about in Chinese culture is Jackie Chan and Jet Li.

On the day of the show, I sit down with someone that speaks very good English and someone who speaks the local language very well and work out what I'm going to say.

Whenever I come across an Arabic word mired in English text, I am momentarily shocked out of the narrative.

Translation is an interestingly different way to be involved both with poetry and with the language that I've found myself living in much of the time. I think the two feed each other.

My major in college was Chinese Studies. It was very intentional.

Chinese readers are buying books in translation, particularly non-fiction about China, in large numbers.

I thought that subtitles are boring because they're there generally to serve us with information to make you understand what people are saying in a different language.

Travel provided many interesting experiences, but perhaps the most useful lesson I learned was that I really had no proficiency for learning the thousands of characters of the written Chinese language.

China is, indeed, in so many ways, not like the West. It is not even primarily a nation state but a civilisation state. Whereas the West has primarily been shaped by its experience of nation, China has been moulded by its sense of civilisation.

I always read the translator's draft all the way through - a very laborious business.

The question is how to bring a work of imagination out of one language that was just as taken-for-granted by the persons who used it as our language is by ourselves. Nothing strange about it.

I need to talk about Chinese culture. We have deep, strong philosophy and culture. I want to share some information, tell the worldwide audience.

I could never see a book written in a foreign language without the most ardent desire to read it.

The Japanese version comes with a translation, but that's different from the lyrics, so people could look things up and find a translation of their own if they're interested.

I've been interested in China ever since I was a kid. When I was a kid, I grew up in San Francisco about a mile from China Beach.

For the benefit of those who are not bilingual, I will now continue in English.

China is a sea that salts all the waters that flow into it.

I have a deep love for the Chinese people.

I feel it is unnatural and immoral to try to teach science to children in a foreign language They will know facts, but they will miss the spirit.

I actually speak Spanish fluently.

I can speak Cantonese, but I can't speak about fashion - I learnt all my fashion in Europe, so often, during interviews in Chinese I just don't know the right word - it can be very hard to explain things.

I had to struggle with the language. I can understand Hindi now, but I still can't communicate. And things get lost in translation; I feel rejected all the time.