Alan Furst Quotes

Learning a foreign language, and the culture that goes with it, is one of the most useful things we can do to broaden the empathy and imaginative sympathy and cultural outlook of children.

I think that young Australians ought to be taking language education much more seriously. I mean, you know, every day I'm meeting people with expertise, ability and talent in fields where I want to learn so much more; science, for example.

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

When you go out of your country and meet people, you get a wider perspective.

I learned to say 'hello' in German, French, Spanish, Dutch, Chinese, Indonesian, and Italian - languages of the countries I've visited.

Icelanders love to speak English. Their English is a joy to hear because of how colloquial and idiomatic it is, but they appreciate your efforts with Icelandic.

I've been influenced by my travels across India and the globe.

You have to have a little humility if you're Danish because you're never going to be able to travel outside the country unless you can speak another language.

It's like saying French shouldn't be taught because you don't understand it because it's new. Shakespeare is just like learning a new, exciting language.

Personally, I have been enriched by my experiences in Egypt and America, and feel fortunate to have been endowed with a true passion for knowledge.

The world does not look to us in the Arab world out of a healthy desire for knowledge.

One of the things you learn when you go overseas is how much a lot of the countries overseas really just like to enjoy life.

Parents should conduct their arguments in quiet, respectful tones, but in a foreign language. You'd be surprised what an inducement that is to the education of children.

I do that in whatever language of the country I'm in, because the audience appreciate it.

Prior to 'Snowpiercer,' I've done many other international project that forced me to be in an environment where I had to converse in English.

My wife and I have spent most of our lives in France, and we are both pretty well bilingual, my wife more purely than I, since as a little girl she went to school in French Switzerland.

I don't know whether machine translation will eventually get good enough to allow us to browse people's websites in different languages so you can see how they live in different countries.

I hope the English-speaking world can see that I'm not only an Israeli actress.

A different language is a different vision of life.

Americans in particular are myopic. They're not traveling as much. When you were a college student, the next thing you would do on graduation was to take a year off and travel. That's what I did. I went to Indonesia.

One of the aims of higher education is to broaden perspectives, and what better way than by a home stay in a really different country, like Bangladesh or Senegal? Time abroad also leaves one more aware of the complex prism of suspicion through which the United States is often viewed.

Seriously, some Americans just shouldn't leave the country.

I don't ever want to stop learning. And I really want to learn French fluently. It would be great to go and live in France.

I always try to learn a few words from a new language wherever I go.

When you travel the world, you have to watch and you have to listen. We're not going to come in to Ireland without an understanding that there's a history that's very sensitive.