Eliot Sumner Quotes

My French is terrible, and my Spanish is even worse. I find Spanish really difficult. They speak so quickly, whereas in German, it's very clear what they're saying. It's easier to repeat.

Russian is such a tough and complex language that I am happy enough to understand everything and read most things pretty well, but, without constant practice, my speech is not what I wish it was, and I would sooner write in crayon than write a letter in Russian.

I have been challenged with the fictional languages I have to learn. I wasn't terrible at languages at school - I got an A in French, so I did well enough - but I didn't enjoy them. I'm not even sure if that plays into how well you learn a fictional language!

I would love to learn other languages, maybe French? My uncle speaks German so maybe also German? Chinese seems to be too difficult.

Valyrian is oddly easier than Dothraki. It's got a more lyrical flow to it that feels more familiar to the way I speak. That makes it slightly easier.

For me, at least, much of the German I see and hear sounds stranger than Swedish, a language of which I unfortunately understand very little.

Italian was my first foreign language. I speak it better than English.

I speak some French, Spanish, a little German and Gaelic.

I'm terrible at languages. I'm trying to learn Spanish. I tried to learn French as a kid.

Telugu is a lot like Kannada, so I don't have a problem with Telugu. But Tamil is very difficult to learn, man.

Hindi is far easier a language to pick up than Tamil.

It took me a while to grasp Kannada and Telugu.

Initially, picking up the Dravadian language was a bit tough act.

The Australian language is easier to learn than boat talk. It has a vocabulary of about six words.

My philological studies have satisfied me that a gifted person ought to learn English (barring spelling and pronouncing) in thirty hours, French in thirty days, and German in thirty years. It seems manifest, then, that the latter tongue ought to be trimmed down and repaired. If it is to remain as it is, it ought to be gently and reverently set aside among the dead languages, for only the dead have time to learn it.

It's very difficult to say anything in Icelandic. I can say "takk," which means "thank you." That's about all I learned.

I have learnt to appreciate the clarity of English language.

Oh, God, I don't know what's more difficult, life or the English language.

In Spanish it is very difficult to make things flow, because words are over-long. But in English, you have light words.

Is it O.K. that I speak in English? The only thing I know in Dutch is how to order pot.

Russian is a very deceptive language, because it looks easy at first: it's like setting out for a gentle stroll and realizing that you've committed yourself to scaling Himalayan peaks.

I went back to China and did a movie in Mandarin, and I don't speak Mandarin, so I learned it phonetically. Now, when I'm on set and somebody gives me English lines, I'm like, "Are you kidding? What's happening? This is amazing!"

It is not like studying German, where you mull along, in a groping, uncertain way, for thirty years; and at last, just as you think you've got it, they spring the subjunctive on you, and there you are. No- and I see now plainly enough, that the great pity about the German language is, that you can't fall off it and hurt yourself. There is nothing like that feature to make you attend strictly to business.

I can read more languages than I speak! I speak French and Italian - not very well, alas, but I can get by. I read German and Spanish. I can read Latin (I did a lot of Latin at school.) I'm afraid I do not speak any African languages, although I can understand a little bit of the Zulu-related languages, but only a tiny bit.

So what's the point of using words nobody else knows or can say comfortably? I just don't understand that.