Jacky Ido Quotes

My music was about travelling a lot and connecting with other people, and English is the voice of travelling.

In English, I'm a little bit limited. I speak English as a second language, and that's a little limitation that I have to work around and I have to use it to my favor. So, yes, that's why I end up wanting to do more things in Latin America.

My parents made it a point that, although I was born and raised in New York City, I needed to speak Spanish because they wanted me to be able to communicate with my elders when I went to Santo Domingo or when my family came to visit from Cuba.

It's fascinating when you're from another place, but you don't speak the language.

I really love Anglo music, and the language as well. Like, my kids, they - born here, Miami. So I just - a little bit more familiar with the language.

My first audition happened to be for 'Kindergarten Cop,' and I took that role. I was only starting to learn English at that point. Spanish is my first language, so they made me a speaking character in the movie. I didn't really know I was shooting a movie. I was just having a lot of fun with 30 kids my own age.

I love commuting between languages just like I love commuting between cultures and cities.

Everything has changed. When I was at school and was told I had better learn English, I said: What for? The English are a hell of a long way away!

I know two L.A.s. Half my life was around the house my folks had for 46 years at 3rd and Norton. The other half was in Boyle Heights on the Eastside, working with gang members.

I feel that as the world becomes more and more multicultural, it's a good tool to be able to speak another language.

When I first came to this country, I didn't know how to speak English.

Reading makes immigrants of us all. It takes us away from home, but more important, it finds homes for us everywhere.

I have no idea what it would be like to be just one thing and speak one language. I feel enormously privileged to travel and be able to mingle and speak to people that, had I only known English, I wouldn't have been able to meet.

We spoke French at home and I didn't know any English until I went to school. My mother was French and met my father when he visited France as a student on a teaching placement.

I want my words to survive translation.

The next thing that happened to me was that I, we, were living in Paris where I then grew up.

My parents are both Belgian-born, and so am I, actually. I'm bilingual, so I had experience with French.

I was the first person to come into New York with a Latin American point of view which was also very much influenced by political happenings in Latin America.

A common language is a first step towards communication across cultural boundaries.

All my mom's side speaks Spanish. I speak to my grandparents in Spanish. Slowly. And they're patient with me! But I do speak with them in Spanish and carry on conversations with them.

They say that immigrants don’t speak English. So? Who cares. Even the Irish learned English after a while.

Globalization has brought a proliferation of such environments, so that even monolinguals must increasingly learn to live and act multilingually.

I meet people overseas that know five languages - that the only language I'm comfortable in is English.

I don't speak English or French, but that doesn't mean anything.

I learned Punjabi before I learned English in spite of the fact that I was born in Canada.