Michael Chabon Quotes

I find words really hard.

You can learn Elvish, if you want. It's a language like Italian and English. You can learn to read it, you can learn to write it, and you can learn to speak it.

I hear what they're saying. I ask my English tutor, 'What is this word 'tinkerer?''

Don't write naughty words on the wall if you can't spell!

I would love with all my heart to be able to speak Greek, classical or modern or both. It is a beautiful language, both aurally and in terms of the intricacy of its construction. I took four semesters of Ancient Greek in college, but it's all rusted away now - and I never learned to speak it anyway.

I was also in love with the English language.

I studied German at school. I lived in Berlin for two years and had a German girlfriend for five years, so I don't find speaking German particularly difficult. Singing was slightly more difficult.

Japanese is a very difficult language.

When I need to know the meaning of a word, I look it up in a dictionary.

I would like to be a polyglot.

I don't like it when people don't know the difference between 'their', 'they're', 'there'.

I spend more time learning about Buddhism than English, which is why my English today is still bad.

I admire people who dare to take the language, English, and understand it and understand the melody.

I had been learning Italian for years. I always loved Latin, but Italian is a living language; I'm writing in it now as well as reading it. It is so interesting delving further into language.

You could imagine a language exactly like English except it doesn't have connectives like 'and' that allow you to make longer expressions. An infant learning truncated English would have no idea about this: They would just pick it up as they would standard English.

My very first school was a primary school in Surrey. I remember being taught to read by the traditional ABC, instead of look-say - that is, whole words at a time - which was fashionable when my children were at school.

I'm a massive fan of the dictionary.

I love Duolingo. I'm learning Spanish on it, and it's such a good way to pass time on flights or the bus.

I want to learn English.

I enjoyed learning French, and I enjoyed speaking French.

I learned Spanish in five or six months.

I actually tried to learn the dictionary at one point. It didn't work; I only got through the first few pages.

My Finnish is... I'm sounding like a three-year-old, at my best. It's super hard to really have a conversation, unfortunately. I know a lot of words, and so reading signs and stuff is becoming better, or going to a supermarket. But some specific words, of course, you don't get in your first year.

My English is good because I have a good ear.

English was my worst subject in school.