Kumail Nanjiani Quotes

Nothing in my younger life could have told me I would have needed to know how to speak English.

I never found accents difficult, after learning languages.

I learned English at school, or at least that's how it started. Also, in Holland - as opposed to some other European countries - we don't dub anything, so as a kid growing up, always watching English and American movies in their original language really helped.

In Buenos Aires, I have a very close friend who speaks very good English, and she taught me. It was quite difficult because the muscles of your mouth are used to your language, and then when you want to speak another language, they don't go to the place they need to go to make the sound.

The accent got lost somewhere along the way. I'm a little embarrassed about it. When I arrived in LA I assumed I'd be able to put on the American accent. It proved difficult so I had six months working with a dialect coach and it's become a habit.

I speak French fluently, so that really helped.

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

When you become an American, they give you an injection so your accent changes.

When I arrived in L.A., I assumed I'd be able to put on the American accent. It proved difficult, so I had six months working with a dialect coach, and it's become a habit.

From one till seven, when we moved to England, I spoke only Portuguese. But I can't speak a word of it now.

I am trying to make my accent so it won't bother anyone, but I am not going to drive myself crazy trying to pretend I am an American girl when I am from Colombia.

My mom used to call me a parrot, because the way I spoke would change in every country we'd go to.

My mom has an English accent, so we always referred to the trunk as the 'boot.' And then, suddenly, we moved to Georgia and I would say things like 'open the boot' with a bit of an accent, and I quickly realized I had to adapt; that kind of thing will get you beat up!

I learned how to speak English watching television.

It took me a year to really learn the American lingo. I really feel for people who are coming here and don't speak English at all. It must be hell.

I have a one-question language test that people who have lived abroad do better on than those who studied in a classroom. Try my test yourself: In a foreign language you've studied, how do you say 'doorknob'?

French is a foreign language, but I've been speaking it since I was 18 so it's second nature to me.

I have been learning English on the road since I started when I was 15, so it is a slow process but making some progress. Now I think I am much more comfortable with my English. However, it is difficult, still, when I speak about something that is not tennis.

I've never worked in my natural accent, having studied so hard to get rid of it when I moved to England as a child where I was bullied at school for 'talking funny.'

I didn't really like my Sydney accent - nobody likes the sound of their own voice - and when I was a little younger tried to change my accent gradually. But I've only ever really lived in Sydney and Los Angeles, so I haven't been influenced by the accents of some far-off land.

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

Latin America must follow the education model, that allows children to handle the English language from a very early age.

There's always a certain kind of homework you have to do when there's an accent involved.

I've met people whose accents have nothing to do with where they were born or raised - they want to reinvent themselves.

I've always thought that speaking a foreign language from a young age makes you a little bolder when it comes to speaking and doing accents and things like that.