Penelope Cruz Quotes

I learned English kind of late. I remember when I got my first opportunity to work in America, I didn't speak a lot of English, so I only really knew my lines for the movie I was doing.

When I arrived in the U.S., I knew little English and didn't have any friends. The neighborhood and school kids were so welcoming. They made me feel at home very quickly.

When I came here I moved to London and I was meeting so many new people and had to speak only in English, which is not my native language.

Both of my parents were college-educated within the curriculum in Haiti. When they came to the United States, both had to learn English. My mother worked in retail and continues to do so today, working as the lead sales representative in a fine-jewelry store. My father became a machinist.

Everything has changed since I came to China.

I arrived in the U.S.A. in 1935, to San Francisco. I got the boat from China, and I didn't even speak English. I could read a little, perhaps write a little, but that was all. It was a 17-day journey, and I learnt to speak English from the stewards.

I was born in Barranquilla, Colombia, and I came to attend high school in Massachusetts when I was about 15 years old.

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

I was born in Costa Rica and we moved to America where it was a whole new world for me.

Each language has its own take on the world. That's why a translation can never be absolutely exact, and therefore, when you enter another language and speak with its speakers, you become a slightly different person; you learn a different sort of world.

My dad is an ob-gyn - he's retired now - and he wanted to come to the States to make a better life, for opportunity. My mom said that, on the plane ride here, I did not want to speak a word of English - I spoke Tagalog. And then, after the first day of school, I didn't want to speak anything but English.

My life changed incredibly when I moved from Holland to England.

Latinas who come to the U.S. should adapt, learn English and become a part of the community.

I came to Los Angeles for the first time in 1994. I spoke no English. I only knew how to say two sentences: 'How are you?' and 'I want to work with Johnny Depp.'

It's always overwhelming when you come to another country and you're embraced in such a positive way.

I don't have a burning passion to live in America per se but I would certainly like to work there.

As a young actor, I booked a movie in the U.S. I didn't speak any English at the time, so I learned my lines phonetically when I auditioned for it.

I was born in Texas and I lived there 'till I was 8. Then I moved to the Dominican Republic with my mom, lived there for two years and forgot every word of English I knew.

I didn't move to Miami to live in a Spanish-speaking province.

When I first came to this country I could not speak English. Now I get paid to write it.

American histories were the same; they had these mad ideas about how Parliament worked, or what people really meant when they said A, B, or C. All my life, I felt simultaneously deracinated and rooted in both places, and now it's my greatest strength: I'm culturally bilingual.

I was born in Hong Kong and immigrated to the United States with my family when I was 4. I spent most of my childhood in Chicago. My elementary school had no program in English as a second language, so I was placed in a class for students with speech impediments.

When I moved to Bombay, it was very harsh. I was nothing like what I am today. I couldn't speak a word of English. In England, people might be very understanding about that, but in Bombay, they're not very forgiving. 'If you don't speak English, how do you expect to work in Hindi films?'

Leaving home early is always complicated. But when I arrived in Germany, I encountered an incredible structure built by the company that takes care of my career. They did not leave me wanting for anything. The most complicated thing was really the language. Otherwise, everything was taken care of.

When I first moved from Shanghai when I was five, I just thought of myself as Chinese.