Stanislaw Jerzy Lec Quotes

The only problem was that I couldn't communicate with Dario. He speaks Italian and I don't. We had a translator the whole time. I just felt that something was lost with the go between. He was a delightful man, but I wish we could have spoken the same language.

Even when well translated. can we really understand what other cultures are talking about?

I hate when I see someone who speaks English speaking to someone who speaks a different language, and they're screaming as if going louder is going to help the other person understand.

Two nations divided by a common language.

In Italy, I had an Afro, and a lot of the kids came up and felt my hair. It really was funny. I wish I had understood Italian.

I had a hard time convincing students that they were going to North Africa to understand the North Africans, not to understand themselves.

I never found it frustrating not speaking.

Being published in Arabic is a strong and consistent wish I have. I live in the Middle East and want to be in some sort of an unpragmatic dialogue with my neighbors.

Our people could not talk with these white-faced men, but they used signs which all people understand.

The problem is that it is difficult to translate.

What the United States does best is to understand itself. What it does worst is understand others.

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

Without knowing the language of a people, we never really know their thoughts, their feelings, and their type of character.

The good thing about not speaking the language is you just listen. You listen to everyone, every producer, every writer.

I understand different cultures because I have travelled a lot.

If we can listen to English music without understanding nothing, and dance on it, and feel the groove, feel the feelings, I'm sure everybody can do exactly the same for each language.

If I can learn to understand this language without words, I can learn to understand the world.

Silence is the language of inertia.

Invent a new language anyone can understand.

I serve like a bridge. I go to other cultures, learn, put myself in different situations and learn as much as I can, and then go to Western cultures to give. I'm doing this bridging all the time.

If nobody spoke unless he had something to say, the human race would very soon lose the use of speech.

You who read me, are You sure of understanding my language?

The most basic barrier was language itself, very few Americans in Iraq whether soldiers or diplomats or news paper reporters could speak more than a few words of Arabic. A remarkable number of them didn't even have translators. That meant for many Iraqis the typical 19 year old army corporal from South Dakota was not a youthful innocent carrying Americas good will, he was a terrifying combination of firepower and ignorance.

One of the hardest things in the world is to convey a meaning accurately from one mind to another.