Rhys Ifans Quotes

I grew up, as many Indians do, in an archipelago of tongues. My maternal grandfather, who was a surgeon in the city of Madras, was fluent in at least four languages and used each of them daily.

I don't speak Filipino or Spanish, but I've sung in both.

I had the luck that my parents educated me in three languages. With my mother I spoke Dutch, with my father Italian, and in the school I learned German. But my host language is Italian.

I speak English without an accent, and I speak Spanish without an accent. I really do have the best of both worlds.

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.

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 speak African. I can even speak Italian.

I studied in American school, so yes, I grew up speaking English and Spanish. Obviously, Spanish is my first language.

It is asked of me that I give my first speech in this house in a language [English] other than my mother tongue [French.] …. Even if I knew English as intimately as I knew French, I would still give my first speech in the language of my French Canadian compatriots

Since I grew up in Palakkad, I am comfortable speaking both Tamil and Malayalam.

My mother is half Malayali and half Tamilian. I can speak Bengali and Tamil, but can't read or write.

The fact is I do feel very Spanish, like when I'm talking to my wife and daughter in Spanish at two in the afternoon. I even think in Spanish when I get angry!

It's really natural for me to write bilingually.

I speak English, so I am no longer cute. My tongue itches for French.

My primary and secondary education was in French, which had a lasting influence on my life.

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.

To have another language is to possess a second soul.

As a boy, when I was bad, my mother would chew me out in Spanish. And since I was bad a lot, I learned a lot of Spanish!

I grew up speaking both languages, and for me that's really important.

Learning another language is not only learning different words for the same things, but learning another way to think about things.

I spoke Franglais growing up.

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

I'm pretty good with languages. I know a bit of French and actually want to live in France some day so that I can get fluent. I think it'd be tragic to go through life only knowing one language.

I learned Spanish at home and, since half my family doesn't speak English, it's my first language.

I speak a little Spanish but I am so impressed by people who can speak a lot of different languages.