Fred Frith Quotes

I speak English. I grew up speaking Bengali. This is the normal, the known, the obvious composition of who I am. Then there's Italian, this strange, other component of me that I've just created. It was a creative process just to learn the language, never mind to start expressing myself in it.

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

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.

Sometimes I am a different character in different languages. I have different enjoyment from them. Sometimes different answers come out of me. Like, I didn't even know that about me. I get to know myself through different languages, actually.

I never found accents difficult, after learning languages.

Even if I think in English, it's more a language of acting than French.

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

I also had this mistaken dream, fantasy really - perhaps because I'm good at languages - of being able in both Italy and France to become someone else through my fluency in the language.

To a teacher of languages there comes a time when the world is but a place of many words and man appears a mere talking animal not much more wonderful than a parrot.

Just learning to think in another language allows you to see your own culture in a better viewpoint.

Originally, I thought English was more my home. But Spanish is so much more romantic. I've had to learn new phrases. I've had to learn to be more secure about singing in Spanish. But I'm working on it.

I realize that the wish to write in a new language derives from a kind of desperation.

I grew up speaking Arabic at home.

When people heard my voice, they were shocked that I could speak Hindi.

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!

As I grew, I began learning and speaking a word or two in Bengali and that increased my friends circle.

I dream in Norwegian, I count in Norwegian so that basically makes me Norwegian now, I suppose.

Do you know what a foreign accent is? It's a sign of bravery.

I speak English, obviously, Afrikaans, which is a derivative of Dutch that we have in South Africa. And then I speak African languages. So I speak Zulu. I speak Xhosa. I speak Tswana. And I speak Tsonga. And like - so those are my languages of the core. And then I don't claim German, but I can have a conversation in it. So I'm trying to make that officially my seventh language. And then, hopefully, I can learn Spanish.

In addition to the research, I enjoyed learning French and assimilating the culture of another country.

A young man who is here speaks the Panis language, and in many other respects, is preferable.

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

When I took part in European leaders summits, it was sometimes unpleasant for me to hear Romanian, Polish, Portuguese, and Italian friends speak English, although I admit that on an informal basis, first contacts can be made in this language. Nevertheless, I will defend everywhere the use of the French language.

The knowledge of languages was very useful. I have a university degree in foreign languages and literature.

To have another language is to possess a second soul.