Michael Korda Quotes

One of the biggest problems is - you know, I've got some Hispanic friends - is that a lot of those folks that don't know English, is primarily because they don't even know Spanish. They don't even know their own language.

Bilingualism is a great asset for any individual, but it has perilous consequences for a nation.

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.

Everybody at home speaks mandarin except me.

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

In South Africa, we speak English and sometimes Afrikaans, sometimes Zulu, sometimes Xhosa.

I belong to a specific category of writers, those who speak and write in a language different from that of their parents.

To have another language is to possess a second soul.

You know, even growing up going to school, I had teachers that were against bilingual teaching. I never understood that. My parents always had me speak Spanish first knowing I was going to speak English in school.

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.

When you grow up in a family of languages, you develop a kind of casual fluency, so that languages, though differently colored, all seem transparent to experience.

I want to be open to the kids who only speak Spanish, the kids who speak only Spanglish, and the kids who don't even speak Spanish at all.

There are so many people in the world who cannot read English or French or whatever.

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

Most people, throughout history, haven't learned one language to the exclusion of another. You learn to speak differently to a peasant and to a shoemaker. You speak differently to your mother, who comes from Burgundy, and to your father, who comes from Swabia.

If I could talk in only one language for the rest of my life, it'd be Tamil.

I am opposed to the idea of dubbing films into Kannada.

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

My mother tongue is Telugu. I was born and brought up in Tamil Nadu.

Should people working in our country speak English? Yes, they should.

It's really natural for me to write bilingually.

You have to have a little humility if you're Danish because you're never going to be able to travel outside the country unless you can speak another language.

It is an absolute privilege to be able to speak another language and have it be something you grew up with. I think it's a very important thing and I think that everywhere else in the world people speak more than one language.

Our common language is English. And our common task is to ensure that our non-English-speaking children learn this common language.

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