Haruki Murakami Quotes

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

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.

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.

Man is multiplied by the number of languages he possesses and speaks.

When I went to school, I didn't know a lick of English, but it was okay because there were so many immigrants in the area, a lot of the kids didn't speak a lick of English, either. It was normal to have a wicked accent.

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

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

To possess another language is to possess another soul.

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.

I suppose that was my first bit of acting, the acquisition of an English accent. It was really just an attempt to be understood.

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.

To have another language is to possess a second soul.

It's like learning a language; you can't speak a language fluently until you find out who you are in that language, and that has as much to do with your body as it does with vocabulary and grammar.

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.

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

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.

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

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've never been in any country for more than four years, and I'm learning different languages all the time. It gives you a different attitude.

What is Americanization? It manifests itself, in a superficial way, when the immigrant adopts the clothes, the manners and the customs generally prevailing here. Far more important is the manifestation presented when he substitutes for his mother tongue the English language as the common medium of speech.

Every language teaches you something, so learning a language is never wasted, especially if it's different in more than just syntactic trivia.

America is remarkable, don't you think so? When I came to Washington, I was twelve years old. I spoke English with an English accent. It was assumed that it would go on in that way.

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.

Well, I like how people talk. I like language. You know, Linda Richman spoke in Yiddish.