Michael Erard Quotes

I would like to speak 10 languages.

In our generation, everybody told us that it's really important and it's nice to be able to speak a lot of languages. It's an art, too. It really impresses me, people who speak, like, seven languages. I admire them so much, so I began with English, and then Spanish and maybe Portuguese.

I meet people overseas that know five languages - that the only language I'm comfortable in is English.

English, for me, is an acquired language. I started with English at the age of 10. At the time, it was my third language.

All the kids are learning different languages. I asked them what languages they wanted to learn, and Shi is learning Khmai, which is a Cambodian language; Pax is focusing on Vietnamese, Mad has taken to German and Russian, Z is speaking French, Vivienne really wanted to learn Arabic, and Knox is learning sign language.

Growing up in Switzerland, you learn German pretty much from day one in school. You learn French and Italian as well. I took English as an extra language because I figured that was the language of the world.

I would love to be bilingual. I think having a second or third language at my bidding would open up the world in amazing ways.

The fact that I did a Tamil film is going to help me a lot in learning Telugu.

Language has never been a barrier for me. I grew up learning Telugu, Hindi, and Tamil.

I don't speak anything fluently, but I love picking up languages and I do this Duolingo app. I started when I moved to Sweden, when I was about 19, 20. I really loved the language; it was super melodic and really sexy.

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

I like to travel, and I would love to be fluent in at least four languages.

I grew up speaking Spanish and English. My mother can speak Spanish, English, French and Italian, and she's pretty good at faking Portuguese. I wish that I spoke more languages than I do.

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 want to be able to speak every language. If I could have any talent and I get to choose it, and be naturally gifted and speak every language. It's not going to happen, but it sure would be nice. It's a good wish.

I have never been particularly good with languages. Despite a dozen years of Hebrew school and a lifetime of praying in the language, I'm ashamed to admit that I still can't read an Israeli newspaper. Besides English, the only language I speak with any degree of fluency is Spanish.

There is a slam-dunk case for extending foreign language teaching to children aged five. Just as some people have taken a perverse pride in not understanding mathematics, so we have taken a perverse pride in the fact that we do not speak foreign languages, and we just need to speak louder in English.

Foreign languages are another favourite topic, and as these men are bilingual they have a fair notion of what it means to speak and think in many different idioms.

I just started taking Mandarin classes. I love the idea of globalization: of being able to work in different countries.

I never had to learn English, French and German because I was brought up as all three languages. I had a private French teacher before I even went to school. That helped a lot.

When you work in a different language you are not so attached to the words.

I always try to learn a few words from a new language wherever I go.

I speak Italian, French, Creole and English.

I wish that I spoke more languages. I speak a couple languages, but not well enough to really dub myself. French is really the only one, and it's a difficult thing.