S. I. Hayakawa Quotes

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.

Language, especially in this country is a daily plebiscite.

I'm against the idea of force-feeding all of Canada on two languages.

You can't be an American if you don't speak English. Our public schools should be mandated to teach all children in English.

Within a language, you have your roots, your culture, and I think and dream in Bassa. We have 260 languages in Cameroon, but the official ones are French and English.

I don't feel guilty about expressing myself in French; nor do I feel that I am continuing the work of the colonizers.

I am making sure, as the governor of a territory, that our kids speak fluent English. But having said that, I will tell my wife I love her in Spanish, and I will pray in Spanish, and no one from Washington should come down here and tell us how to go about it.

The expenditure of county funds for the purpose of utilizing any language other than English, or promoting any culture other than that of the United States is prohibited.

Citizens of Canada of whom any child has received or is receiving primary or secondary school instruction in English or French in Canada, have the right to have all their children receive primary and secondary school instruction in the same language.

Insist on one language. English for all Americans.

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

You cannot have one or two million immigrants a year and still have English as the only official language of the country.

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

I want to live in a Britain whose residents are determined to speak English.

Living freely means being able to freely communicate in your native language and to be guided by the 10th article of the constitution, which defines Ukrainian as the only state language and guarantees the unhindered development of Russian and all the other languages.

It's really natural for me to write bilingually.

I think in my mother tongue. That's Hindi.

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.

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

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 came here when I was almost 22. I'm perfectly bilingual, but I'm never going to sound like Sandra Bullock.

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.

The English was really my mother, it was never me. Being the daughter of my father, I always felt very French.

The English language is nobody's special property. It is the property of the imagination: it is the property of the language itself.