Tamlyn Tomita Quotes

I know just enough Japanese to get by if I get lost and greet an audience properly, just from having a lot of Japanese friends and being there over the years.

I learned to speak Italian, somewhat. Definitely enough to get around in Italy. My grandfather always used to swear at my grandmother in Italian.

Japanese is a very difficult language.

I remember learning new words, trying to figure out what common things like cider, finding myself upset that my parents couldn't help me understand this new culture, that it was up to me to interpret for them as well as myself.

The Japanese version comes with a translation, but that's different from the lyrics, so people could look things up and find a translation of their own if they're interested.

There is a psychic gulf that exists between myself and my grandparents because they don't really speak English, and I don't speak Chinese, and that's my own personal shame because I did not learn, ever. I only saw my paternal grandma a few times in my life, and that's really crazy.

I would love to live in Japan again, but would need to really commit to learning the language before doing it. Both my parents speak Japanese fluently, so I suppose it would feel like a tradition.

The situation was kind of complicated in that my mother didn't speak Spanish. My father spoke English, you know, as best he could.

Learning Japanese was certainly a task, but my passion for the culture, as well as my will to communicate with fans and friends, always encouraged me to continue.

Anyone who has a parent can relate to this idea of not quite understanding who your parents are or making up stories about them.

A family is a burial mound of its own doings and sayings.

We generally learn languages for the benefit of reading the books written in them

I hated that the soldier doll had my name. I mean, please. I didn't play with him much. He was another Christmas present from my clueless grandparents. One time when they were visiting, my grandpa asked me if G.I. Joe had been in any wars lately. I said, "No, but he and Ken got married last week." Every Christmas since then, my grandparents have sent me a check.

You can't always trust your mother.

Fathers and sons are much more considerate of one another than mothers and daughters.

A man who is ignorant of foreign languages is also ignorant of his own language.

The parents in the room know that texting is actually the best way to communicate with your kids. It might be the only way to communicate with your kids.

My father ain't in Europe; my father's in a better place than Europe." Winterbourne imagined for a moment that this was the manner in which the child had been taught to intimate that Mr. Miller had been removed to the sphere of celestial reward. But Randolph immediately added, "My father's in Schenectady.

There are secrets everywhere. I think everyone's parents have secrets. You just have to know where to look for them.

In a family, what isn't spoken is what you listen for. But the noise of a family is to drown it out.

I find Japanese books quite baffling when I read them in translation. It's only with Haruki Murakami that I find Japanse fiction that I can understand and relate to. He's a very international writer.

No matter how many Christmas presents you give your child, there's always that terrible moment when he's opened the very last one. That's when he expects you to say, 'Oh yes, I almost forgot,' and take him out and show him the pony.

I'm sure that there's frustration that comes with wanting to just have a normal mom. But, I don't really know if they see it as any different than any other problem you might have with a parent. I think everybody can think about one thing that their parents used to do, all the time, that would embarrass you.

My nearest and dearest have always been very careful. I've never had to send Christmas present back yet.

A lot of the questions that anyone would naturally have about their family, you'll get much of the answers for, or at least hints to where it will go, in the future.