Charlemagne Quotes

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 think in French, but I get angry in Spanish.

I speak English, so I am no longer cute. My tongue itches for French.

I don't speak Filipino or Spanish, but I've sung in both.

Even if I think in English, it's more a language of acting than French.

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.

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.

People who grow up with two or more languages understand that each can express certain aspects of reality better than the other.

Fools, most linguists. Damn all to say in one language, so they learn another and say damn all in that.

I speak two languages, Body and English.

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

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

I speak French, German, English, and Dutch, and I can say a few words in Spanish - none of these languages have anything to do with Valyrian.

Language and identity are so fundamentally intertwined. You peel back all the layers in terms of what we wear and what we eat and all the things that mark us, and in the end, what we have are our words.

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

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

I would love to be able to speak my own language and maybe have an interview in Irish, maybe after my fights.

It's really natural for me to write bilingually.

I would like to speak 10 languages.

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.

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.

I'm pretty good with languages. I know a bit of French and actually want to live in France some day so that I can get fluent. I think it'd be tragic to go through life only knowing one language.

Only in North America is it regarded as a major achievement to speak one language moderately well.