Noam Chomsky Quotes

Every American child should grow up knowing a second language, preferably English.

It's important to me to work in my own language now and then. I love English, but you can never learn to master a foreign language if you're not brought up with it.

I've studied Chinese in college, but basically, I'm not bilingual.

I speak African. I can even speak Italian.

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

I am learning English and can understand better than I can speak it. But having said that, I am learning as quickly as I can.

English is not my language.

It is not easy, but young people have to learn languages.

I do speak a bit of Bengali.

There is a certain age at which a child looks at you in all earnestness and delivers a long, pleased speech in all the true inflections of spoken English, but with not one recognizable syllable. There is no way you can tell the child that if language had been a melody, he had mastered it and done well, but that since it was in fact a sense, he had botched it utterly.

My French definitely improves the more I drink, as I worry less and less about absolutely perfect grammar. I do speak and understand the language, just not particularly well.

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

Spanish is my second language. When I started, I was doing interviews in Spanish and had to catch up.

What's always a challenge for me is that my Spanish is not the level of my English. Nor do I read in Spanish the way I read in English.

English is not my first language.

I grew up listening to people speaking broken English. I probably picked that up. And I probably speak English almost as a second language.

I had a quick ear and could pick up languages.

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.

It is much easier to learn another language when you are young, enthusiastic and unembarrassed.

I think it's important if you're American to have a second language, and Spanish is the language to have.

Obviously no language is innate. Take any kid from any race, bring them up in any culture and they will learn the language equally quickly. So no particular language is in the genes. But what might be in the genes is the ability to acquire language.

It is no secret that the fruits of language study are in no sort of relation to the labour spent on teaching and learning them.

I've never lived in an English-speaking country, ever, but I lived in Austria. So, my second language is German. And when I went to school, I had a lot of classes in English.

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.

I write in English because I was raised in the States and educated in this language.