David Whyte Quotes

People appreciate when you make an effort to speak their language.

When people speak their own language you get a much better sense of who they are.

I really want to do a film in another language. My dad's from Germany, so it'd be really cool to do a film in German. I'm not quite fluent, but I can get there. And my accent's pretty good. I wouldn't feel too out of my element.

Spanish is actually my first language, growing up, and I understand the culture. I understand the culture; I understand what the people want.

With my husband, I do really appreciate the fact that we - even though we're different kinds of Asian, there is a cultural shorthand between us, and I don't have to explain anything. I've dated guys before who weren't Asian-American, and it frustrated me when I would have to defend why beans belong in a dessert.

Value the perspective of different cultures and recognize the cultural mores that underpin groups and appreciate why these are valued and important.

For the benefit of those who are not bilingual, I will now continue in English.

Without knowing the language of a people, we never really know their thoughts, their feelings, and their type of character.

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

I was proud my father spoke Arabic fluently - his father sent him to learn Arabic from a sheikh - and we had Arab friends. His task of understanding the Arabs - not only politics but poetry - was very important; he took it as a vocation.

Occasionally, I've been asked to do American roles, and once or twice I have, but I don't understand Americans. I don't have any real feeling for American culture.

I'm a little Italian girl from New Haven who, as an actor, gets to jump classes through language.

Young Asian people who come up to me have a certain vibration, and I receive it, and I understand it, and I feel emotional just talking about it. I'm here for you. And I'll continue doing everything I can to fill something that I know you need right now that we don't yet have as a community.

I was six or seven and an interpreter.

I don't speak English or French, but that doesn't mean anything.

I think we are living in an age where we really need to have bilingual leaders so that we can communicate with our constituents.

If I could talk in only one language for the rest of my life, it'd be Tamil.

There's a misconception that I can't relate to the quote-unquote 'Asian-American experience' because I didn't grow up with an Asian mom and dad. And that's just not true. I am Asian American, and so playing a girl who is half Korean, half white, but her white dad tried really hard to connect with her mom's heritage - that's very familiar to me.

I think the best part of learning a language is that you can see the country's culture through the language. And it gives you different levels of understanding of that culture when you really try to dig in and learn it.

I am opposed to the idea of dubbing films into Kannada.

Getting access to diverse civilizations should be easy, and languages are the gateway to that.

A lot of people tell me, 'You are from North; how do you manage to get along in the South?' I don't know what to say to them. I've always felt at home here, and by learning to speak Telugu, my connection with the place has gotten that much stronger.

I had never been taken in like I was in Italy just by saying a few words. That made me feel like I had to put in the effort, and I want to be one of them.

I stay up on current events. I read 'The New Yorker' and 'The Economist.' I go to community meetings to see what concerns the people in my neighborhood. I studied literature in college, so I also continue to read poetry, literature, and novels.

Whenever I overhear someone talking in Telugu, be it in the market or any random place, I get excited.