Heritage Language Quotes

We of French origin have the sentiment of our own individuality. We want to hand down to our children the language we received from our forefathers.

Until the age of five, my parents spoke to me in Chinese or a combination of Chinese and English, but they didn't force me to speak Mandarin. In retrospect, this was sad, because they believed that my chance of doing well in America hinged on my fluency in English. Later, as an adult, I wanted to learn Chinese.

I have English blood running through my veins!

Bilingual-education advocates say it's important to teach a child in his or her family's language. I say you can't use family language in the classroom - the very nature of the classroom requires that you use language publicly.

I'm Colombian and nothing will change that.

My grandmother was German. She didn't teach any of her children German. She really wanted them to be American. And now, she's since passed away, I get so frustrated sometimes. I'm like, "Oh, Oma, why didn't you teach your kids German?" My dad would have spoken German to me from birth, and I would have spoken German.

My Spanish is a daughter's Spanish. I write, but my Spanish really is very limited.

I spoke English at school and Spanish at home, and I'm always eating Dominican food, listening to Dominican music.

I still speak Czech with my parents because I was born there.

My parents made it a point that, although I was born and raised in New York City, I needed to speak Spanish because they wanted me to be able to communicate with my elders when I went to Santo Domingo or when my family came to visit from Cuba.

Yes, I'm half Italian. So my grandfather speaks heavy Italian... and I couldn't understand a word he said.

My daughter is married here in Patiala and I have shared a bond with Punjabi as a language.

All my mom's side speaks Spanish. I speak to my grandparents in Spanish. Slowly. And they're patient with me! But I do speak with them in Spanish and carry on conversations with them.

Mom developed an interest in 'heritage-language education after noticing an increasing number of students in her UCLA classes whose parents were Russian.

Even though I grew up in America, at home we spoke mostly Chinese, because my mom is from Taiwan.

My first language is both English and Spanish. My mom was raised in Los Angeles, so with her we spoke English, but my father was born in Cuba, so with him we spoke Spanish.

My mother tongue is German.

Well, I have a Norwegian father who emigrated to America in the 1950s, and he still speaks with varying degrees of an accent. Over my lifetime my ear has been well-tuned to that accent. Any first generation kid has that wonderful gift from their parents.

Hindi is my mother tongue. Even though I do not get to use it as often, it's still a part of me.

I still speak to my parents only in German, and I have endless family over there.

All my friends had grandparents who had accents. I thought all grandparents were supposed to have accents. My friends were all second-generation, as I was.

I always speak Welsh to my family.