I'm a professor of comparative literature, among other things, so I'm able to read in a couple of other languages, and I understand that not everyone is, not everyone can, although it is quite stunning how many people do read Spanish in the United States, but moving between languages is also extremely helpful.
I speak five languages, which actually makes it easier when you join a new team. You can settle much quicker because you can help team-mates much faster and better. People need to be careful around me, though - I can understand everything.
I learnt to sing in Bengali, my mother tongue, then went on to sing in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Gujarati and every possible Indian language.
The English language is so elastic that you can find another word to say the same thing.
I speak English, obviously, Afrikaans, which is a derivative of Dutch that we have in South Africa. And then I speak African languages. So I speak Zulu. I speak Xhosa. I speak Tswana. And I speak Tsonga. And like - so those are my languages of the core. And then I don't claim German, but I can have a conversation in it. So I'm trying to make that officially my seventh language. And then, hopefully, I can learn Spanish.
I'm Language Gal. I can speak any language presented to me. And I look exactly like Halle Berry.
Increase your word power. Words are the raw material of our craft. The greater your vocabulary the more effective your writing. We who write in English are fortunate to have the richest and most versatile language in the world. Respect it.
For being able to use language was a critical skill that could carry one far. One could use it professionally, as a crafter of everything from political speeches to modern novels. One could use it personally, as a tool of discovery or a means of staying connected to others. One could use it as an outlet that would feed the artistic spirit of the creator, which existed in everyone.
Rincewind could scream for mercy in nineteen languages, and just scream in another forty-four.
I can give you the King's English and then I can take it to the street, but do both or do one and don't do one knowing only the street. That's going to hold you back because what comes out is going to impress people, and it will impress them negatively.
It is a conscious decision that I do films in different languages.
I have the luxury of balancing and juggling films in different languages.
Toni Morrison was a big influence on my work since I was a teenager, what she did with English. I joke that I think she speaks 20 Englishes simultaneously, that she knows how to do that.
Words can do wonderful things. They pound, purr. They can urge, they can wheedle, whip, whine. They can sing, sass, singe. They can churn, check, channelize. They can be a "Hup two three four." They can forge a fiery army of a hundred languid men.
As a hawk flieth not high with one wing, even so a man reacheth not to excellence with one tongue.
Though I do manage to mumble around in about seven or eight languages, English remains the most beautiful of languages. It will do anything.
English is a stretch language; one size fits all.
In English every word can be verbed. Would that it were so in our programming languages.
But those two plays left me on fresh terms with language. I didn't always have to speak in my own voice.
I do so like all-encompassing words. Verb, adjective, noun. Yes, you are shitted.
I'm always going to be working on my English, and I'm always going to work on my English so that I can do different characters from different nationalities.
I enjoy singing in different languages, be it Telugu or Bengali. I would like to sing in Malayalam too.
I've pretty much played every regional accent you can play in the U.K. I've played German, French, Arabic; I've been Jordanian, Lebanese. I've covered a lot of ground.
Cantonese, which has up to nine tones as opposed to the five in Mandarin, is much more versatile and one of the richest dialects in Chinese.
Something that has always attracted me to even taking on the occupation of actor is the idea that I could be lucky enough to portray different characterizations from different places in the world, whether it's speaking another language or taking on a dialect and building a history from where they were born. I was very attracted to that concept, in becoming an actor.
