Ferdinand de Saussure Quotes

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.

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

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 don't speak Spanish, and I get so much crap for it. Oddly enough, it was the first language I learned, but somehow I lost it throughout the years. I can understand pieces of it, but I don't speak it. I need to speak it. I want to teach my kids Spanish.

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.

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

All the kids are learning different languages. I asked them what languages they wanted to learn, and Shi is learning Khmai, which is a Cambodian language; Pax is focusing on Vietnamese, Mad has taken to German and Russian, Z is speaking French, Vivienne really wanted to learn Arabic, and Knox is learning sign language.

I learned Romanian very late, when I was fifteen, in town, and I wanted to learn it. I like the language very much.

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

A man who is ignorant of foreign languages is also ignorant of his own language.

I could teach you how to speak my language, Rosetta Stone.

I don't speak anything fluently, but I love picking up languages and I do this Duolingo app. I started when I moved to Sweden, when I was about 19, 20. I really loved the language; it was super melodic and really sexy.

The knowledge of languages was very useful. I have a university degree in foreign languages and literature.

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.

My mom taught me German before I knew English. And I went to French immersion school.

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 definitely want to teach my daughter Spanish.

I speak as much Spanish as anyone who has grown up in Southern California or Texas or Arizona. I had my three years of high-school Spanish and a couple of semesters in college.

My daughter took Latin for three years; she still can't speak it.

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.

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

Over 90 percent of parents in Puerto Rico want their children to be totally fluent in English.

To be functionally fluent in a language, for instance, in most cases you need about 1,200 words. To acquire a total of vocabulary words, if you really train someone well they can acquire 200 to 300 words a day, which means that in a week they can acquire the vocabulary necessary to speak a language.