Daniela Ruah Quotes

all the French speak French - even the children. Many Americans and Britishers who visit the country never quite adjust to this, and the idea persists that the natives speak the language just to show off or be difficult.

I used to think that my mother got into arguments with people because they didn't understand her English, because she was Chinese.

Because of my language and the pantomime with which most Europeans accompany their speech, I was catalogued as a heavy.

England and America are two countries separated by the same language.

When I heard Puerto Ricans in New York City, it sounded very strange. And the first time I heard someone from Spain, I thought they had a speech impediment!

When the Japanese say yes to us, they often mean no.

In India, whichever language you write in, the possibility of people not understanding irony or not understanding [remains there]. This as a writer is most terrifying!

I am very shy. If I am flying British Airways and the airhostess asks me two questions, and I don't understand her accent - I will go hungry for the entire flight.

If you know two cultures and two languages, that intermediate place, where the two don't perfectly meet, is really interesting.

"We speak different languages, as usual," responded Woland, "but this does not change the things we speak about. Well?..."

Directing while overcoming differences of language and culture is a stimulating challenge.

Sometimes it can be difficult when you're talking to a journo after the game, saying, 'Yeah mate, I was on the burst.' And then the translator is trying to translate that into Japanese, and apparently there is no actual translation.

Language is very deceiving. In certain languages, there is certain vocabulary that doesn't exist in other languages. It totally changes how people feel about things.

If there is an interpreter sitting between two friends, he may be able to translate the words but not the feelings with which I say something.

You have to do your talking on the pitch. I don't talk much in England - mainly because of the language.

I have three championships in a country where I don't speak the language.

Somebody should tell the president of Mexico that when he appears on American television, he should speak English.

In Spain, they're never direct, and that frustrates me.

You have to have a little humility if you're Danish because you're never going to be able to travel outside the country unless you can speak another language.

All people in the world - who are not hermits or mutes - speak words. They speak different languages, but they speak words. They say, "How are you" or "I'm not feeling well" all over the world. These common words - these common elements that we have between us - the writer has to take some verbs and nouns and pronouns and adjectives and adverbs and arrange them in a way that sound fresh.

With support jobs moving to China and India, it's not surprising that English-speaking countries' top frustration revolves around the difficulty of understanding customer service representatives. However, even if the level of customer service is exceptional, the extent to which poorly-understood accents trump quality of service speaks to English-speaking customers' growing intolerance of non-native speech, more so than in other countries.

Translating from one language to another, unless it is from Greek and Latin, the queens of all languages, is like looking at Flemish tapestries from the wrong side, for although the figures are visible, they are covered by threads that obscure them, and cannot be seen with the smoothness and color of the right side.

All communication is more or less cross-cultural. We learn to use language as we grow up, and growing up in different parts of the country, having different ethnic, religious, or class backgrounds, even just being male or female - all result in different ways of talking.

Most of our life is miscommunication, and when you add a language barrier to it, it just becomes total mayhem and confusion... It just adds to it with all of the cultural differences. It could be an American family meeting another American family and you could still have a total clash. With family, it's like visiting another planet.

I love Americans, but not when they try to talk French. What a blessing it is that they never try to talk English.