I wanted to learn a few foreign languages, and therefore I had to go abroad.
quote by Ella Maillart

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Related quotes
Sonnet: What Language to Learn?
To improve a man, languages are meant;
You learn a language that can feed you first;
Learn your mother-tongue to needed extent;
But drink one may only if it doth thirst!
Learn many tongues if you want to progress;
In India, all can’t speak a common tongue;
By knowing languages, you can impress;
But choose one, to talk and sing, from among.
Our Motherland is made of many states;
All Indians are my brothers and sisters;
Through languages, a nation integrates,
And love amidst fellowmen, it fosters!
Man, learn to converse with all your brothers;
Spreading love’s message is what next matters.
(9-29-2000)
poem by John Celes

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

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Basketball, in America, is like a culture. It is like a foreigner learning a new language. It is difficult to learn foreign languages and it will also be difficult for me to learn the culture for basketball here.
A Postural Pose
All these reported things
they told repeatedly to me.
Seated with twisting snakes
envy desire bitter jealousy.
How tall she stands
how proud she looks.
Of her beauty envious
her beauty sparkling told.
Of five foreign languages
spoken with flawless fluency.
Without error inflected
better than native speaker.
Five languages yet
within this soul I grieve.
Five languages frozen
bound cannot express.
Non-communication
of your innermost self.
Expression others may do
at ease with language one.
poem by Terence George Craddock

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My wife wanted my children to have some Chinese culture and education. She believes the children need to learn two languages and two cultures.
The business, task or object of the scientific study of languages will if possible be 1) to trace the history of all known languages. Naturally this is possible only to a very limited extent and for very few languages.
quote by Ferdinand de Saussure

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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If your kids attend school and grades are up that will make $1,000 contributions to some 10,000 kids across the country, are challenging kids to learn foreign languages or challenging kids to get summer jobs or seek summer enrichment opportunities?
quote by Harold Ford

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Man Said No!
I wanted to build myself a boat
Everyone said that it wouldn't float
As carpentry and boating I do not know
So man unto me, he said no.
I wanted to plant myself a flower
I was told I couldn't without knowledge or a power
I wasn't a gardener so plants I did not grow
So man unto me, he said no.
I wanted to learn myself how to fly
But I was told if I did I would die
In the air to the ground I would crash below
So man unto me, he said no.
I wanted to cook and to become a chef
But I was told that I wasn't mature enough
If I lit a match I would cause and inferno
So man unto me, he said no.
I wanted to learn to play and to enjoy music
But I wasn't allowed to listen to it
I wasn't taught to sing or to play the piano
So man unto me, he said no.
I wanted to learn how to ski
But to my idea everyone did disagree
Everyone knew I loved the cold and the snow
So man unto me, he said no.
I wanted to live my life the way I should
Do what I believed and understand what I could
To my want's and idea's to all I did confess
So man he said no; but GOD he said yes.
poem by Randy McClave

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I just know so many people who have six or seven foreign languages and have read everything and have musical training and they are still dorks.
quote by Joseph Epstein

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There is the fear, common to all English-only speakers, that the chief purpose of foreign languages is to make fun of us. Otherwise, you know, why not just come out and say it?
quote by Barbara Ehrenreich

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Foreign Tongue
While speaking in a foreign tongue
many challenges are there
that I enjoy.
New culture
new languages
new rules
new way of thinking
make it romantic
that I enjoy.
I enjoy the mistake
I enjoy new experiments
I enjoy new manner of
Speaking writing
that you have.
While speaking
in a foreign tongue
a new way of life
come to the surface
new words new lines
new and new
that we both
enjoy and like.
poem by Gajanan Mishra

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Foreign languages are another favourite topic, and as these men are bilingual they have a fair notion of what it means to speak and think in many different idioms.
quote by John Millington Synge

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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After an extensive interview he arranged for my weaknesses in foreign languages to be over-looked and so I started a Biology degree at Birmingham in 1967.
quote by Paul Nurse

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We played for peanuts. But we did what we wanted to do, we heard what we wanted to hear, we performed what we wanted to perform, we learned what we wanted to learn.
quote by Steve Lacy

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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How Many Ways To Show Affection?
wuzzup ladies
need to know...
something about
all men again?
“Will you help me to understand? ”
“How many ways are there? ”
“How many ways to show affection? ”
“Somehow, I feel that I and my man
have different love languages. Been
trying to learn... getting harder...
Dunno what to do...”
“Remember all men
women are not the same
like varieties women
they are all individuals...
the rare are unique...”
loves struck Romeos Juliets
an infinite number of little things
small gestures of affection in the eyes
voice touch a look a soft feather caress
a word soft spoken speaks volumes
“How many languages?
Indonesia alone has over 17500
islands with over 180,000
living languages still extant...
each soul an island alone adrift apart
will force irresistible continental drift
impact love lock together or ripe apart
poem by Terence George Craddock

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I wanted to be self-sufficient, I wanted to take care of myself, and I wanted to learn. I wanted to travel, I wanted to see the world and have my eyes opened. I wanted to be consistently challenged, and I knew I needed to be creative in some way. When I got my job in a bar and I could pay for my tuition and go on auditions and sometimes get jobs that I loved and pay my rent, I knew that I would be all right. That's when my dreams came true, long before the telephone rang and someone said, 'Come and meet Tom Cruise'.
quote by Renee Zellweger

Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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As the president of Kosovo, I am more concerned about the current situation with the employment standing at around 70 % of the population, which is young, with great potential, speaking many foreign languages and having wide expertise.
quote by Ibrahim Rugova

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Learn
when broken
learn
when happy
learn
when bored
learn
when you float and does not know what to do
learn just the same
when filled with idealism
learn
when fed with what you cannot swallow
learn again
when the times get rough and you want to kill yourself
learn, learn, learn
you still have many things to learn
faces of life
bodies of life
learn, learn, learn everything
do not surrender
for in truth, you do not do what you only want
you will also do what you are told to do
no questions asked
or you will be left out
or you will be not a part of the picture
this life
learn, learn, learn, always learn
do not surrender
live, learn, live, learn
you will soon do all that others will tell you
learn, learn and learn again
and sooner you will have learned everything
and then do what you want to do
with firm conviction
you know now what is right
and that is what you will do,
now without even being told
you have become yourself
but still learn, learn, and learn again
because
you might be wrong,
try thinking some more, learn
relearn, learn, learn, learn, forevermore....
poem by Ric S. Bastasa

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We need more foreign reach; no question about that. And we're working on getting that. We need more people abroad; we need some more bureaus. That is really an important job.