Bilingual Quotes

“German is my mother tongue and as such more natural to me, but I consider Czech much more affectionate, which is why your letter removes several uncertainties; I see you more clearly, the movements of your body, your hands, so quick, so resolute, it’s almost like a meeting.”
― Franz Kafka, Letters to Milena

“Annoyance has made me bilingual.”
― Gayle Forman, Just One Day

“Can you read?" the boy said at last.
"Of course," said Arrietty. "Can't you?"
"No," he stammered. "I mean--yes. I mean I've just come from India."
"What's that got to do with it?" asked Arrietty.
"Well, if you're born in India, you're bilingual. And if you're bilingual, you can't read. Not so well."
Arrietty stared up at him: what a monster, she thought, dark against the sky.
"Do you grow out of it?" she asked.
He moved a little and she felt the cold flick of his shadow.
"Oh yes," head said, "it wears off. My sisters were bilingual; now they aren't a bit. They could read any of those books upstairs in the schoolroom."
"So could I," said Arrietty quickly, "if someone could hold them, and turn the pages. I'm not a bit bilingual. I can read anything.”
― Mary Norton, Borrowers

“Kyiv is a bilingual capital, something unusual in Europe and unthinkable in Russia and the United States. Europeans, Russians, and Americans rarely considered that everyday bilingualism might bespeak political maturity, and imagined instead that a Ukraine that spoke two languages must be divided into two groups and two halves. "Ethnic Ukrainians" must be a group that acts in one way, and "ethnic Russians" in another. This is about as true as to say that "ethnic Americans" vote Republican. It is more a summary of a politics that defines people by ethnicity, proposing to them an eternity of grievance rather than a politics of the future.”
― Timothy Snyder, The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America

“I de mí.”
― Gustavo Pérez Firmat

“The truth is that bilingual babies are like machines.”
― Albert Costa, The Bilingual Brain: And What It Tells Us about the Science of Language

“For years, "Sorry, I don't speak French" has been the reflexive response of English-speaking Canadians to a request, a comment, or a greeting in the other official language. Part apology, part defiance, it is a declaration of the otherness. That is not me. I don't do that. The language barrier is her, at this counter, now.”
― Graham Fraser, Sorry, I Don't Speak French: Confronting the Canadian Crisis That Won't Go Away

“Something critical happens when the cadre of bilinguals learns to read imported scrolls: they gain entry into a library. I use the word "library" to refer not to a physical building but, more broadly, to the collectivity of accumulated writings. . . . humans possess an ever-increasing store of writings, the totality of which I call the library. The transformation of an oral culture into a written one means, first and foremost, the potential entry of bilinguals into a library.”
― Minae Mizumura, The Fall of Language in the Age of English

“I don’t know or understand any other language except the language of kindness.”
― Debasish Mridha

“The smell of bacon sizzling and the sound of
eggs hitting hot pans were drowned out by the
sonorous diner conversations happening all over the
restaurant. Some were laughing at their own jokes in
one of the center tables. A couple wordlessly broke
up, using the diner napkins to dry their tears, sitting
in one of the red with white upside down triangle
detailed booths. There were also some teenagers
arguing about the pronunciation of gif on the counter
table, sitting on the red high chairs.”
― Lidia Longorio, Death's Rattle

“James turned the kitchen radio to a classic rock station as he started making the burger. Bon Jovi’s Livin’ On A Prayer played throughout the restaurant. “It’s our song, Vanessa!” Elijah exclaimed as he and Vanessa sang along to the chorus. When the song came to an end, a few of the customers clapped, zapping them out of the Bon Jovi daze. Vanessa took a bow, embracing the attention. Elijah shyly got back to work and brought a customer their meal.”
― Lidia Longorio, Death's Rattle

“Elijah greeted the new family of customers, “Hello.
Welcome to Dean’s Diner!” he said with a classic
customer service smile. Sometimes he thought he
repeated that phrase more than his own name.”
― Lidia Longorio, Death's Rattle

“The world around him began to change. Voices
became inaudible and his gaze was stuck on the man
on the ground. Elijah was taken out of that state by
Vanessa’s voice.”
― Lidia Longorio, Death's Rattle

“Eu sou a escuridão que cria
a minha própria sombra.

I am the darkness that creates
my own shadow.”
― Sonja N. Bohm, Poems from the Garden

“Tuka, when
I look for God in the dark

there is no fear of ringing the wrong
doorbell. No necessity of gyarah annas.”
― Sneha Subramanian Kanta

“The night is bilingual. Its jaws open everywhere.”
― Sneha Subramanian Kanta

“Why can't bilingualism be seen as an extra resource? Is it because kids who can think in two languages are smarter?

(from the book Attitude, 2002)”
― Lalo Alcaraz

“I have been accused of being a bully. I think a lot of that stems from precisely my resistance to feel like I need to do the emotional labor of making people feel comfortable about what I’m saying. In particular, as a Latino scholar doing work in bilingual education, I’m particularly resistant to the idea that I need to make white people feel comfortable doing work in bilingual education. I put my work out there. I let it speak for itself. I certainly have never targeted anyone individually and personally insulted them, which is what bullying actually is, right?”
― Nelson Flores

“This whole idea of a bilingual brain is still, from my opinion, coming from a monolingual perspective in the sense that most of the world is bi- or multilingual. Why are we exceptionalizing the, quote, “bilingual” brain instead of the quote, “monolingual” brain to begin with? Why aren’t we saying, “What are the unique cognitive traits of monolingual people who are the minority of the population?”

Maybe a bilingual brain is just a brain and it’s the monolingual brain that’s actually this weird thing that we need to study. Of course, I don’t actually believe that, but I feel like some of the discourse exceptionalizing bilingualism, when we reverse it and really think about, well, if we describe monolingualism in that way, that would be really strange. Yet, “bilingual” describes more of the world’s population than “monolingual.” What exactly are we doing there?”
― Nelson Flores

“On growing up internationally - from the Daughter of Copper.

And so, with the greatest of ease, both as children and adults, we float back and forth between our two languages and cultures, seamlessly navigating the moments of time and place that define us.”
― Susan Bayless Herrera, Daughter of Copper, A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Identity, Growing up on Borrowed Land

“Earlier this year, a self-identified White, monolingual English-speaking teacher explained to me that, among other signs of her stupidity, Dr Baez’s English language skills are ‘horrible, and from what I hear, her Spanish isn’t that good either’...If Dr Baez, the bilingual school principal with multiple university degrees, including a doctorate in education, was subjected to such discriminatory thinking, then what could this mean for students, who were positioned in highly subordinate institutional positions?”
― Jonathan Rosa, Looking like a Language, Sounding like a Race: Raciolinguistic Ideologies and the Learning of Latinidad

“While bilingual is understood as a valuable asset or goal for middle-class and upper-class students, for working-class and poor students it is framed as a disability that must be overcome”
― Jonathan Rosa, Looking like a Language, Sounding like a Race: Raciolinguistic Ideologies and the Learning of Latinidad

“Being bilingual in English and Spanish language was useful during the Florida hurricane Ian disaster.”
― Steven Magee

“Becoming bilingual in English and Spanish language was a nice aspect of living in La Palma and having a Spanish girlfriend.”
― Steven Magee

“But you have to be somewhere I can find.
You understand?
Somewhere I can find.

I nod, because I know what he is saying
and what he is not saying.
He can't find me if I'm not here.
(p. 113 of the hardcover edition.)”
― Andrea Beatriz Arango, Iveliz Explains It All

“Languages are but echoes of each other, Based on the environment each feels unique. No language is superior, no language is inferior, All are born of human mind to meet at heart's peak.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Insan Himalayanoğlu: It's Time to Defect

“If you simply copy and paste instant translations, you only end up with meaningless and contextless junk, which has no relation to the culture and the people.”
― Abhijit Naskar, World War Human: 100 New Earthling Sonnets

“Better to have no translation, than to have a translation without soul.”
― Abhijit Naskar, World War Human: 100 New Earthling Sonnets

“Even after speaking six languages, I say, the supreme language is love.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Visvavictor: Kanima Akiyor Kainat