Speak English Quotes - Page 4

• My background is full of pain. My mother was in a Nazi concentration camp and our whole family was killed off. Then early on your father leaves and all you've got is your mother, and I was an only child. Then you come to a new country and I can't speak English.

  Gene Simmons

  Country, Mother, Children

  Source: www.rollingstone.com

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• I met one child there eleven years old, speaking three languages [in Guinea]. He could speak English, French and Malinke. Speaking my language actually better than I could. And this hypocrisy - they tell us here in America [ that black people can't be intelligent].

  Fannie Lou Hamer

  Children, Intelligent, Years

  Source: www.encyclopedia.com

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• Like tens of millions of Americans, my parents were immigrants. They were poor and did not speak English well. They went to flea markets and sold gifts to make ends meet. Eventually, through hard work, they opened six gift stores in shopping malls. My parents achieved the American dream; they went from being poor to a home and gave my brother and me an amazing education. I wanted to serve the country that gave so much to my family.

  Ted Lieu

  Dream, Country, Brother

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• I met my wife through playing golf. She is French and couldn't speak English and I couldn't speak French, so there was little chance of us getting involved in any boring conversations - that's why we got married really quickly.

  Sean Connery

  Golf, Speaks French, Wife

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• If you're eight and you live in Los Angeles and everybody has toys and you go to a country that has a Marxist dictatorship and there are no toy stores and nobody speaks English and it's blazing hot every day and they only have fish, which you don't like, then you tend not to appreciate the cultural lessons you're learning.

  Zooey Deschanel

  Country, Eight, Appreciate

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• I said, 'I'm going to the United States to study with Stella Adler and do movies because nobody here has done it and my passion is films.' But I came here and I didn't speak English, I didn't have a green card, I didn't know I had to have an agent, I couldn't drive, I was dyslexic.

  Salma Hayek

  Passion, United States, Cards

  Interview with Oprah Winfrey, www.oprah.com. September, 2003.

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• Sham marriages have been widespread; people have been allowed to settle in Britain without being able to speak English; and there have not been rules in place to stop migrants becoming a burden on the taxpayer. We are changing all of that.

  Theresa May

  People, Migrants, Able

  "Theresa May statement on deportation and human rights: Politics live blog" by Andrew Sparrow, www.theguardian.com. June 11, 2012.

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• I speak English without an accent, and I speak Spanish without an accent. I really do have the best of both worlds.

  Eva Mendes

  World, Accents, Speak

  Interview with David Colman, www.interviewmagazine.com. November 29, 2008.

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• In this country, it doesn't make any difference where you were born. It doesn't make any difference who your parents were. It doesn't make any difference if, like me, you couldn't even speak English until you were in your twenties.

  Arnold Schwarzenegger

  Country, Motivation, Differences

  2004 Republican National Convention Address, delivered 31 August 2004, Madison Square Garden, New York

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• At this point two elderly security guards in parkas, the guys who normally work the front desk at the plant, asked John to step behind the tape. John claims that here he told the guards that he could not speak English and when that failed to persuade them, he fa...ked a violent seizure. I am unclear as to the purpose of this part of his plan. John flung himself down and began rolling around in the snow, thrashing his limbs about and screaming “EL SEIZURE!!! NO ES BUENO!!!” in a Mexican accent.

  David Wong

  Elderly, Security Guards, Two

  David Wong (2011). “John Dies at the End”, p.408, Titan Books

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• Yes, they broke the law, but we can't deport them. Let's get over this pointing fingers and do something about that, whether it - they have to pay a fine, learn to speak English, the history, you can do that. And then you have to give visas for the skills we need.

  Michael Bloomberg

  Law, Skills, Giving

  "Meet The Press" with David Gregory, www.nbcnews.com. August 1, 2010.

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• Both my parents had heavy accents, and so did everybody they knew. It's a rhythm thing - people who speak English where they have to hesitate and think of the right word. And I think it rubbed off.

  Christopher Walken

  Thinking, People, Parent

  "Readers recommend: songs sung with accents" by Peter Kimpton, www.theguardian.com. November 19, 2015.

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• I first went to Barcelona in 1975 after university, and I stayed for three years. I learnt Catalan because that's what everyone speaks in the mountains. They speak English to foreigners, but what people say to each other is much more important than what they say to you.

  Colm Toibin

  Years, People, Mountain

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• Neither you nor I speak English, but there are some things that can be said only in English.

  Aravind Adiga

  Speak, Said

  Aravind Adiga (2008). “The White Tiger”, p.7, Atlantic Books Ltd

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• My family immigrated from Korea when I was four years old, and when I started school, I didn't speak English. I remember that other kids would blame everything bad that happened in kindergarten on me - I spent a lot of time "in the corner" because I literally didn't have the words to explain that it wasn't me!

  Jane Park

  School, Kids, Korea

  Source: www.elle.com

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• My father couldn't speak English when he went to the first grade and I had to work in a factory over Christmas and summer vacations. And I think that's the American way and one of the things that excites me about this race is that pretty much everything I've done I've started at the bottom and been able to finish at the top.

  George Pataki

  Summer, Father, Thinking

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• A lot of people don't know enough about me. When I meet people who freak out about Game of Thrones, they don't even know that I can speak English.

  Jason Momoa

  Games, People, Thrones

  Source: collider.com

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• When I speak English, I've been told, I have this patrician way of speaking that's very irritating. It's the whole class thing.

  Kristin Scott Thomas

  Class, Way, Irritating

  "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• The gym teacher's name was Mr. Caruso. Mr. Caruso did
  not speak English. He spoke 'Gym.' One day I was playing
  basketball and Mr. Caruso told me I would have to get
  an athletic supporter. He didn't express himself exactly
  that way, though. He said, 'Hey, you, one day you're gonna
  go up for a rebound and the family jewels aren't gonna
  go with ya.' I had no idea what he was talking about.
  Next day I showed up for practice without my watch and
  my mezuzah. He said, 'Did ya take care of the family jewels?'
  I said, 'I left 'em in my locker.' Took us a half hour to
  revive Mr. Caruso.

  Tommy Lasorda

  Basketball, Teacher, Names

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• A lot of country making films in English, but in Japan we are very shy to speak English.

  Hiroyuki Sanada

  Country, Japan, Shy

  Source: collider.com

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• The people who run the major banks have MBAs and wear suits. And when those people in suits come to the homes of people who don't have a high school diploma, don't even speak English, and offer them a home at zero percent down, that doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense.

  Ramin Bahrani

  Running, Zero, School

  "99 Homes director Ramin Bahrani on his dream debate between Trump and the Pope". Interview with Charles Bramesco, www.avclub.com. October 1, 2015.

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• My mind speaks English, my heart speaks Russian, and my ear prefers French.

  Vladimir Nabokov

  Heart, Mind, Ears

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• I just said let's get some poets on tv. And when they said that sounded unlikely, I made it worse. I said, no man, I want to put a bunch of black poets on stage, too. Some Latino poets who barely speak English and Asian poets who can't believe how discriminated against they are. It was luck nad being in the right place. I wasn't saying nothing somebody else wasn't saying but they wouldn't hear it from them.

  Russell Simmons

  Believe, Men, Black

  Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

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• Our leaders increasingly see fit to lecture the ethnic minorities on the need to integrate, including of course the need to speak English. What about the need, though, for Britain to integrate with the rest of the world?

  Martin Jacques

  Leader, Needs, Minorities

  "Does it matter if we only speak English?" by Martin Jacques, www.theguardian.com. December 15, 2006.

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• I learned how to speak English watching television.

  Azita Ghanizada

  Television, Speak, Watching Television

  "Azita Ghanizada Exclusive Interview ALPHAS". Interview with Christina Radish, collider.com. July 8, 2011.

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