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Bilingualism Quotes

Browse 31 quotes about Bilingualism.

Bilingualism Quotes

“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”

ClassMiddle ClassDisabilityWorking ClassUpper ClassBilingualBilingualismEslEnglish Second Language
Book:Looking like a Language, Sounding like a Race: Raciolinguistic Ideologies and the Learning of Latinidad
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“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.”

ChildrenLiteracyBilingualBilingualismBritish Literature
Book:Borrowers
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“There are those who eagerly learn another language to be one with another culture, then there are those morons who insist on the exclusive glorification of their so-called native language. The world is beautified by the former, whereas the latter only sustain disharmony - the latter only act as a prehistoric impediment to the unification of humankind.”

Brainy QuotesDiversity And InclusionCultural DiversityLanguage LearningLanguages And CultureLanguage BarrierBilingualismLinguistic DiversityPolyglots
Book:The Gentalist: There's No Social Work, Only Family Work
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“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?”

EducationRacismDiscriminationBilingualBilingualism
Book:Looking like a Language, Sounding like a Race: Raciolinguistic Ideologies and the Learning of Latinidad
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“I grew up speaking two languages, mother tongue and national tongue, then in my late teens I assimilated English from pirated dvds of American movies; soon after I absorbed another language, from the South of India, again from movies. Years later when I started writing and got WiFi, that's when an entire new horizon opened up. This time I found myself drawn to Turkish and Spanish, which became second languages in the canon, after my first English. I don't describe, I embody - I don't study a culture, I disappear into the culture.”

IntegrationAdvaitaMulticulturalismPolyglotLanguages And CultureCultural StudiesMultilingualismBilingualBilingualismPolyglot Poet
Book:Kral Fakir: When Calls The Kainat
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“In most black people, there is a South Side, a sense of home, that never leaves, and yet to compete in the world, we have to go forth. So we learn to code-switch and become bilingual. We save our Timberlands for the weekend, and our jokes for the cats in the mail room. Some of us give ourselves up completely and become the mask, while others overcompensate and turn every dustup into the Montgomery bus boycott. But increasingly, as we move into the mainstream, black folks are taking a third road -- becoming ourselves.”

MinoritiesBlack PeopleRace In AmericaBilingualismBicultural
Book:We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy
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“Nick nodded. "My mother said that always surprised her-all the houses made out of wood here, especially in the suburbs. She said growing up in the Soviet Union, it was all concrete and cinder blocks where she lived. Wooden houses were for old Russian fairy tales." Sawyer reflected, mulling. "Have you ever wanted to go there?" "Sure. But growing up, I was always told that's was impossible," he said. "At least for me and my mom, given her political history. But it's strange; there were times when I was super aware that she could never bring me back to where she was from, but other times I felt so completely that I have been there in my mind, I forget that I haven't, even now." "Do you speak Russian?" "Of course. My mom's English is perfectly fine, but we always wind up speaking in Russian together." "Do you ever...dream in Russian?" "I do.”

DiasporaBilingualismImmigrant Parents
Book:Summer Fridays
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“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.”

IfsMenMindHeartLanguageUnderstandingLeadershipDifferencesBrainTalkingLearningCrazyTravelSafetyThoughtfulResolutionEnglish LanguageComprehensionApartheidLearnersForeign LanguageWin WinLanguage LearningCultural DifferencesMother TongueLong Walk To FreedomHeart And BrainFidgetingInspirational LearningGerman LanguageChinese ProverbLearning LanguageLanguage WordsLanguage And CommunicationLanguages CommunicationBilingualismLearning EnglishInternational LanguageUnderstanding HimChinese Language
Author:Nelson Mandela
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“After all, enforced national bilingualism in this country isn't mere policy. It has attained the status of a religion. It's a dogma which one is supposed to accept without question....Make no mistake. Canada is not a bilingual country. In fact it is less bilingual today than it has ever been...As a religion, bilingualism is the god that failed. It has led to no fairness, produced no unity, and cost Canadian taxpayers untold millions.”

CountryFactsTodayMistakeAcceptingMillionsPolicyCostUnityMereCanadaFairnessDogmaTaxpayersBilingualism
Author:Stephen Harper
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