“Attempting to build a language wall around Quebec is precisely the wrong policy to follow. It will keep out of Quebec exactly what we need to attract by way of talent and capital; it will drive our best - francophones as well as allophones and anglophones, with their talents and capital - to leave Quebec.” WayNeedsWellsLanguageTalentPolicyWallAttemptingQuebec Author:Dick Pound
“Thomas Teal, a luminous translator of Jansson's twin talent for surface and depth, simplicity and reverberation in language, and someone who knows exactly how to convey her gift for sensing the meaning embedded in the most mundane act or turn of phrase.” KnowsTurnsLanguageTalentDepthSimplicitySurfacePhrasesTwinsMundaneLuminousEmbeddedTranslatorsSensingReverberation Author:Ali Smith
“There's nothing good about being certain about things. And I don't think there's any real talent in using language in a manipulative way, with phrases like "tax relief" or "Social Security reform." It's politically clever, but it's also completely disingenuous, and it's not something to aspire to.” ThinkingWayRealCertainLanguageSocialTalentSecurityTaxesCleverReformPhrasesReliefAspireSocial SecurityManipulativeDisingenuousReal Talent Author:Jonathan Safran Foer
“The English Language Amendment says above all, 'Let's see to it that our children, our young people, learn English. Let us not deny them the opportunity to participate in American life, so that they can go as far as their dreams and talents can take them.” PeopleChildrenDreamYoungOpportunityLanguageTalentOur ChildrenDenyAmendmentsEnglish LanguageAmerican Life Author:S. I. Hayakawa
“Once upon a time there was a girl who discovered that if she played a certain tune on a jade flute, she could summon up jade gnomes, a peculiar, harmless, but rather creepy looking spirit of the underground. The fact is that many of us have talents like this, but generally never discover them due to lack of opportunity, since one can go one's entire life without playing a jade flute, or discovering that one can speak the language of ground sloths, or turning fruitcake into solid tungsten by singing Sinatra tunes to it under a quarter moon.” IfsFactsSpiritCertainGirlOpportunitySpeakLanguageTalentMoonSingingDuesTunesPeculiarQuartersDiscoveringCreepyOnce Upon A TimeSlothFlutesGnomeJadeFruitcake Author:Ursula Vernon
“The globalized environment where speaking a lot of languages is rewarded and getting access to learning materials is easier. A talent for massive language learning has not been supported by the environment until very recently, so this is a phenomenon that is going to become more common and more visible.” LanguageCommonEnvironmentTalentPhenomenon Author:Michael Erard