Noam Chomsky
You hear doom and gloom about the Internet ruining young people’s command of English – that’s nonsense.
I speak a number of languages, but none are more beautiful to me than English.
‚I wish life was not so short,‘ he thought. ‚Languages take such a time, and so do all the things one wants to know about.‘
Though I do manage to mumble around in about seven or eight languages, English remains the most beautiful of languages. It will do anything.
I could speak three languages when I was six, and when I went to school, I only liked to read and sketch. At five, I could write and everything.
An inability to handle language is not the same thing as stupidity.
Women prefer to talk in twos, while men prefer to talk in threes.
I meet people overseas that know five languages – that the only language I’m comfortable in is English.
Sometimes, reading a blog, which I do infrequently, I see that generations of Americans have been wilfully crippled, and can no longer spell or write a sentence.
It is generally recognised that women are better than men at languages, personal relations and multi-tasking, but less good at map-reading and spatial awareness. It is therefore not unreasonable to suppose that women might be less good at mathematics and physics.
I’m turned on by guys who are cultured. That’ll keep me intrigued. They don’t have to have a single degree, but they should speak other languages or know things about other parts of the world or history or certain artists or musicians. I like to be taught. I like to sit on that side of the table.