5 Quotes by Gaston Dorren

The attitude of English speakers to foreign languages can be summed up thus: let’s plunder, not learn them.

Just as all English speakers can understand one another provided a dash of goodwill is thrown into the mix, so too can Serbs, Montenegrins, Bosnians, and Croats. But if your family was massacred by your neighbour's army, goodwill is hard to find.

It is intended, as the French so enticingly put it, as an amuse-bouche.

Modifying one’s vocabulary to avoid embarrassment is a universal human behaviour.

If you’re one of those people who worry that the English language is going to the dogs, linguists are of no help to you. Whatever it is that annoys you – double negatives, the demise of whom, the non-standard usage of literally – linguists will answer that a language is a living thing, and is always changing. You can’t stop the process, so you’d better get used to it.