America the Bilingual

Summer Light Listening: “In case you thought Latin was dead…”Seriously? A podcast about Latin is supposed to be summer l... Read more

Imagine there was a new way of teaching that results in most students becoming truly bilingual and biliterate before fin... Read more

Linguists call it “shift.” The rest of us would call it “loss.” It’s what happens to the languages spoken by immigrants,... Read more

The summer language immersion program that Professor John Rassias founded at Dartmouth College is famous worldwide for s... Read more

World War I shattered a way of life for millions. But one positive result, invented by a German-American immigrant, cont... Read more

When older adults learn another language, they don’t have the advantages of toddlers, whose minds are wired to learn two... Read more

In this second episode on the dual-language movement, we hear from six voices of change in America. They trace their her... Read more

In 2005, North Carolina had seven dual-language schools; in 2018, there were 140. A 2018 graduating class at one of the ... Read more

For our tenth episode of America the Bilingual, we decided to do something different. Your favorite Recovering Monolingu... Read more

Americans remember World War I, but most of us have forgotten the war within our own borders that took place during thos... Read more

“Wow, it’s a good thing you’re studying Spanish,” a fellow told me the other day “because Spanish is taking over the cou... Read more

Many of us dream of living abroad but few of us actually do. Yet here’s the thing: I’ve interviewed hundreds of native ... Read more

He was rich, persuasive--and wrong. But Ron Unz succeeded in leading our most populous state down a dark path in the his... Read more

We hear it before we are born. Before the first air rushes into our tiny lungs, before the first light refracts into our... Read more

When people find out I’m learning Spanish, they frequently ask me, “How are you doing it?” It’s an obvious question. But... Read more

None of us can master every language, but we can all learn phrases that extend a symbolic hand in greeting and say, “To ... Read more

How has a presumably dead language become such a disruptor? Because Latin certainly seems to be just that. It’s one of t... Read more

Nick Staffa was meant to become a rock star —but not the kind with a guitar on stage. This kid from Long Island of Itali... Read more

Bettina Young had a remarkable young life--a fairy tale life by the standard of so many American girls who dream of bein... Read more

In his junior year of high school, Doug Renfield-Miller was flunking out. It didn’t help to also get ejected from school... Read more