Multilingualism: Being a Russian heritage speaker in the former USSR

March 23, 2012

  Professor François Grosjean, the Emeritus Professor of psycholinguistics at Neuchâtel University, Switzerland is a specialist in bilingualism, multilingualism and heritage language speakers. Last week, he wrote a blog piece, Portraying Heritage Language Speakers: Heritage language speakers are bilinguals with a difference. in Psychology Today about my case as a Russian heritage speaker working in [...]

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Mi proprio segmento, “El idioma es música”, en Univision. My own “Language is Music” segment on Univsion.

March 15, 2012

Cada lunes en mi segmento titulado “El idioma es música” en el programa “Al Despertar” en San Francisco, doy mis consejos de como aprender inglés mediante la música y los medios. Canal 14 (Univision) desde las 6 a 7 am y en canal 20 (Telefutura) en el programa de las 7 a 8 am. I [...]

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The importance of female role models for female language learners

March 14, 2012

Last week, for International Women’s Day, I wrote a blog post, How we all benefit when women are multilingual about the scarcity of female language bloggers and You Tube polyglots on the Fluent in Three Months website along with a video of a Skype call I made with two other female polyglots, Fasulye and Jana [...]

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Learning Portuguese with rap and Brazilian music, Don Blanquito and Idahosa Ness

March 2, 2012

I interviewed (Don Blanquito) and Idahosa Ness about how they, as native English speakers, create rap, funk and hip hop music in Spanish and Portuguese. They also discuss how music helps people get into the flow of their new language. Don Blanquito lives in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where he gives concerts in Portuguese. He also [...]

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Review of Babel No More: what makes people learn many languages?

February 27, 2012
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I highly recommend the book, Babel No More. It’s a fun read as it’s written like a detective story and you can feel the passion for languages that the hyperglots demonstrate. Why I read Babel No More First there was Michael Erard’s opinion article in the New York Times about how monolingual Americans really are and [...]

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Learn Portuguese, not portunhol/ portuñol, by listening to Brazilian music

February 25, 2012
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The problem facing anyone going from Spanish to Portuguese is to mistake similar words or sentence structures to be the same. They are not. I am speaking from experience. I also have to catch myself from using Spanish in my Portuguese. Luciana Lage from Street Smart Brazil and I are making a series of videos [...]

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Being multilingual: Is my language my homeland?

February 22, 2012
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(My country is the Portuguese language. Fernando Pessoa) The idea of feeling an affinity with a language is not foreign to me given that I speak seven languages and have studied ten. In fact, my likes and dislikes for the sounds of languages have repelled me from certain languages and attracted me to others. But [...]

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Learn Portuguese: The joy of just “being” in Portuguese and not speaking

February 16, 2012
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(Photo is of Lisbon, Portugal.) Feeling like I am in Portugal without leaving the United States I ventured into the Little Portugal area of San Jose, California, where the local immigrant population from the Azores islands convene around a church, a couple cafes and restaurants and a store. Oddly, I hadn’t been there for over [...]

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Human spirit is stronger than politics. Music feeds the spirit and teaches us languages..

February 13, 2012
Saving Ladino

Learning languages with music, preserving the Ladino languages with songs, CALA CNN, February 10, 2012 On Friday February 10, 2012, the CALA show on CNN interviewed Montserrat Franco and I in Spanish about how to learn foreign languages using music, why it’s important to be multilingual, how the ancient Ladino language of the Spanish Jews [...]

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El espiritú humano es más fuerte que la política. La música alimenta el espiritú y nos enseña idiomas (CALA CNN)

February 13, 2012
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Susanna Zaraysky, políglota y autora de “El idioma es música” explica cómo se puede estudiar lenguas con música y los medios de comunicación. Susanna cuenta su experiencia viviendo en Bosnia después de la guerra de Yugoslavia y como el idioma ladino salvó la vida de Moris Albahari, un joven bosnio judío en la segunda guerra [...]

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