TEDx: Music + language (songs) activate our brains, hearts and souls.
Alas, my TEDx talk on why we need to learn foreign languages and save endangered languages via music has been posted online.
Music can bridge the income gap in education
Music can help people bounce back after a stroke or brain trauma. It can also narrow the achievement gap between poor and rich kids.
Gift for the holidays: how a language saved a life
For a limited time, until December 31, 2014, Saved by Language is on pre-sale. You can buy it here. The DVD comes with English, Ladino, Spanish and Bosnian subtitles. Choose from PAL and NTSC formats.
Le mistral gagnant: Rediscovering my inner Francophile in India and Quebec
One missing digit
One missing digit (not a finger!) almost kept me from going to India.
En route to Chennai (Madras), I had a rude awakening at the Frankfurt airport: my passport number in my...
Portuguese via Spanish, Italian & a little French: different roads to a mellifluous tongue
The strange thing with the Portuguese language is I don't remember why I wanted to learn it, yet I can speak it. The Spanish language and Italian literature and film have been major influences in my learning the Portuguese language and becoming interested in Portugal.
What makes the 20 most spoken languages tick?
What makes the 20 most spoken languages tick?
I greatly enjoyed the book Babel: Around the World in 20 Languages.
Gaston Dorren explains the histories of the 20 most spoken languages in the world, with...
Living in Italian (Vivere in italiano): A language that taught me to live
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JV2d2qcIyvA
My relationship to the Italian language was one of wonder and fun until I decided to use it professionally.
I took one semester of beginning Italian grammar in college. The class was so...
How to communicate if you’re deaf or hard-of-hearing (DHH)
I am curious about how deaf people in the US communicate. Anywhere from 37 to 140 out of every 1,000 people in the United States have some kind of hearing loss. Either you or someone you know needs or will need assistive hearing devices.
Thank you note: Inspired to use music to teach English in Germany
This is a thank you note that I received from a university student who invited me to give a presentation on language learning using music and the media at Illinois College in October 2016....
My new book in Italian: La lingua è musica
I just published La lingua è musica, the ebook version of my book on learning languages using music, TV, radio, etc, in Italian.
Free during Covid-19 pandemic
I am offering the book for free during the...