Crown Princess Masako

Famous Women who speak foreign languages, Do you know of any?

As I am thinking of ways to promote women and girls learning foreign languages and showing their linguistic prowess, I compiled a list of famous and powerful women who are multilingual. Some of them use...
learning a foreign languagevideo

Farenheit 451 (remake): no more multilingualism

As a bibliophile and great admirer of the dystopian novel Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and the original 1966 film adaptation, I was surprised at how much I liked the 2018 film remake that...

When being multilingual is a burden

What you’re about to read may seem counter-intuitive.  Sometimes, being able to speak more than one language can be more of a burden than a benefit.  You might ask:  “How so? Isn't the ability to communicate across...

Will there be more military linguists when homosexuals can serve in the military?

As I was driving home and listening to the news on the radio about the repeal of "Don't Ask Don't Tell", the military's ban on homosexual military service people, I realized that this may...
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Speaking in Tongues documentary on public television

Speaking in Tongues is a documentary about raising multilingual children. I just saw it on public television in the US and it's excellent. It shows the controversy over bilingual education and how and why families...
Adult students studying together

How languages change the psychology of multilinguals

Steve Kaufmann, of LingQ, invited Tetsu Yung and I on his podcast to discuss how we change psychologically when we speak in different languages and the politics of learning certain languages. For years, I've felt...
Spy

Why the CIA needs me and other 1st and 2nd generation immigrants for language...

I keep getting messages from the CIA on Linked In because they need 1st and 2nd generation immigrants to fill their huge need for foreign language speakers. According to this Reuters article, U.S. spy agencies...
Obama and Medvedev Russian (matroshkis) stacking dolls

Spaceman: Being in between languages

When I lived in Argentina, a Spaniard told me about a friend of his whose parents were from Spain but grew up in Portugal. When the Spanish man visited Spain from Portugal, he couldn’t...
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I don’t “speak white”. Multilingualism is my identity.

For those of us who are bilingual or multilingual, our languages may shape our identities and cultural affiliations more so than race, economic status or religion. With about 20% of children in the US population...
Susanna Zaraysky in scrubs in front of painting of the brain

Is a polyglot’s brain different?

Listen to this new Subtitle podcast episode "Is a polyglot's brain different?",  to find out the answer. You'll also learn about my language-learning story and about the brains of people who speak many languages. I did...
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