70. A Whisper to God
The American journalist, linguist, and author Michael Erard (Babel No More) has lived in South America, Asia, and now in Europe. He’s always had an ear to the native languages as much as for them.
A deep researcher of language, he shares in this episode why he believes that “human beings are meant to have very complex linguistic systems in their brains.” He also explains why he likens learning a language to weaving a rope.
“GOING TO THE NUNS”
Michael and his family have been living in the Netherlands for several years now. In the process of acquiring Dutch, he’s discovered a method of language immersion that there’s a good chance you’ve never heard of. It’s known locally as “going to the nuns.”
Listen and you’ll find out why—and lots more that may well have you thinking about learning languages from some fresh and often provocative perspectives.
HEAR THE STORY
Listen on Apple Podcasts here: America the Bilingual by Steve Leveen; on Spotify; or wherever you tune in to your podcasts.
WHAT’S THAT SPANISH YOU HEARD?
At the beginning of the episode, listeners got an idea of what Babel might sound like. Here’s the Spanish that you heard:
Por esto fue llamado el nombre de ella Babel. Porque allí confundió Jehová el lenguaje de toda la tierra y desde allí los esparció sobre la faz de toda la tierra.
And here’s the English translation:
For this reason its name was called Babel. For there, Jehovah confused the language of the whole earth and from there he scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
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CREDITS
Thanks to members of the America the Bilingual Project team for this episode: Fernando Hernández, the writer for this episode, and his production house in Guadalajara, Mexico Esto No Es Radio, which provides sound design and mixing; Mim Harrison, editorial and brand director of the America the Bilingual Project,; and Karla Hernandez at Daruma Tech, who manages our website.
Meet the entire America the Bilingual team—including our bark-lingual mascot, Chet—here.
Music in this episode, in sequence: Demoiselle Döner, Des têtes trop pleines; John Bartmann, African Moon; Kevin Macleod, QuasiMotion; Loyalty Freak Music, Waiting TTTT; TRG Banks, Michael Landon; TRG Banks, Horse Ride 2; Jorge Mario Zuleta, En Detención; and John Bartmann, Bouncy Gypsy Beats.
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First, know that she has one of those glorious English accents (or what all of us who are not English would call an accent), which makes her a natural for the audio book narration that she does. Although U.S. born, Caroline grew up in England and studied literature at the University of Warwick (fyi for American ears: that second “w” is silent).
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