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So far cecilia constantine has created 24 blog entries.

May 2021

Jackie Kennedy’s Prowess as a Polygot

2023-03-07T16:46:56-05:00By |Articles, Popular Articles|

When President John F. Kennedy traveled to West Berlin on June 26, 1963, he wanted to assure the people there—who were literally walled off from the eastern portion of their city by Communist Russia—that Americans stood with them. Ever the classicist, Kennedy drew from the ancient Romans’ statement of Civis Romanus sum “I am a citizen of Rome.” He wanted to convey that same spirit, but in German:Ich bin ein Berliner. First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy speaks—in Spanish—to leaders of the 2506 Cuban Invasion Brigade at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida, where she delivered her speech—in [...]

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January 2018

21. Preview of Season Two (A Minisode)

2018-01-03T14:22:23-05:00By |Episodes|

Preview of Season Two (A Minisode) As we close Season One of America the Bilingual, we are filled with gratitude for the hundreds of interviewees—teachers, scholars, and bilinguals of all types. Thank you for answering our incessant questions and adding your voices to our first 20 episodes. We will resume our schedule with Season Two on March 28th, 2018. In the meantime, we’re in production on a dozen new episodes, including: How Monolingual English-speaking Parents Can Raise Bilingual Children Says Allison Altmann, the mother of 14-month old Charlotte, “I’d love Charlotte to be able to speak [...]

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December 2017

20. Twelve Ways the Gift of Bilingualism is Given

2017-12-19T18:58:08-05:00By |Episodes|

Twelve Ways the Gift of Bilingualism is Given It’s a gift that can’t go under the tree, it can’t even be seen, but it’s one of the best gifts in life. It is, of course, the gift of bilingualism. We’ve reported on this gift many times in our first 19 episodes of this premier season of the America the Bilingual podcast. Our gift to you this Christmas season is a collection of 12 ways to experience this gift. We’re featuring excerpts from some of our favorite podcast moments of the year. Join us as we unwrap [...]

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November 2017

18. Bill Weir Loves Language Teachers — Wishes He had Listened to His

2017-11-30T20:22:00-05:00By |Episodes|

Bill Weir Loves Language Teachers — Wishes He Had Listened to His Bill Weir, travel correspondent and host of CNN Wonder List, has his dream job. He gets to jet all over the world to capture images and weave stories together from what he finds. It’s all perfect, except for one thing — Bill is monolingual. Steve Leveen interviews Bill Weir: “I kick myself…” “I wish I could travel back in time and punch my teenage self in the face for not paying attention. I was one of those horrible language students who didn’t figure I would ever need [...]

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Steve Leveen’s Response in the WSJ

2024-05-01T17:23:46-04:00By |Articles|

  Ed. Note: A July 16, 2017 op-ed in the Wall Street Journal maintained that “fluency in coding is a more useful skill than French, Spanish or Russian.” Steve disagrees! Here is his letter to the editor that was published in the July 25th print edition of the Journal. The world is not headed toward one language. The fact that we see signs in English around the world doesn’t mean the Japanese or Chinese or Egyptians are abandoning their native languages. Rather, they are learning English and becoming bilingual. The U.S., on [...]

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How We Made It: From AIRdaily to airwaves

2019-09-06T14:17:37-04:00By |Articles|

Ed. Note: The AIRdaily, an online forum for podcasters, recently ran this story on Steve and Fernando.  Florida-based AIR producer and retired CEO-turned-podcaster Steve Leveen brought his pitch to the AIRdaily in early January 2017 with hopes of finding a producer to help bring sound to his idea. Independent audio-maker Fernando Hernández answered that call from the other side of the country, and the podcast America the Bilingual began its journey to becoming sound waves. Four months later, their first episode was published. Now six months into the collaboration, Leveen and Hernández share their experience in a Q&A [...]

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17. When a Gap Year Becomes a Bridge Year

2017-11-08T15:44:38-05:00By |Episodes|

When a Gap Year Becomes a Bridge Year Paulina Jedrzejowski was five years old when two airliners slammed into the World Trade Center. She was just a few miles away in Brooklyn and wondered why ashes and bits of paper were floating down from the sky. Despite growing up in an America with a heightened concern for attacks from the outside, Paulina has devoted her young life to helping outsiders. She has lived in several other countries and learned their languages. Hear her story, and the story of a promising trend in America in which [...]

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October 2017

16. Bless the Late-Blooming Bilinguals

2017-12-11T17:05:21-05:00By |Episodes|

Bless the Late-Blooming Bilinguals When older adults learn another language, they don’t have the advantages of toddlers, whose minds are wired to learn two or three languages simultaneously. Nor do they have the flexibility of young adults who can acquire a native-sounding accent. But this episode of America the Bilingual tells the story of adults who deploy other abilities that come with age and experience. Late-blooming bilinguals are not only capable of learning languages, but capable also of combining their language skills with a measure of wisdom in order to deliver great blessings to others. [...]

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15. Sealed with un Beso

2017-12-11T16:39:09-05:00By |Episodes|

Sealed with un Beso He was rich, persuasive — and wrong. But Ron Unz succeeded in leading our most populous state down a dark path in the history of language education. Fortunately, his very success planted the seeds of change that are yielding a harvest of good in the nation today. Hear the origin story of the Seal of Biliteracy, which began in California and is now transforming America. Something new in America: honoring bilingualism The Seal of Biliteracy is a seal that high school seniors can earn on their diplomas and transcripts after demonstrating written and [...]

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14. The Vanishing High School Year Abroad

2023-08-25T12:35:40-04:00By |Episodes|

The Vanishing High School Year Abroad In his junior year of high school in 1970, Doug Renfield-Miller was flunking out. It didn’t help to also get ejected from school for passing out anti-war posters. To escape, Doug took his mother’s suggestion and applied for a year of study abroad. Hear the story of how a young man was changed by the full measure of a school year away, and of a kind of immersion that is fading from the American tableau.   “I was an indifferent student.” Doug Renfield-Miller Listen on iTunes by clicking here: [...]

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