May 2017

5. The CEO and the Polyglot

2017-12-05T19:24:20-05:00By |Episodes|

The CEO and the Polyglot Does the whole world speak English? It seems so when you travel to big cities and stay in major hotels. It seems so when you visit popular tourist destinations. But what about in corporate conference rooms? Like when you’re trying to sell something? That, as you’ll hear in this episode, can be a different story. Lois Melbourne Lois Melbourne studied French in school but didn’t get all that far. In other words, she is a typical monolingual American. But Lois is not typical in other ways. Andrew Simmons is [...]

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February 2017

4. Mother Tongue

2017-12-05T19:24:32-05:00By |Episodes|

Mother Tongue We hear it before we are born. Before the first air rushes into our tiny lungs, before the first light refracts into our blinking, baby eyes, our mother tongue is already resident, dreamlike in our waiting minds. In America, the mother tongue for most of us is English. But for millions of us baby Americans, those comforting vibrations our mothers pour over us have other names, like Spanish or Portuguese or Mandarin. Bilingual mothers have a choice to make. Sometimes they chose their own mother tongue to speak to their babies. Other times they [...]

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January 2017

3. Just Call Me Anna

2017-12-05T18:24:55-05:00By |Episodes|

Just Call Me Anna Linguists call it “shift.” The rest of us would call it “loss.” It’s what happens to the languages spoken by immigrants, and it happens fast. By the third generation, and sometimes even the second, the German or Hindi or Greek spoken in the home is gone. That’s why America, known for so many good things, is also known as the place “where languages go to die.” But not always. Sometimes an immigrant family bucks the trend. This is one of those stories.* Anastasia “Anna” Kastrenakes Merkel Listen on iTunes by [...]

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2. With a little Help from his Friends —and Good French Wine

2017-12-05T19:12:22-05:00By |Episodes|

With a little Help from his Friends —and Good French Wine “It was a body blow. I told them, if you reject me, I’ll be forced to accept my position at Oxford.” “Forced” to go to Oxford? Why did this young American want so badly to attend a French business school that few Americans have heard of? Why was he willing to forgo his slot at Oxford to do so? And why were a panel of French professors shooting him down in his interview? David Wolf Find out in Episode 2 of the America [...]

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1. The Lamp of Empathy

2017-12-05T18:20:14-05:00By |Episodes|

The Lamp of Empathy Does the whole world speak English? Not quite, not even in France, if you really want to do business. Meet Ben Macklowe, a New York City kid, who grew up as a monolingual English speaker, until he messed up big time and then took matters into his own hands. Now he’s passing The Gift on to his baby boys. The following 14 minutes may light your path: Listen on iTunes by clicking below: America the Bilingual by Steve Leveen on iTunes Download past episodes or subscribe to future episodes of America the Bilingual [...]

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