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So far daruma has created 71 blog entries.

May 2021

“Talking Leaves” The Cherokee Syllabary of Sequoyah

2023-11-16T10:42:30-05:00By |Articles|

Editor’s note: Be sure to listen to our podcast on saving the Cherokee language—Episode 30 of America the Bilingual, “A New Generation of Cherokee Speakers Rises.” When is an alphabet not an alphabet? When it is the syllabary of the Cherokee language. A Cherokee named Sequoyah invented it in 1821. He had seen non-Native soldiers reading from what he called “talking leaves”—words on paper—and was determined to find a way for the Cherokee to do the same. Sequoyah (ca. 1776 – ca. 1843) was used to making tools for his work as both a blacksmith and [...]

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Who’s That Heavenly Voice in Chapter 47?

2023-03-07T16:49:04-05:00By |Articles, Popular Articles|

She’s a singer, songwriter, TED Talker, Twitch Partner. She’s performed at Carnegie Hall, been featured in an Ariana Grande music video, and acted in several films. She studied violin and piano before she was 5 and learned Flamenco dancing—in Spain—when she was 5. Oh, and she started her YouTube channel then, too. But for the editorial team of Steve’s book, America’s Bilingual Century, the most knock-it-out-of-the-park achievement of this 20-year-old California-born phenom is that’s she’s fluent in both Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. For the final chapter of the audiobook version of Steve’s book, hers is the [...]

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What Color Is Your Paragraph?

2022-10-14T14:00:40-04:00By |Articles|

Meet the award-winning narrator of the America’s Bilingual Century audiobook, who does more than just deliver the spoken text. Sean Pratt has narrated more than a thousand audiobooks, including Steve’s America’s Bilingual Century. You would think that a professional audiobook narrator sees words on the page that they’re reading from. Sean Pratt, who’s won six awards from AudioFile magazine and snagged two Audi Awards nominations, does see them, of course. But there amidst the black type, he spies something else that the rest of us don’t. “I look for the [...]

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Becoming Visible with Workplace English

2022-10-18T15:58:46-04:00By |Articles|

In California’s affluent Silicon Valley, there are thousands of residents whom Dr. Guadalupe Valdés describes as “the invisible people.” They are the gardeners, the cleaners, the cooks: the cadre of tradespeople who are nowhere near affluent. They are the Latinx immigrants, primarily from Latin America, working in low-wage jobs. Although they brought little from their countries, their low income and diminished class status traveled with them. But so did their aspirations. The major hurdle many of them face is not being equipped with the English they need in their workplaces. Guadalupe’s English Together program is changing [...]

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49. How Bilinguals Find Their ‘Where’

2021-05-12T09:54:42-04:00By |Episodes|

49. How Bilinguals Find Their ‘Where’ In Episode 49, Steve introduces seven bilinguals whose new language came alive for them when they found where in their lives it should live. Lorna Auerbach is one of them. She had struggled as a young student trying to learn a second language. But later, as an adult, she blossomed when she connected her “where” to the work she was passionate about—and found the language that she really wanted to learn. Lorna Auerbach Father Chuck Durante is another. A Catholic priest, he [...]

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April 2021

48. How should you learn your new language?

2021-05-11T18:29:32-04:00By |Episodes|

48.How Should You Learn Your New Language? Dr. Guadalupe Valdés with the much-revered sociolinguist Joshua Fishman in front of the Stanford Graduate School of Education, where Guadalupe is a professor. You’ll hear in this episode why Steve feels indebted to them. If how you’re going to learn a new language is the first question you consider on your bilingual journey, Steve has a surprise for you. In Episode 48, he reveals an even more important question to ask yourself about that new language—before you decide how you’ll learn it. It’s [...]

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March 2021

47. When Becoming Bilingual Becomes Irresistible

2021-05-11T18:29:12-04:00By |Episodes|

47. When Becoming Bilingual Becomes Irresistible In Episode 47, Steve shares why he decided in midlife to leave behind a comfortable career as CEO of his own company and light out for the long road to bilingualism. Enjoy this first free audiobook chapter of America’s Bilingual Century by Steve Leveen. You’re listening to the preface of the book, narrated by Sean Pratt. Then check out the story on Sean, and why this award-winning audiobook narrator was so taken with Steve’s book. He’ll also show you how he marked up the [...]

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October 2019

46. Summer Language Camps: A Short-Course on Six We Love

2019-10-30T08:01:34-04:00By |Episodes|

46. Summer Language Camps: A Short-Course on Six We Love Steve (at right) interviews founder Andreina Galavis and logistics director Michael Perez of Camp Lingua in South Florida. Language immersion there is embedded into traditional summer camp activities. How will your child (and perhaps you, too) spend some of next summer’s vacation? Consider enrolling in a summer language immersion program. It’s possible to go from zero to 60 in terms of fluency in a matter of weeks. And with year-abroad programs downsizing into weeks-abroad programs for many college students, a [...]

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September 2019

45. Top Tips from Teachers for Adult Language Learners

2019-10-02T08:10:06-04:00By |Episodes|

45. Top Tips from Teachers for Adult Language Learners Can you guess all the languages that are welcoming you to this podcast? Answers at the end of these episode notes. Take this short quiz: When adult language learners start out, they might sound (a) like a native speaker, (b) like Taylor Swift, (c) like they’re just starting out. One challenge adult language learners have is that they (a) might surpass their kids, (b) might sound like Taylor Swift, (c) act like adults. When encountering speakers of the language they’re [...]

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June 2019

44. Africa’s Relaxed Multilingualism

2019-09-06T12:48:14-04:00By |Episodes|

44. Africa's Relaxed Multilingualism In the west African country of Cameroon, it’s not unusual for youngsters playing a neighborhood game of soccer to encounter different languages among their friends. And throughout Africa, it’s not uncommon for people to speak three languages—even if they don’t write or read all three. How do they do it? And what can the United States learn from this continent of polyglots? For Episode 44 of the America the Bilingual podcast, Steve talked with three African educators he met at the 2018 ACTFL conference. All these gentlemen are teaching [...]

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