40: Children of a Silent God: A Bilingual Journey Through American Sign Language While bilingual schools for spoken languages are becoming more popular in America, fewer children are attending bilingual schools for signed languages. What does that mean for deaf children who should be learning ASL—American Sign Language—as their first language, and at a young age? And what, if anything, can reverse the trend?  In this episode, we talk with two professionals from Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., the world’s leading university for the deaf; an attorney for education policy at the National [...]

 38. STARTALK: Another Peace Corps for the 21st Century On September 11, 2001, the value of knowing another language was probably the last thing on the minds of most Americans. But 9/11 revealed another fissure in this country’s infrastructure: the thousands of jobs going unfilled in our intelligence agencies because not enough Americans speak the language of the countries these agencies must understand. The Department of Defense has done something about it. In 2007, its National Security Agency started funding a summer program throughout the country to teach what it identified as critical-need [...]

 36. A Tidal Wave of Love: The John Rassias Legacy In our continuing series of episodes featuring the most well-known summer language immersion programs in America, in Episode 36 we travel to Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, home of the famed Rassias Center, named in honor of the beloved professor John Rassias. For years, almost since I began studying bilingualism in America, I heard about John Rassias—mostly from former students who raved about how he was such an inspiring and effective teacher. I knew I would have to learn more about him and [...]

34. Parents, Give Your Child Bilingual Wings Jenny (front row, far left) and husband Mike (top row, far right) with some of their scholarship students at the Speedwell Foundation’s annual picnic. Jenny K. Messner credits the high school cultural exchange program of AFS with transforming her life. Living in Brazil for a year in the 1970s, Jenny learned a new culture, became fluent in Portuguese, and parlayed her language skills into a career in international finance. Then she found a way to help hundreds of other young American bilinguals-to-be follow in [...]

32. Why a World War II Survivor Adopted the Enemy’s Language Bill Davis recording for America the Bilingual at his home on the Côte d’Azur. Listen to Steve’s conversation with octogenarian Bill Davis, whose bilingualism was essential to an unexpected—and rewarding—life after World War II. Bill describes what it was like to hide in the mountains during the Second World War to escape the enemy, all the while loving the language of the enemy. Years later, he had another, very different escape…from a future American president. So that we don’t give [...]