Episodes

January 2018

21. Preview of Season Two (A Minisode)

21. Preview of Season Two (A Minisode)

2018-01-03T14:22:23-05:00By cecilia constantine|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 [...]

20. Twelve Ways the Gift of Bilingualism is Given

20. Twelve Ways the Gift of Bilingualism is Given

2017-12-19T18:58:08-05:00By cecilia constantine|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 [...]

19. When America Went to War Against the German Language

19. When America Went to War Against the German Language

2017-12-11T17:11:10-05:00By daruma|Episodes|

When America Went to War Against the German Language Americans do remember World War I, but most of us have forgotten the war within our own borders that took place during those same years. After burning German textbooks from Baraboo High School, a crowd turns to a man waving an American flag. Baraboo, Wisconsin, 1918. (Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division.) It was a war against all things German-American, including the teaching of the German language. Our internal war was so violent, destructive and cruel, that as soon as the war in [...]

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

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

2017-11-30T20:22:00-05:00By cecilia constantine|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 [...]

17. When a Gap Year Becomes a Bridge Year

17. When a Gap Year Becomes a Bridge Year

2017-11-08T15:44:38-05:00By cecilia constantine|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 [...]

16. Bless the Late-Blooming Bilinguals

16. Bless the Late-Blooming Bilinguals

2017-12-11T17:05:21-05:00By cecilia constantine|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. [...]

15. Sealed with un Beso

15. Sealed with un Beso

2017-12-11T16:39:09-05:00By cecilia constantine|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 [...]

14. The Vanishing High School Year Abroad

14. The Vanishing High School Year Abroad

2023-08-25T12:35:40-04:00By cecilia constantine|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: [...]

13. Hurricane Irma: a Dispatch from Delray Beach and an Invitation

13. Hurricane Irma: a Dispatch from Delray Beach and an Invitation

2017-12-05T20:43:48-05:00By cecilia constantine|Episodes|

Hurricane Irma: a Dispatch from Delray Beach and an Invitation We were halfway into the production of episode 13 but then Hurricane Irma happened. However, our host Steve Leveen still was able to call and give us an overview of the situation in Delray Beach, Florida. We’ll be back with a new episode in two weeks, but in the meantime, we are re-broadcasting “Little Ketchup Girl”. Here’s the description for said episode: How hard can it be to go up to the counter at McDonald’s and ask for ketchup? The answer might depend on how confident [...]

12. Eastern Star: The Nick Staffa Story

12. Eastern Star: The Nick Staffa Story

2017-12-11T15:57:41-05:00By cecilia constantine|Episodes|

Eastern Star: The Nick Staffa Story Nick Staffa was meant to become a rock star — but the kind who works on a somewhat smaller stage. This kid from Long Island of Italian heritage, would become a rock-star language teacher with a reputation that would spread well beyond the United States. His story has elements of a fairy tale, except that the ending isn’t exactly what we might have expected. Nick Staffa with (L-R) Professor Zeng and Professor Agnes He, at SUNY Stony Brook Listen on iTunes by clicking here: America the Bilingual by Steve Leveen on iTunes [...]