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 one of the pivotal lessons Steve learned when researching his book, America’s Bilingual Century, and he thanks Guadalupe Valdés, a professor at Stanford, for enlightening him.

Enjoy this second audiobook chapter of America’s Bilingual Century. You’re listening to Chapter 1, narrated by Sean Pratt.

HEAR THE STORY

Listen on iTunes by clicking here: America the Bilingual by Steve Leveen on iTunes. Or on SoundCloud here. Steve comments on Twitter as well.

CREDITS

Support for the America the Bilingual project comes from the Levenger Foundation.

Support for our podcast episodes comes from members of the America the Bilingual Project team, including Caroline Doughty, our audio and digital book maven; Fernando Hernández and his production house, Esto No Es Radio, who provide sound design and mixing; Mim Harrison, our editorial and brand director; Carlos Plaza, our creative director; and Karla Hernandez at Daruma Tech, who manages our website. Meet the entire America the Bilingual team—including our bark-lingual mascot, Chet—here.

Like the music? It’s “Quasi Motion” by Kevin Macleod at the start of the episode and then “West in Africa” by John Bartmann.

We invite you to follow America the Bilingual on Facebook, along with the Lead with Languages campaign run by our friends at ACTFL—The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.