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.
A big “Bravo!” to America’s language teachers. The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages--their acronym ACTFL (pronounced ACT-Full) is fitting. Its Lead with Languages campaign encourages bilingualism for all.
This episode was written by me, Steve Leveen, and our producer Fernando Air-nandez, who also does sound design and mixing. Our editorial consultants are Maja Thomas and Mim Harrison, research assistance from Alma Flores-Perez.
Graphic Arts are created by Carlos Plaza Design Studio.
Special thanks to Rev. Dr. James Katinas for letting us record in the sound studio of the Saint Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Thanks as well to Greek Language School Director, Dr. Stavroula Christodoulou, the teachers of the St. Demetrios Greek School, and to Anastasia Kastrenakes Merkel for sharing her recording of the Chants of the Fathers of the Holy Monastery of Gregoriou Mount Athos.
Additional music and sound in this episode:
Rast’e Tou Teke by Costa and Nero - Rast'e Tou Teke
Released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share alike 3.0 International License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Costa_and_Nero/On_A_Steady_Diet_of_Hash_Bread__Salt/soundeyet_-_ON_A_STEADY_DIET_OF_HASH_BREAD__SALT_-_03_Raste_Tou_Teke
Beach Party by Kevin Macleod
http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Kevin_MacLeod/Global_Sampler/Beach_Party
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Changes include high pass EQ Filter.
Quasi Motion by Kevin Macleod
Released under a Creative Commons Attribution License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Kevin_MacLeod/Global_Sampler/Quasi_Motion
Land Legs by Andy G. Cohen
Released under a Creative Commons Attribution International License
https://andyg.co/hen/
Seikilos Epitaph with the Lyre of Apollo by Lina Palera
Released under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 International License.
http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Lina_Palera_Lyre_20_Project_player/An_Appreciation/01_Seikilos_Epitaph_with_the_Lyre_of_Apollo
Bathed in fine dust by Andy G. Cohen
Released under a Creative Commons Attribution International License
https://andyg.co/hen/
http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Andy_G_Cohen/MUL__DIV_1198/Andy_G_Cohen_-_MULDIV_-_07_-_Bathed_in_Fine_Dust
Aurea Carmina - Full mix by Kevin Macleod
Released under a Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Kevin_MacLeod/Best_of_2014_1461/Aurea_Carmina
Chicle Bombita by Francisco Penilla
Courtesy by the author. Whose work can be found at https://soundcloud.com/francisco-penilla
Chants of the Fathers of the Holy Monestary of Gregoriou Mount Athos
Courtesy of Annastasia Kastrenakes Merkel’s personal recordings.
Sounds:
Drunk teenagers by Zabuhailo
Released under a Creative Commons Attribution license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
http://freesound.org/people/Zabuhailo/sounds/195721/
Crowd sounds by Sagetyrtle
http://freesound.org/people/sagetyrtle/sounds/102096/
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons 0 License http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
