Kids often imitate French or Chinese speakers without knowing the language. But have you ever tried to imitate the English language or speak fake English? There are lots of YouTube videos that give an idea of what English sounds like to native...
How do children acquire language? Do they start with nouns, like “Mama” and “cat,” then graduate to verbs and other parts of speech? Grant explains that language acquisition starts even earlier, with children simply emulating...
What was your first word? Grant and Martha talk about how children acquire language. Also, if you say that something’s in your wheelhouse, you mean that it’s within your area of expertise. But why “wheelhouse”? And what does...
Martha reviews the new book, Dreaming in Hindi by Katherine Russell Rich, a memoir about setting out to learn a second language in mid-life. Rich spent a year in India to learn Hindi, and became so fascinated with the process that she went on to...
A Minnesotan has been observing his infant babbling, and wonders if words like “mama” and “papa” arise from sounds that babies naturally make anyway. Are there some words or sounds that are instinctive? Or do babies only...