At the Washington Post, Global Health Security author Lawrence Gostin analyzed the legality of President Biden’s federal mandate requiring COVID-19 vaccination or testing in private businesses.On C-SPAN’s Q&A, The Original Meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment coauthors Randy Barnett and Evan Bernick argued that the United States must get its “Constitutional house in order”-and stop chronically misinterpreting the amendment.As citizens debate the merits of bilingual education, as the world’s less dominant languages are driven to extinction, and as many people confront the pain of language loss, this is badly needed wisdom. Countering the widespread view that linguistic pluralism splinters loyalties and communities, Sedivy argues that the struggle to remain connected to an ancestral language and culture is a site of common ground, as people from all backgrounds can recognize the crucial role of language in forming a sense of self.ĭistinctive and timely, Memory Speaks combines a rich body of psychological research with a moving story at once personal and universally resonant. But while studies of multilingual experience provide resources for the teaching and preservation of languages, Sedivy finds that the challenges facing multilingual people are largely political.
In Memory Speaks, she takes on the psychological and social world of multilingualism, exploring the human brain’s capacity to learn-and forget-languages at various stages of life. Recognizing this tension, Sedivy set out to understand the science of language loss and the potential for renewal. Language is an important part of adaptation to a new culture, and immigrants everywhere face pressure to assimilate. As Sedivy realized, more is at stake here than the loss of language: there is also the loss of identity.
By early adulthood she spoke Czech rarely and badly, and when her father died unexpectedly, she lost not only a beloved parent but also her firmest point of connection to her native language. From an award-winning writer and linguist, a scientific and personal meditation on the phenomenon of language loss and the possibility of renewal.Īs a child Julie Sedivy left Czechoslovakia for Canada, and English soon took over her life.