Author, journalist and linguist Michael Erard will be at The Writing Barn on April 28 to celebrate the launch of his new book Babel No More: The Search for the World’s Most Extraordinary Language Learners.
Here’s a description of the book, which has received good reviews:
“If you’ve ever tried to learn another language, you know how much time, energy, and brain power is required. Imagine a person who can pick up languages very easily. Someone who can navigate our world’s multilingual hullaballoo. Who can leap language barriers with a single bound. Who can learn without effort and remember indelibly. Such people aren’t parrots. They’re not computers. They’re language superlearners.
Michael Erard searched for these people, and when he found them — in history books and living among us — he tried to make sense of their linguistic feats and their mental powers.”
We asked Michael a few questions in anticipation of his book launch party:
WB: Tell us about your book.
ME: It’s a quest to try to find the most multilingual person in the world, which requires understanding what it means to be multilingual in the first place, as well as what criteria you would use to determine the skills of a massively multilingual person. It’s the first serious book to ever provide an answer to the question, What are the upper limits of the ability to speak, use, and remember languages?
WB: What inspired you to write it?
ME: In general, I’m interested in exploring our relationships to the language users and performers who are these powerful cultural ideals. Does anyone embody the ideal? Where does the ideal come from, and can it be anything but myth? I had my own bouts with languages, which continue to fascinate me (both the bouts and the languages). I was also interested in hyperpolyglots because linguists hadn’t really studied them.
WB: What are your plans for your book launch party?
ME: It’s a chance to get to see Austin friends and family and celebrate the publication of this book, which was partly written at Frank Dobie’s Paisano ranch and partly in Maine, where I currently live.
WB: Do you prefer sweet or sour?
ME: Sweet for breakfast. Something a little sour (citrus, cheese) for dessert.
WB: List in order of importance: Play, Work, Coffee, Tea, Chocolate, Sleep.
ME: Coffee, work, play, chocolate, sleep, tea.
See The Writing Barn‘s April events for more details.