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 To the Best of Our Knowledge

 


A Five Part Series from TTBOOK!

 

PRI
Public Radio International

WPR
Wisconsin Public Radio

 

 
spacer from Wisconsin Public Radio  

LANGUAGE: THE DRESS OF THOUGHT

Program 08-03-16-A

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Things go better with "biting the wax tadpole"? That doesn't sound right, does it? Yet that's the literal translation of Coca-Cola that Chinese shopkeepers came up with...a set of characters pronounced "ke-kou ke-la." In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge we'll explore the exotic world of foreign languages. We'll hear the confessions of a language fanatic. Also, six-word memoirs. "One life. Six words. What's yours?"

SEGMENT 1:

Elizabeth Little is a writer and editor who collects languages. Her book is called "Biting the Wax Tadpole: Confessions of a Language Fanatic." She tells Jim Fleming about the perils of learning tonal languages, and of being over six feet tall in China. Also, Rachel Fershleiser and Larry Smith are the editors of an on-line storytelling community called "Smith Magazine," and of the book "Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure." They tell Anne Strainchamps how they got started soliciting six-word memoirs, recite some of their favorites, and say that crafting them can become an addiction.

SEGMENT 2:

Derek Bickerton has spent more than 30 years researching Creole languages on four continents for his book, "Bastard Tongues: A Trailblazing Linguist Finds Clues to Our Common Humanity in the World's Lowliest Languages." Bickerton gives Jim Fleming examples of various Creoles and translates them for him, and explains that Creoles were improvised languages people came up with when they had no common language and had to communicate.

SEGMENT 3:

Rick Moranis has had a successful career as an actor, comedian and writer. He's appeared in the films "Ghostbusters," and "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids." He was also a cast member of the long running sketch comedy television series "SCTV." Now he's written and performed a collection of country songs called "The Agoraphobic Cowboy." Moranis' fellow Canadian, Doug Gordon, produced this profile.

CD copies are available at 1-800-747-7444. Ask for program number 08-03-16-A.

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Books:

Elizabeth Little, Biting the Wax Tadpole: Confessions of a Language Fanatic (Melville House Publishing)

Rachel Fershleiser & Larry Smith, eds, Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure From SMITH Magazine (Harper Perennial)

Derek Bickerton, Bastard Tongues: A Trailblazing Linguist Finds Clues to Our Common Humanity in the World's Lowliest Languages (Hill and Wang)
CD: The Agoraphobic Cowboy by Rick Moranis

Websites:


Music:

Distribution dates:

week of 03/16/2008 - hour 1

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Questions and comments can be addressed to: flemingj@wpr.org
     


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