It has been a while since I profiled a multilingual person. You might remember Maria “going home” to English instead of Spanish, Jeremy describing the challenges of learning Kyrgyz, and Jordi reflecting on “foreignerisms” arising among non-native speakers. Here

Facebook Founder Learns Mandarin Two weeks ago, Mark Zuckerberg spoke with students at Tsinghua University in Beijing.  Apparently he has been learning Mandarin Chinese, because he surprised everybody by speaking in Mandarin. So, how did he do? From my own limited, but immersive, expe

A language I thought I’d forgotten Last week I wrote about my insecurities about my Chinese proficiency and my fear that my skills won’t hold up when I go back to China in the spring. People I’ve spoken to since, who have been in similar positions in the past, assure me that it

Thinking of trains and facing language fear Only five months to go until I leave for China. I’m excited to travel to China, to visit a new part of the country and feel that inexplicable thrill I get whenever I step off the plane in Beijing. But as I start to think more about my

Thoughts on adding to my heritage language It’s been years since I’ve lived in my parents’ home, but—I’m slightly embarrassed to say—my childhood bedroom is still full of my old things. Recently, my parents sent me a box of stuff, mostly books, and