Word of Mouth - Remembering Mother Tongues
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Michael Rosen asks Julie Sedivy about what happens when we lose our first language.
Julie Sedivy's family left their home country, the former Czechoslovakia, when Julie was a small child. They arrived in Canada as refugees with no English. Michael and Julie discuss the role of language within Julie's family story: how young children assimilate, how parents adapt and what can learned from these family experiences for the whole of society.
Julie Sedivy is a Canadian writer and language scientist, whose book on losing and reclaiming her first language is called Memory Speaks.
Producer: Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio, Bristol.
Published on Wednesday, 2nd February 2022.
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