Your brain on language

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In this week’s World in Words podcast, a mom-and-pop effort to restore Arabic script to street signs in Israel. Also, author Katherine Russell Rich on learning Hindi at a language school in Rajasthan. Her book “Dreaming in Hindi” is also an investigation into what happens to our brains when we learn a learn a language. Plus, a somewhat shameful expression in Spanish.Download MP3

Show Ender: De-coding the Alhambra

Investigators are trying to catalog the thousands of Arabic inscriptions that cover the walls and columns of the Alhambra in Granada. The Alhambra was the last Moorish fort to fall to the Christians during the Spanish conquest. Its inscriptions shed light on its history. The World’s Gerry Hadden reports from Granada. And we end our broadcast with music from a New York-based ensemble called Alhambra. Listen

The language of Guadeloupe and Martinique, Spanish unity and disunity, and teaching English in France part 2

This week, the language of Guadeloupe and Martinique. Also, more from an American in Paris and her attempts to teach English there. And Spaniards are divided over which song captures the nation’s spirit. Listen