Babel No More

Journalist and author Michael Erard will present a free public talk on “Finding the World’s Most Extraordinary Language Learners (and Other Stories)” at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 30, 2015, in Alumni Recitation Hall, Room 102.

Erard says his second book, Babel No More: The Search for the World’s Most Extraordinary Language Learners, is the account of his “search for the person who could speak the most languages in the world and [his] attempt to understand what that means, both for science and for the rest of us,” and “it is a search for the upper limits of the ability to learn, speak, and use languages.”

His first book, Um…: Slips, Stumbles, and Verbal Blunders, and What They Mean, is a natural history of slips of the tongue, speech disfluencies, and other things we wish we didn’t say (but do).

Erard describes his books as “serious non-fiction that could also be classified as ‘pop linguistics’ and popular science,” and “put a narrative backbone into serious, but fragmented, research into everyday language phenomena.”

Erard’s works have been published in The New York Times, The New York Times Book Review, Science, Wired, Nautilus, Slate, The Atlantic, New Scientist, Reason, The Morning News, and many other magazines and newspapers.

Erard’s talk is sponsored by the Linguistics Concentration.

Grinnell welcomes and encourages the participation of people with disabilities. ARH is wheelchair accessible. Automatic door operators are located on the southeast and southwest sides. Accessible parking is available along Park Street. Accommodations can be requested from the event sponsor or Conference Operations.