When Julie Sedivy was four, her family fled their native Czechoslovakia and settled in Canada. Years later, a return trip to the Czech Republic made her realize she could quickly recover her mother tongue through memories. Sedivy recounts her linguistic journey in a new book called “Memory Speaks.”
“They make me bleed inside every time I talk to them,” says Saber Askar, a US citizen from Yemen, with family still in the war-torn country. “I don’t know what to do. Every time I call, I’m afraid they’re not going to answer anymore.”