Publisher's Synopsis
In Mother Tongue, Christine Gilbert shows us what it's like to make a life in an unfamiliar world - and in an unfamiliar tongue. Gilbert was a young mother when she boldly uprooted her family to move around the world, studying Mandarin in China, Arabic in Lebanon, and Spanish in Mexico, with her toddler son and all-American husband along for the ride. Their story takes us from Beijing to Beirut, from Cyprus to Chiang Mai, and explores recent breakthroughs in bilingual brain mapping and the controversial debates happening in linguistics right now.