45“affect” and “effect”) as the sun set over
the Pacific Ocean.
Why do people stop and talk?
I knew people would come. I know peo-
ple care about how their language is put
together, how they use it, how well they
use it, whether they’re doing it right for
a particular context, where they need to
be more formal. I teach grammar classes
pretty regularly to adults in a work envi-
ronment, and it’s a very sensitive topic for
a lot of them. Many people feel insecure
about their knowledge of grammar. They
wish they knew more. They wish they
had more control over the
structure of their sentences.
People want to talk about it.
And they do!
Are they always satisfied
with your answers?
For me, when I’m sitting at
Grammar Table, there real-
ly isn’t an orthodoxy. I often
have ten different books in
front of me because I like
to think broadly. I’ve added
a linguistics book recently
so I can be more represen tative of differ-
ent points of view. English is of the world
now. There are multiple Englishes. Ro-
bust Englishes that have a foundation of
centuries or maybe [from] places where
it’s taken root more recently and is influ-
enced tremendously by local culture and
vocabulary.
Why grammar?
It connects to me emotionally. Maybe
it does that more for me than for other
people. It’s always spoken to me. Having
some clue about the architecture of the
language or the writing system or the
grammar just makes me feel more a part
of it, of the world that it comes from.
So there’s also a cultural attraction?
For me as an American, I feel that there is
an extra importance to say to people from
other parts of the world, with other native
languages, that I think your culture and
your language is important. I’m curious
about it and here’s a sign, it’s not just lip
service, because I’m making a fool of my-
self right now, trying to pronounce your
language correctly. To make that effort
really says something to another person.
You’ve studied 21 languages. Are people
always receptive?
You could study a commonly studied lan-
guage for three years, and then you talk
to some people who speak it, and they’re
like, yeah, whatever. Germans are not that
impressed by Americans’ efforts to learn
German, in my experience, but you learn
three words of Urdu, and people are so
nice to you about it and so appreciative
and pat you on the back. It has meaning.You mentioned Germany. You lived
there as a child. Tell us about that.
I lived there from age two to about age
four, so I spoke German
as a kid, and I have mem-
ories of German kinder-
garten. And I would go
back for six weeks every
summer and two weeks at
Christmas, so I feel very
connected to it. I started
studying German again
when I was 16 and I end-
ed up majoring in it in col-
lege. Then I stopped, forgot
pretty much everything,
and had to restudy it
when I started restudying languages
ten years ago. It’s considered such an in-
credibly hard language in the language-
learning community, and I’m thinking:
What are you talking about?! Have you
studied Polish? Or Russian?What would you like to see happen as a
result of Grammar Table?
My dream would be that there would be
tables everywhere for all kinds of topics,
that people could congregate around, like
the equivalent of an old-fashioned public
square.INTERVIEW 9/2019 Spotlight
affect [E(fekt]
, beeinflussen
appreciative
[E(pri:SEtIv]
, anerkennend, dankbar
congregate
[(kA:NgrIgeIt]
, zusammenkommenlip service [(lIp )s§:vEs]
, Lippenbekenntnis
major [(meIdZ&r] N. Am.
, im Hauptfach studieren
pat [pÄt]
, tätscheln, klopfenEllen likes to look things up: the books she uses at her
Grammar Table vary, but you’ll usually find a selection
of books on grammar, style, usage, and linguistics“Many
people feel
insecure
about their
knowledge
of grammar.
They wish
they knew
more”