Now available on this website, on Amazon, and in bookstores
Wordstruck!
The Fun and Fascination of Language
Can one book excite the Brain, warm the Heart, tickle the Funny bone, and further a lifelong love of Reading? Wordstruck! delivers.
It’s sixty savory servings of language topics full of humor, imagination and insight that promise to nourish all those parts of you.
A sampling of delights from the pages of Wordstruck!
Why hello and goodbye were once very controversial words
How you can spot a liar by the words they use
Why Shakespeare is a superstar of the English language and who taught him the Hokey-Pokey
How the most American of words–denim, jeans, and dollar—originated in faraway lands
How many Arabic words are in the English language, and how in the world did that happen
How our inconstant consonants and sudden vowel movements drive English learners crazy
What are the two most common ways we murder English grammar
How over 100 people have awakened from head trauma into a whole new linguistic life
What are London cab drivers and Swedish military recruits doing to grow bigger brains
How every one of us is already multilingual with dozens of words
What’s the best month to travel abroad for weird and wild local traditions
- First Place in Humor/Comedy category, Next Generation Indie Book Awards
Finalist in Education/Academic category, Next Generation Indie Book Awards
Finalist in Reference, National Indie Excellence Awards
pg: Enticements from Wordstruck! The Fun and Fascination of Language by Susanna Janssen
3 Who is this author’s most formidable opponent in the world of words
8 Why hello and goodbye were once very controversial words
12 What are the seven things Americans do differently than the rest of the world (Metric is only one)
20 Which literary device do we use so often in everyday speech that our language would be flat without it
29 What game builds biceps, brain power, social skills, and longevity through laughter
34 How you can spot a liar through the words they use and the way they deliver them
39 What’s the real reason we’re always short of time and money
45 Who dreamed up collective animal terms like “a murder of crows” and a “congress of baboons”
48-55 Why Shakespeare is a superstar of the English language and how he learned to do the Hokey-Pokey
56 How the most American of words—denim, jeans, and dollar—originated in faraway lands
70 Where you might end up if you go to Italy and ask to dine al fresco
73 How many Arabic words are in the English language and how in the world did that happen
79 How our inconstant consonants and sudden vowel movements drive English learners crazy
84 What are the two most common ways we murder English grammar
93 What’s the most frequent sound in our language and how it makes English impossible to spell
96 Some of the most hilarious malapropisms on record, and others revealed for the first time
100 Which are the most treacherous tiny words in our language
108 How you too can learn to speak Cockney slang
112 How foreign translations into English can leave you baffled, bemirthed, and possibly battered to boot
116 What are the 20 most provocative foreign words that have no English translation
126 How over 100 people have awakened from head trauma into a whole new linguistic life
135 What are the foreign languages colors “speak” around the world
143 What are France, Italy and Spain doing to stem the absorption of English words into their languages
163-179 Why it’s never too late to learn another language and how the brain thrives on it
169 What are London cab drivers and Swedish military recruits doing to grow bigger brains
177 How every one of us is already multilingual with dozens of words
178 Why the four big myths about learning foreign language deserve to be debunked now
188 How terms like Sputnik, Iron Curtain, and nuclear annihilation molded young baby boomers
193 How what adults say and what children hear are often ridiculously unrelated
207 What’s the biggest reason students in language classes fail to become bilingual
218 How to get rid of that earworm that’s been playing in your head for three weeks
248 What you’ll find while driving the most linguistically colorful (but not the prettiest) highway in California
272 What’s the simple five-minute strategy that makes any dream come true, including becoming bilingual!
282 What’s the best month to travel abroad for weird and wild local traditions
on all aspects of words, language, and cultures
Sample topics:
How “hello” and “goodbye” were once very controversial words.
Foreign Language Acquisition at Any Age
The Myths about Learning Foreign Language–Blown out of the Water!
Why English Is a Mister Toad’s Wild Ride for Second Language Learners
Translations from Foreign to English: Pitfalls and Faux Pas
When English Fails: Untranslatables from Other Languages
Color Worldwide: As a Foreign Language, It Can Be Stranger than Farsi
Travel in Cuba: Go Now, For It Will Never Be the Same Again
The Wonders of the Bilingual Brain, Unfolding Every Day
Five Minutes a Day: Make Your Bilingual (and Any Other Dream) Come True