Life as a Bilingual

The reality of living with two (or more) languages.

by Francois Grosjean, Ph.D.

The Linguistic and Cultural Skills of Sleeper Agents

By Francois Grosjean, Ph.D. on January 8, 2012 in Life as a Bilingual

Sleeper agents, that is spies who have been infiltrated into a target country, are very special bicultural bilinguals. They have to develop linguistic and cultural skills that are rarely required of regular bilinguals. Read More

Sleepers' Special Stress

Submitted by Nelida K. on January 9, 2012 - 1:27pm.

Fascinating post about the cloak-and-dagger world. I really had never stopped to think about all the complexities sleepers (that is, sleeper agents) had to deal with, linguistically and culturally, in performing their role. Quite stressful, and an important part of their not getting caught. I guess they were really linguists/translators/localizers in disguise...

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François Grosjean, Ph.D., is Emeritus Professor of psycholinguistics at the University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland. His most recent book is Bilingual: Life and Reality (2010).

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