I recently had a chance to review How Languages Saved Me. This book was a great example of family members working together to share a story. The subject of the memoir, Tadeusz Haska, admits that he started working on it at the insistence of the women in his life. Although he died before completion, his granddaughter used recordings, journals, and letters to be able to write his story in his own words.
Tad was clearly an amazing man. He knew nine languages, which helped him get opportunities before WWII, survive the war itself, and make a living after the war. It's a fairly quick read, but it moves rapidly through his life and jobs as a translator for farmers, POWs, and more. His language abilities helped him impersonate Germans, escape Soviet jail, flee to Sweden, and smuggle his wife on an all-male Naval ship.
Tad was clearly an amazing man. He knew nine languages, which helped him get opportunities before WWII, survive the war itself, and make a living after the war. It's a fairly quick read, but it moves rapidly through his life and jobs as a translator for farmers, POWs, and more. His language abilities helped him impersonate Germans, escape Soviet jail, flee to Sweden, and smuggle his wife on an all-male Naval ship.
Tad would have been a fascinating man to know, with the crazy experiences and amazing fluency with languages he had. As a language teacher who has taught myself several additional languages beyond what I majored in, it's great to see a clear example of what languages did for one man!
TADEUSZ HASKA was born in 1919 in MikoĊajki, Poland, and died in Monterey, California, in 2012. Orphaned at the age of 12, he used his knowledge of nine languages to survive World War II. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1949, where he earned his Ph.D. at University of California, Berkeley in Linguistics in his ninth language -- English. He taught, and served as chairman, in the Polish Department at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, CA for 35 years. His work was featured on the TV program The Big Picture.
STEFANIE NAUMANN, Tadeusz’s granddaughter, is a Professor of Management in the Eberhardt School of Business at University of the Pacific, where she has taught for 20 years. She earned her Ph.D. from Louisiana State University, and has published over 30 journal articles. She is a 20+ year member of the Academy of Management, a lifetime member of the Polish American Genealogical Society of America, and has earned awards for her research, teaching, and service.
How Languages Saved Me [Koehler Books] will be available in hardcover, paperback, and ebook formats wherever books are sold as of September 24, 2019. Pre-order a copy today on Amazon.
Connect with Stefanie Naumann on Facebook, Goodreads, LinkedIn, and at https://stefanienaumann.com/
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