Language supposedly has all these rules.

Most of us never have to think about those rules, but the hidden hand of language guides

nearly every interaction we have with other people, determining whether we connect, entertain,

confuse, insult, or dazzle the people we communicate with.

In Radio Lingo, the new podcast from Duo Lingo and Crooked Media, we explore how language

shapes our world and how our world shapes language.

I'm Amadella Yuckbure.

I'm an audio journalist and James Beard Award winning writer.

I am an awe-void language.

It's complexity and it's simplicity.

The way we can use it to create both distance and understanding.

I'm going to be your guide.

Join us as we take you on a linguistic journey.

From Crooked Media and Duo Lingo, this is Radio Lingo.

New episodes of Tuesdays on your favorite podcast apps.

It was 2006 and like all French sophomores, 16-year-old Waffa Mamache had to decide whether

to specialize in science or the humanities.

But Waffa didn't feel like she had much of a choice.

French was her second language and according to one of her teachers, anything that involved

mastery of the French language like the humanities wasn't for students like Waffa.

Waffa liked her humanities classes.

But after one of her teachers said she began to focus more on her science classes.

...