"Part parable and part memoir, this powerful meditation on language and memory, teachers and students, has a mysterious and magical force to it. It's a beautiful gift from Robert Radin to his students, and to us, his fortunate readers."--James E. Young, Distinguished University Professor Emeritus, University of Massachusetts Amherst, author of The Stages of Memory, At Memory's Edge, and The Texture of Memory"Robert Radin's book Teaching English to Refugees is a major achievement. This compassionate memoir explores the author's engagement, as a friend and a teacher, with students who seek to find their places in a foreign world. Rather than teach language in the standard ways, Radin takes a different approach, one that imitates the process by which young children first learn. An impressive and stirring story."--Merrill Joan Gerber, Professor of Creative Writing, California Institute of Technology, author of Glimmering Girls and The Victory Gardens of Brooklyn"Robert Radin's Teaching English to Refugees is brilliant, poignant, and profound.

A master storyteller, Radin offers powerful portraits of his adult students, thoughtful commentary on language acquisition, and vivid personal narratives. Teaching English to Refugees is superb creative nonfiction at its best."--Miriam Kotzin, Professor of English, Drexel University, author of Reclaiming the Dead.