Nina Porzucki

Immigrant communities on the eastern seaboard are among those bearing the brunt of Hurricane Sandy. Konstantin Dubyago tells host Lisa Mullins how his neighborhood’s large Russian community is coping in the storm’s aftermath.

A Hebrew immersion charter school in New York has attracted students from a diversity of backgrounds. But some educators worry that schools like this one are too narrow in their appeal.

Some California candidates have chosen to use auspicious Chinese names to attract votes.

In official China, Mandarin is favored over all other dialects. That has had a knock-on effect here in the US, where Cantonese used to be the dominant Chinese language. Reporter Nina Porzucki reports from New York on how Cantonese is faring.

Many people learned their first foreign words from their grandmothers. Marco Werman learned a Dutch curse. Nina Porzucki learned a Yiddish word that speaks to a certain Jewish mindset. Poet Marilyn Chin learned insults, puns and tongue twisters.