I actually made this significant document (at least to me) for some other sites
but for no reason and in a hot temper i'm puting it right here before u. So that
some of you dont think i'm always agressive and that i could be useful sometimes

This took me hours to write it down and days to get the media file, u would benefit if u pay few minutes

This is a radio interview with a international Jewish hero, the auther of the most
comprehensive Kurdish-inglish dictionary

some words i replay many times but couldnt understand so i left it blank, and names maybe i spelt wrong


Click here to download,listen the interview

anouncer: Michael Chyte is an American citizen, but after spending a year in Israel when
he was in the eighth grade, he was hooked on foreign languages and cultures. Since then
he's traveled the globe studying some 35 different languages, and he considers himself fluent
.in tongues ranging from French to Kurdish
He recently published one of the first, and definitely the most comprehensive, Kurdish-English dictionary
.ever produced. Judi Smether spoke with Michael Chyte as part of our occasional global citizen series

Judi: Tell me when you first realized that you had a talent and a love for languages

Michael: Well, the story goes when I was in first grade
I was bored at the elementary school, and so my [......] Jewish parents took me to
a sociologist-psychologist I guess, and he had me draw pictures and stuff, and basically
he told them that I was bored and to put me into a private school. So next thing I knew
I was in a Hebrew day school—half day English, half day Hebrew—and I stayed there
from first grade through sixth grade. And then in seventh grade, I went to
the college preparatory high school, and there you had to study Latin. And I discovered
in seventh grade that it came very easily to me. And that same year, I discovered in
our attic books of my father's and of my mother's for learning German and Yiddish and Spanish and French. Soon
after that I added Russian to it. So basically it started that way and like a snowball, it began
to grow bigger and bigger. After a couple of years well, I'm also a folk dancer
and a folklorist, and I love if I love a people's music and dance, I just eventually
end up learning the language. So I love the languages of the Balkans and the music of the Balkans

Michael:That would be like Bulgarian and [.....] and [....] Croatian and
Romanian and Albanian and Greek. And once when I had [....] I studied Hungarian as a way of keeping myself
entertained while I was recuperating, But anyway, the seeds of becoming a specialist
in the Middle East were planted when I was in the eighth grade in Israel
with first Hebrew, then Arabic, and then eventually I studied Persian and then Turkish. And
after I had all of those under my belt, so to speak, then I started studying Kurdish. And again
.it was the music and the dance that first hooked me in

Michael:There were these dances from Turkey that I just loved, and I remember
when I was 18 reading a description of a folk dance, and it said this is
a dance of the Kurdish minority of eastern Turkey. And I was [....] basically. I thought to myself
{You mean there's someone in Turkey besides the Turks?}

Judi:You seem to have honed in on Kurdish. You spent 16 years
working on your dictionary, your Kurdish-English dictionary. Was there anything other than
?the music and dance that drew you to that particular language

Michael:It was like [......]. Like no one else cared about it
or was interested in it. So I sort of created a niche for myself. I mean within
Middle Eastern studies just look just about any big university will have
a Near Eastern Studies department where they teach Hebrew and Arabic and Turkish
and Persian. Well, how about Kurdish? Only now for apparently for
.political reasons are they starting to become interested in that
I just—when I hear Kurdish being spoken, something inside me just opens up
Something's very happy. And I have to say that I also feel that way about Dutch
and also about Arabic. I mean there are just certain languages that
.I just have a special affinity for

Judi:How many languages would you say you speak??b

Michael: Well let's distinguish between speaking and studying. I have
.studied around 35 languages. That does not mean that I speak 35 languages
It takes years to actually develop fluency in a language
.and also the passive ability to understand when other people speak That takes years
I have that for Hebrew, for Arabic many dialects of Arabic, for Turkish, for Kurdish, French, because
.I lived in France recently

Judi:How many different places have you lived??b

CHYET: Outside of the United States, I've lived in Israel several times and that
includes the Arab sector of Israel two years in that Arab village. I've lived in Turkey
I've lived in France for a year. And I've traveled. Some people think
.it's a lot, but I'm painfully aware of how little I've traveled actually

Judi:But you have traveled quite a bit in most peoples' book
So you have studied 35 languages traveled all over the world met countless different people from
?different cultures. So do you consider yourself a global citizen

Michael:Yeah. I consider all of the languages
.and music and cultures and foods of the world a richness. And I'm curious about them
I would like to encourage people to tap into their curiosity instead of into their fear
about other people. And now both Europe and the United States are so full of immigrants
from wherever you can imagine. You don't have to go very far in most cases to find
an ethnic grocery or an ethnic restaurant or whatever. And I just think that it
it enriches us all to discover other cultures and find out what things we have in common
.and what things are different

anouncer:Michael Chyte spent five years as
.the Senior Editor of the Voice of America's Kurdish Service
Currently he works as a cataloguer of Middle Eastern languages
.at the Library of Congress. The views expressed in this interview are purely his own
.He spoke with Judi Smether in Washington