ANNAPOLIS, Md. – When author and NML vice president Gregory J. Nedved realized that there were no trivia books pertaining to presidents and their foreign language experiences, he set out to change that. From his background as a professional Chinese-Mandarin linguist and published author, Nedved brings us Presidential Foreign Language Trivia.
Presented in a trivia book format, Nedved’s book about the foreign language backgrounds and experiences of U.S. presidents is a first of its kind. “Seeing how past presidents dealt with language issues can be instructive in today’s debates,” the author notes.
“One thing I hope they will learn is that not all presidents were good in languages or even cared about them. Nor does language skill equate to success as a president,” Nedved adds.
Presidential Foreign Language Trivia is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Xlibris. Stay tuned for an interview with the author later this month!
About the Author
Yankton, SD, native Gregory J. Nedved has over 30 years of experience as a military and government Chinese-Mandarin linguist, translator, interpreter and instructor. Currently a Defense Department historian, he won a 2011 literature award for his research on the Sino-Vietnamese War of 1979. He is also the vice president of the National Museum of Language (NML) in College Park, MD. He led the effort to create NML’s unique International Flag of Language in 2008. He is the author of numerous books and articles in topics as diverse as presidential trivia, steamboats, UFOs, and the Chinese of Deadwood, South Dakota. He has a Bachelor of Arts from Saint Vincent College in history and Masters of Arts from Hawaii Pacific University in diplomacy and military studies. He is also a graduate of the Naval War College Fleet Seminar Program and the University of Chicago’s Advanced Translation Certification Program. He also wrote the books South Dakota Presidential Trivia in 1995 and SDUFO: A Case History in 2004.