About the Author

Born in Virginia in 1934, Franklin E. Huffman received a BA degree from Bridgewater College in 1955 and a PhD from Cornell in 1967. Huffman taught Thai, Cambodian, Vietnamese and Southeast Asian linguistics as a professor of linguistics and Asian studies at Yale University (1967-72) and Cornell University (1972-85).

In 1985, Dr. Huffman joined the U.S. Foreign Service and served in the United Kingdom, Burma, Morocco, France, Washington, Cambodia (twice), New Zealand and Chad. He retired from the Foreign Service in 1999.

Frank Huffman is the author of ten books on Southeast Asian languages and linguistics. He has spent some ten years in Asia, and has worked and traveled in more than eighty countries of the world. He and his wife Sanda, a professional interpreter, live in Washington, D.C.