Bilingualism is it good? Or is it bad?

[Alison Vicrobeck]

I think that Bilingualism on it's own (aka the fact of speaking two languages) is a good thing. You expand your capacities of communicating with others, it gives you more travelling opportunites and you get to understand different cultures while learning that language. And then there's the other reasons, like the fact that it looks good on your resumé or that it makes you seem more worldly.

But the issue with bilingualism is when you forget your mother tongue, and your original roots, that have made you who you are. Most people when learning a new language ultimately switch from one language to the other, but it shouldn't be that way. The trick is to balance both languages equally.

I speak fluent french and english, and i really do speak them 50-50. And now I'm trying to add an extra language, spanish, but balancing all of it is quite tricky

I think that Bilingualism on it's own (aka the fact of speaking two languages) is a good thing. You expand your capacities of communicating with others, it gives you more travelling opportunites and you get to understand different cultures while learning that language. And then there's the other reasons, like the fact that it looks good on your resumé or that it makes you seem more worldly.

But the issue with bilingualism is when you forget your mother tongue, and your original roots, that have made you who you are. Most people when learning a new language ultimately switch from one language to the other, but it shouldn't be that way. The trick is to balance both languages equally.

I speak fluent french and english, and i really do speak them 50-50. And now I'm trying to add an extra language, spanish, but balancing all of it is quite tricky

[Austin Glau]

The problem is how you learn the language though... its best to learn it after learning English or your native language, and then learn the next one but you might forget the first one

This is statistically incorrect... as far as learning two languages at once, you progress at basically the same speed as if you were only learning one. Multilingual children have better scores in nonverbal intelligence, greater awareness of grammatical structures, etc. There is no disadvantage to learning multiple languages!

You are right of course, i was just reflecting on my experiences at learning 2 languages at once. It may have something to do with the lapse of practice in the first language as well.

[Tman1027]

I envy all you bilingual people. Where I live we don't have any second language offered until 7th grade and that class wasn't really all that helpful. My first major exposure to spanish (my IB group 2) wasn't until freshman year. It would be really helpful if my school system had offered those classes when I was younger, so that I could actually be fluent. It would have opened up so many more options for me.

I think that being bilingual would allow for an assimilation of another culture into yourself. It would allow you to have more opportunity to see from more points of views and understand other cultures more easily. I don't think that it would cause a lose of identity either. You are who you are and only you can change that. On the whole It's a good thing.

[lishnaa]

I was lucky enough to be exposed to Japanese when I was in primary school so that I could keep learning it all the

way through highschool.

It has helped a lot because I remember all the songs from primary school.

My view is that learning a language shows you have an interest in others but yourself.

However if you're in IB and you have to learn it.. well most universities recognise that you have to and

will typically boost your entrance score.

[-PakistaN-]

I dont see anything wrong with being bilingual. I am and If i work on my Arabic enough ill be trilingual but i wont get the Bilingual diploma =\

[Jazmine]

I wish i was bilingual. I didnt grow up learning spanish like many others because of the bilingual system in my districts schools. My parents, my mom more specifically had to suffer through bilingual classes when she was younger because they taught in spanish but tested you in english therefore she didnt want my siblings and myself to have to suffer that fate as well. I'd like to learn the language later on, I mean I can understand most of it if your were to speak it to me, I just cant give it back to you.

Anyone else out there like that?

Edited December 30, 2010 by Jazmine

[rummandcoke]

I've lived in Canada for a very, very long time, and we are about as bilingual as it gets (both English and French, for those who don't know). French is taught in schools, it is mandatory until grade 9 (and mandatory till graduation for IBs unless they choose another language), and by the end of it, they hope that you have at least a vague understanding of the language.

I remember learning in Canadian history about the issue with bilingualism and the government. Canada has both an English-Canadian and a French-Canadian population, (the French-Canadians living in areas such as Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia etc.), and due to the mono-linguistic laws at the time, the French were protesting for their right to protect their language, since they felt that it was a way for them to protect their French-Canadian culture, which is distinct from the rest of Canada.

In this situation, where the language is intrinsically tied with a cultural identity that is distinct from anything else, I DO think that bilingualism is a good thing. I think it's important because French is not just part of French-Canadian life, it's a part of being Canadian in general. This brings to mind a really great quote that I read somewhere, made by one of the PMs who actually brought in the policy of bilingualism: "Of course a bilingual state is more expensive than a unilingual one — but it is a richer state." Not only is learning French a good thing for us, but learning other languages in general helps us express our thoughts in other parts of the world where they do not speak our language. It makes for better knowledge and better minds in general.

However, there are of course some negative aspects to it. For example, I moved to Canada at a young age. I began being exposed to more English in my day to day life than my actual native language, which did make me forget some of it. I think that to be bilingual you need to be exposed to both in equal measure. If my language had been taught in schools, or if there was some possible way for me to have learned it, I definitely would have, but I didn't. Now I can only speak it. My reading skills suck, and I can only write the most basic sentence structures. How's that for being trilingual?

[Proletariat]

I too live in Canada, but unlike rumandcoke French was never mandatory for me. I never learned it at all in elementary (BC and Alberta), and I only took it in Jr. High because I chose to (Alberta again.) When I went to Montreal for the summer is when I realized that that city is the only city in all of Canada that can truly call itself bilingual, where everyone knows both languages (to various degrees certainly, but it's bilingualism nevertheless.) In Edmonton, a city that has a decent Quebecois population and a significant Francophone district, you will never hear someone speak French in public. Walking into a store in Edmonton, you will not be greeted with "Hello Bonjour", the greeting I always, always received from Montreal merchants. No exception. If I want any service that doesn't fall under provincial/federal government jurisdiction, I cannot expect to get bilingual service. In Montreal, there is nothing I can't do with just English.

That said, I've seen the Quebecois culture, lived it firsthand, and I have to say I'm not a big fan. They're inextricably intertwined with the history of Canada, yes, but not its future. 85% of the under 25 in Quebec feel they do not belong in Canada. Quebecois culture is fundamentally different than the rest of Canada. Yes they like hockey, but that's where the similarities end.

To that end, I'm going to have to say bilingualism is a bad idea. For a country like Canada, it's multiculturalism that we should be embracing, not trying to split the population in halves. There's a ton of individuals that would fit in neither, and Quebecois culture isn't half of Canada anyways; if there's anything I learned from my stay in Montreal it's that English has a lot more influence there than the other way around. For Canada, bilingualism is a well-intentioned, but currently archaeic concept, and multiculturalism is the future.

That said, I can't imagine countries like Belgium not being bilingual. I suppose all I can say is that bilingualism is bad in my country.

[rummandcoke]

I too live in Canada, but unlike rumandcoke French was never mandatory for me. I never learned it at all in elementary (BC and Alberta), and I only took it in Jr. High because I chose to (Alberta again.) When I went to Montreal for the summer is when I realized that that city is the only city in all of Canada that can truly call itself bilingual, where everyone knows both languages (to various degrees certainly, but it's bilingualism nevertheless.) In Edmonton, a city that has a decent Quebecois population and a significant Francophone district, you will never hear someone speak French in public. Walking into a store in Edmonton, you will not be greeted with "Hello Bonjour", the greeting I always, always received from Montreal merchants. No exception. If I want any service that doesn't fall under provincial/federal government jurisdiction, I cannot expect to get bilingual service. In Montreal, there is nothing I can't do with just English.

That said, I've seen the Quebecois culture, lived it firsthand, and I have to say I'm not a big fan. They're inextricably intertwined with the history of Canada, yes, but not its future. 85% of the under 25 in Quebec feel they do not belong in Canada. Quebecois culture is fundamentally different than the rest of Canada. Yes they like hockey, but that's where the similarities end.

To that end, I'm going to have to say bilingualism is a bad idea. For a country like Canada, it's multiculturalism that we should be embracing, not trying to split the population in halves. There's a ton of individuals that would fit in neither, and Quebecois culture isn't half of Canada anyways; if there's anything I learned from my stay in Montreal it's that English has a lot more influence there than the other way around. For Canada, bilingualism is a well-intentioned, but currently archaeic concept, and multiculturalism is the future.

That said, I can't imagine countries like Belgium not being bilingual. I suppose all I can say is that bilingualism is bad in my country.

Like you said, English has more of an influence in Montreal and Quebec than the other way around. However, if you did attempt to get rid of bilingualism, it's pretty much assured that a large portion of the population, English and French combined, would be against the decision. Why? Because even though most of them do not speak French, the language is something that is intrinsically tied to Canadian culture. As much as Quebecois culture is different, it is accepted as a part of Canada. Canada might not be half-French and half-English, but it is still French, and the French-speaking minority do have a huge say in the country. Not to mention the huge role they've played in the history of Canada as well. With that in mind, I think bilingualism is necessary, but in this case to honour a large part of our history and our roots, and to show acceptance that despite the differences, Quebecois culture is also Canadian. Canada, to me, has always been that place where it's not your similarities, but your differences that make you Canadian. And the first step to multiculturalism, I think, starts with bilingualism.

The only truly multicultural parts of Canada that I know are Toronto and Vancouver, the latter to the point where it's not just French and English on government services, but also Mandarin, Japanese and Punjabi. But even within the Vancouver area, if you were to move just a few km up north, to somewhere like Whistler, all of that goes away. It's the future, yes, but it's still a long ways away.

Bilingualism, should be used as a tool to make everyone in a country feel like they are a part of that nation. In Canada's case, that was the intention with which it was introduced. Not to broaden differences, but to show acceptance to a group of people and a culture, who even though they are so fundamentally different, are still a part of our country. And if bilingualism is bad, what about countries with more than two official languages? There are some countries with an upwards of nearly 16 different officially recognized languages. It only becomes a bad thing when it's used to highlight differences and exclude people.

[wombat123]

I live in the area of Canada where most of the Chinese are. Even though I'm Chinese myself, I don't speak it; I only speak English. Seeing my cousins entering kindergarten with barely a word of English, my parents decided that raising me on English would be an academically wise decision.

I don't know how many times I've wished to be able speak Chinese. I only started thinking about it in my teen years, but right now I have IB and too many other things on my plate to study it diligently, so for now I'm stuck with English. I think it really does take away the cultural component of my roots; I tend to be closer to my Caucasian friends and therefore get influenced by them because I feel somewhat awkward when some of my other Asian friends will be speaking Chinese, and I'm sort of just standing around and not understanding. Most of my relatives have great difficulty with speaking English, so I can barely talk to them. I'm definitely a "banana" and all of my relatives consider me very westernized. When I hear my Chinese friends talking about life back in China or about their families, I know for sure that I wouldn't be used to the stricter culture, since I am so used to the way things are in the western world which I have been able to connect to far better than my Asian roots because I know its language. So yeah, I think that loss of language does go hand in hand with loss of culture.

[TheRacingHammock]

I live in Germany. My parents are Vietnamese. I was in America last year (Exchange year, high school). And now I'm doing the IB.

The result?

I'm pretty much fluent in all three languages. Trilingual, yay me. Thing is, when I was little, I always complained about having my mom and dad teaching me Vietnamese, now I'm grateful. If you think about all the possibilites that open up for you if you speak more than one language, it's stunning how far you can get.

Being bilingual is not bad, it enables you to have a more complex, a more defined way of looking at things, events, the world as a whole. As you adapt another language, you also adapt its culture. People's values in those countries are (usually) different from your native ones. You learn to see how they see and you learn to act how they act. Of course you still have to reflect for yourself what is right and what is wrong. I'm just saying that if you can learn another language, you should definitely go for it.

But you have to keep in mind which culture you want to stay loyal to. One example, when I was in America I really felt uncomfortable talking English. After a while however it got better and now I love it. It's been 6 months since I came back to Germany and I'm still thinking in English, sort of. German just feels stiff and not as fluent as English, I don't really like it anymore. It doesn't suit me as much as English does.

So what I'm saying is, is that you don't lose the other language, nor do you lose a feeling for its culture. You might just expand on your preferences of speaking a certain languages as you now have the possibility to switch in between different ones.

[Tori tsax]

I live in Germany. My parents are Vietnamese. I was in America last year (Exchange year, high school). And now I'm doing the IB.

The result?

I'm pretty much fluent in all three languages. Trilingual, yay me. Thing is, when I was little, I always complained about having my mom and dad teaching me Vietnamese, now I'm grateful. If you think about all the possibilites that open up for you if you speak more than one language, it's stunning how far you can get.

Being bilingual is not bad, it enables you to have a more complex, a more defined way of looking at things, events, the world as a whole. As you adapt another language, you also adapt its culture. People's values in those countries are (usually) different from your native ones. You learn to see how they see and you learn to act how they act. Of course you still have to reflect for yourself what is right and what is wrong. I'm just saying that if you can learn another language, you should definitely go for it.

But you have to keep in mind which culture you want to stay loyal to. One example, when I was in America I really felt uncomfortable talking English. After a while however it got better and now I love it. It's been 6 months since I came back to Germany and I'm still thinking in English, sort of. German just feels stiff and not as fluent as English, I don't really like it anymore. It doesn't suit me as much as English does.

So what I'm saying is, is that you don't lose the other language, nor do you lose a feeling for its culture. You might just expand on your preferences of speaking a certain languages as you now have the possibility to switch in between different ones.

Wow! that's great! I wish I could have done that. I find that in Europe it's more common to at least be bilingual that in the United States, where I live. However, I am working to be trilingual myself. I speak English of course, I'm pretty fluent in German (even though I'm in German 3 in high school) and now I'm taking Spanish. I wish I had more language exposure. =[

[ILM]

I think that to have more languages is a good thing. But also if it is affecting your old/real language, then it will be dangerous. Bilingualism for nowadays, espically with english is an important thing. English is the language of the world, so i think that learning it will be helpful.

[citizenoftheuniverse]

Bilingualism is good, but multilingualism is better

Though a bad side is, for me at least when I speak english, I have finnish words mixed in and vice versa. Also, since I lived in the US in my childhood, I never learned to roll my Rs, so basically in Finnish I have a speach impediment since I cannot pronounce them properly, which I am pretty insecure about Also, though I consider myself equally good at both english and finnish, my finnish vocab in better in some subjects and my english in others. I have always gone to english speaking schools, so my academic language is strong in english, but weak in finnish. Plus, I usually read english books, so my english reading is faster and vocab better. However, speaking wise finnish is more natural, however, since I am insecure about my Rs, I am self-conscience when I am not talking to friends or family

So that is actually a lot of bad sides, but knowing two languages like mothertongues has made me more open-minded and opened me up for so many more experiances than I could have experianced as a monolingual person. (I don´t think its proper bilingualism if you only learn it at school, if learning spanish and swedish at school counted, I would be multilingual.)

Also, I know a girl who is half ethiopian and half chinese, but she has lived her life in America, Germany and Finland. Assuming her chinese and ethiopian are good, since I wouldn´t know, she speaks at least 4 languages incredibly fluently. Her accent is perfectly american, and her finnish is good enough that she is considering going to a normal finnish school (her mother in law is Finnish), and I don´t know about her german, but she knows so many languages well, that it will probably open up many doors for her in the future!

Edited March 21, 2011 by citizenoftheuniverse

[DexterD]

Newbie here!

I speak Malay, English, Sign language and a bit of Japanese. (I think it's more like: I sign in Sign Language. It's not a spoken language anyway ) I'm Kadazan, one of the ethnic races in the Borneon Island. We have more than 40 different ethnics. But my dad told me we have some caucasian + chinese blood. I've always encounter problem whenever I go inside a chinese shop. The 'tauke' or shop manager will always talk to me in Chinese. I understand a bit (only a bit) of chinese and it always create a misunderstanding.

As i've said i'm Kadazan and we have Kadazan language, but i never learned it and the elders in my kampong will always scold me for not being able to converse in Kadazan . what a shame. We have another dialect, which is the Sabahan Malay dialect. it's a mixture of Malay+Kadazan/Dusun+Chinese languages. I speak malay with my mum, siblings, and my other Sabahan friends. English with my dad, sometimes it's a mixture of Malay and English. I'm more fluent in English than Malay and I even dream and think in English. I find English has more expressions than Malay and I prefer talking in English.

Anybody here who's an Esperanto learner? Would love to meet one. I can get my Esperanto into use. Currently I'm learning Spanish on my own.

Being multilingual really is exciting because it opens up a whole new perspective about the world. People should be encouraged to take up at least 1-2 languages and if that happens, it'd be a wonderful thing in all.

[keepxdreaming:)]

I think bilingualism is excellent because it opens the door to so many more opportunities in the world, especially in the job market. It also helps you connect with more people and teaches tolerance/diversity of everyone.

[dubyawhy]

Tbh, it depends.

If you're American/Australian, nobody needs anything but English there. Learning a new language would take away valuable time from other stuff. People would go "oooh! ah..." but thats all you get from it; 99% of Americans speak English.

If you're from Luxembourg or Switzerland, the expectation would be fluency in 2 or 3 languages. Any less, and you'd be set at a disadvantage in society.

I myself only speak 3, and I really do get jealous sometimes when some of my friends are at home, and I see them speak Spanish to their mums, French to their dads and Chinese to their maids, while they converse with you in English and chat with their online friends in Arabic.

Bilingualism is actually quite common in the world, you know. There are more bilingual people than monolingual people in the world.

I also do like going to America, as it appears speaking 3 languages there is quite a feat, apparently. Makes me feel better about myself

[Eizhowa]

If I weren't bilingual I couldn't talk to you. So it's definitely good!

On the other hand, were I not, I wouldn't be able to do the IB, which would also be good!

[Polo]

I'd like to tackle the problem from another perspective, because what's always bothered me was how easy it is for Spanish, German, Italian people to learn each of these languages. I mean they're so similar, so I don't think that being able for example for a spanish person to speak English widens their horizons much. I'm saying this to draw your attention that not bilingualism itself is valuable but also what kind of languages you can speak. For example my native language is Polish and when I listen to Russian even though I don't speak it I understand most of it, therefore I don't see much value in learning Russian. But English or French which are COMPLETELY different gave me kind of new way of thinking, describing things and so on. I know that it sounds a lot like TOK reflexion but this is basically what I'm trying to say .

[Proletariat]

I always thought German was from a different linguistic family/root/whatever from French and Spanish.

Also, English and French share a lot of similarities; 70% of the vocabulary, in fact.

Ultimately, good and bad are such subjective terms. If an individual wants to learn 6 languages, and feels that each and every one of them will be good to know, then I suppose it's still ultimately good to the individual. From a national policy perspective, it would vary on a case-by-case basis (Belgium: yes; Canada: maybe not so much.)