What is it really like to be Bilingual?
How do people who have two or more native languages live?
Today it’s easy to be bilingual, polylingual, or even polyglot. In a multinational Europe, it is quite difficult to find a country where children would grow up in a purely monolingual environment. Many people in the world speak two or more languages, so bilingualism and multilingualism are inherent in the human brain. If so, what do those who use only one language lack?
I was born and grew up in a community where we had to speak two languages — one at home, in the village, while being in school, and the second one — when we’d go to the nearby city. I never had problems switching between them because most of the time, with my friends, we’d use both languages at the same time.
Bilinguals have a much larger amount of gray matter in the anterior lumbar cortex than monolinguals. When a bilingual speaks one language, this part of the brain blocks the desire to use words and grammar of another language. It’s a kind of mental muscle that becomes stronger and more flexible the more it’s trained. The mind of a bilingual person constantly decides which language and when to use it.
Excellent ability to concentrate, solve problems, and focus, as well as mental flexibility and multitasking skills, are undoubtedly very useful in everyday life. But perhaps the most fascinating advantage of bilingualism opens with age.
Two native languages are cool!
Bilingualism or polylingualism from birth is a chance, not an obstacle. Communicating with bilingual children in their own language is a priceless gift that parents can give. By depriving the child of the opportunity to communicate in the native language, parents hinder the child’s cognitive development. No language course will then be able to compensate for this lost gift, which does not cost parents anything.
Much of a person’s life depends on with whom and to what extent he communicates in a certain language, as well as on how others perceive this multilingualism. It’s one thing when parents speak the same language and outside the parental home, people speak another language. It’s a different matter when each parent speaks their own language and only one of these languages coincides with the language of communication outside the home. It happens that mom speaks one language, dad — the second, and everyone around — the third. And here it’s very important to provide the child with psychological comfort in communicating in his native language.
Bilingualism is good for the brain
Training the brain is like training the muscles. A person who has been involved in sports all his life will be physically stronger than his non-athletic peers in old age. The same goes with the brain: it makes sense to always train it.
The main advantage of bilinguals is their receptivity to knowledge. At the same time, it’s quite possible to learn a language and know it at the same level as the person to whom this language is native. On the other hand, it’s important to define what we generally mean by knowing a language: the ability to express oneself on simple topics or the ability to write literary texts in stylistically correct sentences? If you have the opportunity to communicate in two or more languages from birth, you definitely shouldn’t waste it.
The most common myths about bilinguals
Myth 1 “Bilingualism is a rarity, and if it’s a rarity, it’s just an extra option, why should one be different from others.”
There is nothing unusual about knowing two or more languages, the pace of multilingualism is growing all over the world, and today it’s an integral part of our lives.
Myth 2 “Children must be born geniuses to grow up bilingual.”
Children are born ready to learn languages. They begin to respond to different languages from the fourth day of life. It’s not necessary to be born a genius for this — a young brain has the greatest advantages in learning languages.
Myth 3 “Learning two languages at the same time is confusing. As a result, no language will be thoroughly studied.”
When we are not sure we are explaining the situation correctly to the interlocutor, we try to choose synonyms. While bilinguals have another source of alternatives in their second language, monolinguals do not have the ability to pick words from another language, so they simply try to explain with longer, often confusing phrases or combinations of other words. A person doesn’t confuse language but tries to express their needs as clearly as possible, and it’s very good that he has two options for that.
Myth 4 “Bilingualism leads to language delay.”
Some believe that bilinguals children take more time to start talking. In fact, each child is individual and there is no clear time when the baby should start talking. At some point certain skills develop, whether bilingual or not, everyone will start speaking when verbal communication skills are sufficiently developed.
Myth 5 “Children absorb language from nature. All you need to do is speak to them in the language you want them to learn.”
This idea is partly correct. Children absorb a language while listening to it. But if that’s all they do, they’ll soon be “passive” learners. They can understand spoken language, but their ability to speak or handle written material will be limited.
What happens in the brains of bilingual people
More than half of the world’s people speak at least two languages. Multilingualism provides many social, psychological, and domestic benefits. Bilinguals perform a variety of cognitive and social tasks better than monolinguals, from tests to understanding other people. When a bilingual speaks one language, the frontal cortex constantly suppresses the intention to use words and grammar of another language.
