Reflection About Bilingualism

With more than half of the world being bilingual nowadays, from which around 50 million are only in the United States, bilingualism is not at all as rare as one may think upon first hearing the word. One of the many interesting things about this phenomenon, about which bilingual people can provide a new and different perspective, is the crucial effect it can have on the way we express ourselves and our emotions. As the author of the article puts it, it can shape the way we communicate and convey our feelings. First of all, corresponding to the vision the paper provides, a person’s first acquired language often has a greater emotional strength than any of the others they may learn later in life. It is the language that they have heard in

It also has an impact on the way people generally act or the behavior that they display in certain situations. One reason why this happens is that, when it comes to our emotions and the way we express them, there are distinctions between our mother tongue and the other languages. Hence, these are linked with different cultural models and emotional scripts. The experience of the author is edifying regarding this matter – she cannot find suitable words in English to describe her baby granddaughter simply because she feels that this register does not adjust to the emotional world to which the baby belongs to her. Therefore, there are also ways of behaving that bilingual people do not embrace when they find themselves in a context which is not tied to their native cultural

”Sometimes switching is a break into the dominant language in a moment of emotion. A teacher or a mother may switch language to be emphatic, to show the same message in a more emphasized way.” This instance shows, in particular, that children are more receptive when they are spoken to in their mother tongue because of the emotional value that it holds for them. This shift can also happen in order to avoid the aforementioned sense of falsehood and even betrayal that they are faced with so often. Finally, the article definitely clarifies the dilemmas that one might have about bilingual people and their lives. The questions that some may ask themselves can be “What does being bilingual really mean?” or “What is the effect that this way of living has upon someone?”. The texts clearly sorts out these matters with powerful arguments from the author’s very own life experience. It proves that being bilingual very often means belonging to two completely different worlds. Hence, this discrepancy has a major effect on our words, actions, and the nature of our demeanor, on the