• A few myths of bilingualism debunked......

A few myths of bilingualism debunked....

Some bilinguals are born – life-long bilinguals, whilst others, like myself, are made.

This article isn't to look into the differences or advantages of one over the other, but to clarify a few myths, including that being bilingual doesn't require to be speaking and hearing English from the very first day you're born and that other situations can also shape bilinguals, as is the case for me.

My story of bilingualism stems from moving from Russia to the UK during middle school, and being completely immersed in the English speaking environment day and night both at school and at home as my stepfather is English, born and bred.

If you ask me in what language I think and have dreams in, it will be both English and Russian, depending on the day, hour or even minute. I'm constantly switching back and forth between the two, often not sure myself and having to reflect as to what language is predominant in my head at the moment.

I wanted to share my experience of it to show you what's it's really like and to debunk a few myths.

Fluency in both

I must confess that I'm nowhere nearly as fluent as I'd like to be in either of the languages, merely because human brain whilst still being investigated, isn't like a computer that can take unlimited amount of dictionaries ( though even computers have limited memories). Perhaps the fact that I'm nearly fluent in Spanish and French isn't helping the case as I'm continously learning and advancing these languages also.

In any case, it's been scientifically proven that bilinguals know fewer words in either of languages than natives who are monolingual, which makes me feel somewhat less guilty.

I myself witnessed natives of middle age with higher education great jobs and higher than average intellect not knowing all of the vocabulary that they come across in a newspaper- and they had no shame in admitting it! This again makes me feel somewhat better though still determined to continously master as many words as possible from the almightly English and Russian dictionaries.

Computer-like translation

Just because I can speak both languages doesn't make me an automatic translator for whatever phrase or idiom from either of the languages. Languages are different worlds, with different thoughts and ideas that can find an equivalent in another language but this doesn't happen at the snap of (my students') fingers. I'm often met with a disappointed look when I cannot immediately translate of find an equivalent yet when I do, I'm celebrating inside whilst my students take this "achivement" as a given.

I have been involved in business translations and I have effected these successfully but it's been no easy ordeal and I take my hat off to full-time translators as it's an extremely taxing and mentally draining task.

You can easily switch from one language to another in whatever topic

I would struggle to speak Business Russian (though of course it wouldn't take me too long to to get up to speed) as my business education and work experience have entirely been acquired in English. I would equally struggle to express my emotions in English, simply because most of them are shared with my Russian speaking mother and secondly because English culture doesn't exactly encourage emotions sharing in the same way that a Russian does.

Each language is a different and complex world and I often feel a somewhat different version of myself depending on which language I'm speaking.

You're part of both cultures

True, but only to an extent. I will forever be an outsider to the English community and I will never be local to a Russian one. Whilst I can communicate, have relationships and work with either at a native level, I'm always seen as kinda of local but still somewhat of a foreigner by both. Whether or not this is an advantage to belong to both cultures but to neither at the same time, is a different and a difficult debate. I understand both cultures, there are things that I like and don't about both and I can pick and choose without being too emotionally immersed in either of them.

Being bilingual means you're smarter

Well, whilst you have to process a lot of information in a short period of time, the switching over part can take time and will rather make you appear the exact opposite of smart. To add, the fact that you're always using your brain activity on the minimum of two languages, switching over, translating etc, leaves less brain processing power for other learning so whilst you may speak more languages, you may know less in other areas that monolinguals can focus their brain power on.

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To sum up, being bilingual is an amazing experience and it's really a rich and mostly secretive and private world that can only truly be shared with and understood by other bilinguals with the same two languages. But there are so many myths and misconceptions, that I was inspired to write this article to try and clarify some of them, which I hope I have managed to achieve.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to share them below.

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