Bilingual?

Is anyone in here bilingual? If so... when did you learn this language, how has it affected your life & do you feel as if it has benefited you? Do you feel as if you are fluent in this other language (Oh and please state what language you learned)... 

If you migrated to the US, and learned English, do you feel as if you were discriminated against at fist for not knowing English right away? 

*Thanks for the answers. I am struggling to write a paper for my language class about the benefits of learning a second language. Any information is better than none! 

I took about six years of Spanish in school then moved to San Diego and lived about 7 miles from the Mexican border. At first my Spanish was hilarious to them since it's vastly different from what we learned in school. Someone finally explained to me that I sounded like what someone might sound like to me if they walked around quoting Shakespeare.

Anyway, I learned a lot more Spanish when most of my friends were Mexican and while I couldn't sit around discussing physics or world economics, I could consider myself somewhat bilingual. Sadly the whole "use it or lose it" applies and I haven't really spoken serious Spanish in over 10 years. It's pretty bad now. I mean I can get the gist of what someone is saying and most of it if they speak slow enough but I have trouble speaking it

It benefited me for obvious reasons; I was around a lot of people that didn't speak English so I was able to talk to a lot more people than I would have otherwise!

Hi there! I am actually multi-lingual. In addition to English, I speak Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese, and Sign Language. I am completely fluent in English, Spanish, and Italian, and conversational in the others. I learned Sign Language & French as a child, Italian in my early teens, and Spanish & Portuguese in my late teens. It has benefited my life IMMENSELY!!!! I can't even begin to tell you how much joy it has brought to my life and how grateful I am to know all these languages. In addition to being able to communicate with a wide variety of people, it has really taught me to appreciate my mother tongue (English). It has definitely given me a good perspective on other cultures. It has also benefited me career-wise, as I teach Spanish & Italian and my job is a great joy in my life.

If you have any language-related questions at all, don't hesitate to ask! :)

I am. I started learning English when I was around 6 years old and never stopped. I learned it in school. I wouldn't be typing this to you, now if I didn't know English. I think it's made a huge impact in my life. I've made friendships outside of my country and I've visited the US twice since I was fluent and felt pretty much at home. I communicate in English with my boyfriend who is also bilingual, and I was able to go visit him in Europe and talk to all of his friends and family thanks to all of us knowing English, same when we met here in my country, we all used English to communicate.

I suppose it's worth mentioning that my native language is Spanish. I'm also trying to learn a third language, that I will benefit from when I move out of my country.

English is my native language and I have a pretty solid grasp of French and Russian. I will being taking classes for them again in the Spring when grad school starts up. I've continued to practice at least writing in those languages even though the classes have stopped and I have language exchange partners whom I practice speaking with on Skype. I studied Russian in high school and French in university. I'm currently learning Korean since I live here. I haven't had any problems with people laughing at me if my grammar is wrong or anything. Here they seem genuinely appreciative if you try to speak Korean (it's not the easiest language to learn-grammar wise). I have never taken a Korean class. I'm purely self-taught and surround myself with my Korean friends and practice speaking, even if it's just with my young students. My pronunciation is good, I just need to improve my grammar and expand my vocabulary. 

If I have the motivation and time, I would like to eventually learn Chinese and Arabic because they will be important languages to know. Since I want to go into the international aid work, I know my background in French will be a help if I go to some countries in Africa. Luckily I pick up languages fairly easily so it's not hard for me to adjust. 

I'm a native English speaker.  I'm near-fluent in Russian and can understand Spanish (took Spanish all the way through junior high and high school and my father is fluent...however, whenever I try to speak it, some strange mix of Spanish and Russian comes out of my mouth).

I really learned Russian by being thrown into the wilds of Russia and having to survive by speaking it (no speaky, no eaty).  You learn it pretty quickly that way.  Frankly, trying to learn a language in a classroom alone is something I find to be a futile activity.

So, learning Russian kept me alive.  That's a big benefit.  Also, for those that have fallen for the myth that Russian is difficult (hello people, there are only six forms a verb can take, as opposed to the quadrillion tenses Spanish has), speaking Russian is impressive. 

I don't use Russian or Spanish for my job, however.  Although, I do use the universal language of mathematics quite frequently.

The first language I learnt was Turkish. Then English.

I didn't know any English when I moved to an English speaking country. It takes a couple of months to pick up the basics once you are immersed in a new language, if you are young enough. Ages 7-10 are great for learning. I was in a very multicultural school, and nobody really picked on you because you didn't speak English. But you had to learn, and quickly.

I cannot overstate the way this has changed my life. I'm not sure that it is just the language that widens your horizons, but the immersion in a different culture. You don't see things the way people around you see them. You question things other people don't, whichever country you are in.

There is a downside: you end up not feeling you belong anywhere. You feel you "pass". There is an upside to the downside: you are happy breaking other barriers in your life, just because you've never felt the comfort of belonging.

I think I've changed the subject to actually living in other countries. But the thing is, with a different language, you can interact with others outside your culture. You read things that your peers can't. You're not as limited in how you get your news, for example. It makes a big difference, every day.

Original Post by dnrothx:

 Also, for those that have fallen for the myth that Russian is difficult (hello people, there are only six forms a verb can take, as opposed to the quadrillion tenses Spanish has), speaking Russian is impressive. 

Agreed. I found Russian easy to learn. I think people are just intimidated by the alphabet used. 

I put my daughter in a Spanish immersion magnet school when from K-8.

The teachers spoke only Spanish from day one.

All of the kids were from English-speaking homes (there were two kids that had one Spanish-speaking parent in the home)

By the 2nd grade, these kids were bi-lingual.  They had every subject in Spanish every day, except for English, which was in English.

In the 4th grade, my daughter had to do a project about our state in spanish.  That thing ended up being about 20 pages long plus illustrations and she wrote the whole thing in Spanish.

The only drawback that I can see to it now is - because the teachers were mainly imported from central and south america, her social studies classes focused almost exclusively on the americas -- she had very minimal exposure to European, African or Asian history/culture.  So in high school, taking world history - all that stuff is brand new to her.

She took Spanish 5 at her high school as a sophomore.  She's planning to do a semester abroad in Spain in college to fully 'cement' the Spanish.

A few times she has been able to offer help to some spanish-speakers that we randomly ran into (they were lost and she was able to translate between them and me so that I could give them directions).  And she has tutored some younger Spanish-speaking kids in English and finds it very helpful to be bilingual in that scenario.

She is planning to be an environmental engineer (this could change - she's 17) so I am not sure how important it will be to her career, but it definitely can't hurt, right?

The results from her magnet school show that children who learn Spanish first end up doing better in English too.  They understand language better overall when they learn one that is very consistent, like Spanish.

Good luck with your paper! 

Original Post by nomoreexcuses:

 They understand language better overall when they learn one that is very consistent, like Spanish.

Not sure what you mean by "consistent," but I'm pretty sure I disagree with you. :D

Original Post by dnrothx:

Original Post by nomoreexcuses:

 They understand language better overall when they learn one that is very consistent, like Spanish.

Not sure what you mean by "consistent," but I'm pretty sure I disagree with you. :D

I mean that it has very few exceptions to rules, unlike English.

If you don't agree, then I would suggest that this is because you did not learn Spanish when you were 4 or 5 years old when your brain was like an information sponge... no you learned later in your life when your neural pathways had already been set to a greater extent.

Original Post by nomoreexcuses:

Original Post by dnrothx:

Original Post by nomoreexcuses:

 They understand language better overall when they learn one that is very consistent, like Spanish.

Not sure what you mean by "consistent," but I'm pretty sure I disagree with you. :D

I mean that it has very few exceptions to rules, unlike English.

If you don't agree, then I would suggest that this is because you did not learn Spanish when you were 4 or 5 years old when your brain was like an information sponge... no you learned later in your life when your neural pathways had already been set to a greater extent.

I don't see how that helps you learn additional languages.  You would think that it would be easier to learn a language with all sorts of "inconsistencies" first and then go to Spanish. :D

i don't know if it's true or not, but it seems from casual observation that some people learn languages more easily than others

however, five year olds learn them easier than 15- or 19- year olds

the kids in the immersion magnet were already exposed to english nearly 100% of the time outside of school - so they were also fluent in English

but in terms of understanding grammar - the consistency of spanish seems to have helped them to learn and understand the grammar rules of both languages

they could very easily identify the exceptions in english grammar and understand that they were exceptions

edit: fixed typo

Ah, but English doesn't really have exceptions because the grammatical rules taught in school are inaccurate due to being oversimplified.  Therefore, Spanish is the language filled with exceptions.

Original Post by dnrothx:

Ah, but English doesn't really have exceptions because the grammatical rules taught in school are inaccurate due to being oversimplified.  

how so?

Original Post by giasbash6260:

Is anyone in here bilingual? If so... when did you learn this language, how has it affected your life & do you feel as if it has benefited you? Do you feel as if you are fluent in this other language (Oh and please state what language you learned)... 

Russian (native), gagauz [turkic] (second language), english (third) and french (fourth)

Knowing these languages has benefited me immensely - Especially when you get lost in, say, Germany, which has a high Turkish population, and can communicate with a person who works in a train station...  And especially if you want to survive in the world to come ...  I look at it this way - knowing only one language is like having only one arm.  Knowing two or more is like having the use of both arms, and then some...

If you migrated to the US, and learned English, do you feel as if you were discriminated against at fist for not knowing English right away? 

 Nope - I came to the U.S. at 12, and my school was very welcoming, although I was expected to learn quickly.  It really only takes about 3 months to start understanding everything, and about 4 to get over the fear of speaking. 

I also studied french in high school and college (U.S.) and then decided to go study abroad in Paris IV - and that was also an amazing experience.  Nobody discrimiated against me, but nobody gave me slack for being a foreigner either (if you are familiar with the european or asian school systems, you know EVERY mistake counts, spelling and grammar included - so points get taken off right until you get down to zero (or equivalent)). 

*Thanks for the answers. I am struggling to write a paper for my language class about the benefits of learning a second language. Any information is better than none! 

 

Original Post by dnrothx:

Original Post by nomoreexcuses:

 They understand language better overall when they learn one that is very consistent, like Spanish.

Not sure what you mean by "consistent," but I'm pretty sure I disagree with you. :D

 I disagree as well

Original Post by alibsam:

Original Post by dnrothx:

 Also, for those that have fallen for the myth that Russian is difficult (hello people, there are only six forms a verb can take, as opposed to the quadrillion tenses Spanish has), speaking Russian is impressive. 

Agreed. I found Russian easy to learn. I think people are just intimidated by the alphabet used. 

Ali - what about skloneniya?  I am just curious because this is the part where most (to whom russian is a second or third language) have difficulties. 

Double Post

Original Post by jezebelina:

Original Post by dnrothx:

Original Post by nomoreexcuses:

 They understand language better overall when they learn one that is very consistent, like Spanish.

Not sure what you mean by "consistent," but I'm pretty sure I disagree with you. :D

 I disagree as well

while you're perfectly free to disagree, there is plenty of actual evidence -- years' and years' worth of children who perform at the top of their class throughout high school and college who started out in an immersion magnet school

your personal ability to learn a particular language isn't what I was discussing

Original Post by nomoreexcuses:

Original Post by jezebelina:

Original Post by dnrothx:

Original Post by nomoreexcuses:

 They understand language better overall when they learn one that is very consistent, like Spanish.

Not sure what you mean by "consistent," but I'm pretty sure I disagree with you. :D

 I disagree as well

while you're perfectly free to disagree, there is plenty of actual evidence -- years' and years' worth of children who perform at the top of their class throughout high school and college who started out in an immersion magnet school

your personal ability to learn a particular language isn't what I was discussing

 

 

 No more - i am not disagreeing wit the benefits of a magnet school.  In fact, I see the benefits of a similar type of arrangement in our son (we speak, and are teaching him, russian and english at the same time). 

What I did disagree with was the comment that it had to be a "consistent" language with few exceptions.  A great example is english and german.  These languages are very similar at their core, and a person who speaks both, will not get as many benefits as a person who speaks, say, english and korean.  IMO - (should mention that I have no studies to back me up).  

Edit: an even better example would be spanish and portuguese, or spanish and italian