Bilingualism is it good? Or is it bad?

[Taj Pereira]

It is generally believed that bilingualism is beneficial for cognitive function .

[Andyboi]

IMPORTANT FACT: More languages = More money

[The Economist]

IMPORTANT FACT: More languages = More money

Yes because you don't learn a language to communicate with people from different cultures, to comprehend the ideology of other individuals, to travel and connect with the rest of the world. We need money, people. Money is everything.

[Summer Glau]

IMPORTANT FACT: More languages = More money

What do you mean by more money? A higher-paid job? If so, then this is not necessarily true. You will only get paid more if you actually use more than one language in your day-to-day job. If you are fluent in French, Russian, Afrikaans, Greek, and English and you apply for a job where the only language required is English, then do you really think your employer will care if you speak four other languages? You will get paid the same amount of money as someone who only speaks English. Looking at it from a financial perspective (which is what you are looking at it from), knowing all the other languages will be of no use to you...

[Award Winning Boss]

IMPORTANT FACT: More languages = More money

Learn languages for the sake of improving yourself rather than the money you'll enjoy it a lot more

curse my horrible language skills

[macrofire]

I read this in an article and it sort of makes sense. Being bilingual gives your brain a tough workout, which would decrease brain work efficiency, initially. This workout does make the brain work to combat this deficiency and in the process bolsters cognitive skills...if I remember correctly. At any rate, because of the extra work-out, bilingual speakers, or polyglots in general, will have a significantly lesser chance of contracting Alzheimer's etc.

I think.

[Beni]

I like being able to speak more than just 1 language, it opens many doors.

Additionally, my situation somewhat requires it

Native languages are English and German but I live in Luxembourg and also speak that language. I also speak French because the official administrative language here is French and 2 of the 3 neighboring countries also use it.

And yes, I do generally use all 4 languages a day, some more than others.

Obviously it can get very confusing, especially since German-Luxembourgish are very similar and when it comes to English-French some words can be almost identical and so I sometimes accidentally make up words when speaking French

Oh, and because of all those languages I have a weird accent in each language

[funny10sport]

Bilingualism is good. Great even! (Even more so, if you could speak more than two languages).

Here in Canada, if you are bilingual, (to be more specific, I meant bilingual in English and French) you have better chances at getting jobs and having higher recommendations.

But not only that, the fact that you can converse with more people because you speak various languages is wonderful. You are no longer restricted to one specific language, but you can speak two, thus improving global communication.

And along with every language, there is a culture behind it. When you learn a language, you often (if you're willing) learn about a different culture too! Then that creates a wider understanding between different nations and communities.

[Jasmeena]

My oppinion is that bilingualism is amazing!!!! And I would be strongly for it!! Anywhere, anytime, any languanges

My mother is Slovenian and my father is Bosnian and one of my... cousins is English. I know those are two similar languanges (Slovenian and Bosnian), but English isn't, and I live in Croatia. And the fact is that I grew up with the knowledge of all four languanges and I'm doing great now! it feels soo right to speak with a Slovenian on their native languange, and with anyone else with another. It feels really natural to be speaking in any of those languanges, maybe just because I've been learning all of them simultaneously and, well I think they're equal in importance for me, and should be that way.. It lead to some problems when I was little when I mixed up some of Slovenian and Bosnian words for the Croatian ones, and tend to do it now (rarely, but I do ), and sometimes I just wasn't able to think of the Croatian word for something (I can't even now ) so I just said sth in English or Slovenian. And I haad some problems when teachers asked to draw or express the flow of my thoughts and I wasn't sure in which languange were they, so it all came out really messed up ...

So, although there is the danger (?) of forgetting a languange, and loosing it's identity it is possible to learn all languanges (in a country, or region) simultaneously because they all usually derive from the same languange. And even if not, if bilingualism is such a problem for someone, he can choose to learn both languanges but only focus on one (their thoughts, spoken languange) and when necessary - speak the other languange.

All in all, in my oppinion, bilingualism can only bring good things. New words to different languanges, new cultures... It just broadens our horizons, and as an IB student... well, you know my answer... I'M ALL FOR BILINGUALISM!

[milk out of nose]

I think it is a definite benefit being bilingual.

Understanding two languages really gives you insight into how people from different countries can see things in a totally different light because you yourself can understand both sides.

[HardHead]

Im quadrilingual (if you say it like that ) I speak spanish, english, bosnian and italian fluently, sometimes I think in those languages its weird you know. I find that its good, its a bigger chance of getting a job.

Edited June 7, 2012 by HardHead

[Arrowhead]

I read this in an article and it sort of makes sense. Being bilingual gives your brain a tough workout, which would decrease brain work efficiency, initially. This workout does make the brain work to combat this deficiency and in the process bolsters cognitive skills...if I remember correctly. At any rate, because of the extra work-out, bilingual speakers, or polyglots in general, will have a significantly lesser chance of contracting Alzheimer's etc.

I think.

Do you possibly have a link to this article?

[caroline.st18]

I would like to be bilingual, but unfotunately i am not

[KattigKatt]

As people has brought up earlier in this thread, I think that except of possible national and cultural "rootlessness," the main potential problem is that younger people (say 5-18 years) might get too "split" into the different languages. Intellectual maturity, or whatever I should call it, requires strong skills in a native language. This strongly boosts confidence, and this language is working as a thorough system used for thinking.

I very much agree with this and but I also think that it is important to learn a second language to brodern your views and to get new impresions and be able to see the world in different ways. What you could do is to really focuss on developing your TWO or more languages but that recuires energy and commitment, else you could end up rootless as above stated.

[IB-Adam]

Whenever I get stronger in English, I get weaker in Swedish. I speak and read better and faster in Swedish but I write better in English when it comes to formal writing. I never learnt formal writing in Swedish

[macrofire]

I read this in an article and it sort of makes sense. Being bilingual gives your brain a tough workout, which would decrease brain work efficiency, initially. This workout does make the brain work to combat this deficiency and in the process bolsters cognitive skills...if I remember correctly. At any rate, because of the extra work-out, bilingual speakers, or polyglots in general, will have a significantly lesser chance of contracting Alzheimer's etc.

I think.

Do you possibly have a link to this article?

Here is the link

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/opinion/sunday/the-benefits-of-bilingualism.html?_r=1&gwh=AA8E054AB7415A0A05A5D5C7F0076E90

[IBidiot]

I love learning languages! Besides the facts that it can be fun, it really really helps my memory. I also find that it is fun to talk with someone in another language while the person next to you is giving you a crazy expression, trying yo figure out what the heck is being said The internal effects are interseting though

[vals]

Well, my situation is a bit different from yours... I was born and brought up in Italy, but being my mum Polish, we always used to go to Poland for holidays... The fact, though, is that I've never really learned how to speak Polish, because she used to speak to me in Italian as a child - she's fluent in it. I understand 95% of what people say, but cannot work out a decent answer if they ask me something. I can read, write, spell correctly... But my speaking skills are lacking a tad.
It makes me feel inferior and stupid... And the fact that I've just moved to Poland is making it even worse. Thankfully, it's getting better and better as time goes by, and having a Polish class for foreigners really pays off. Although my classmates don't take it too seriously. But well.

If we do not consider my "deficit" in polish speaking (it's also a problem of shyness... I'm not the expansive type of person, I like keeping things to myself), I'm trilingual
in Italian, English and Polish (in order of proficiency). I've also learned French for 3 yrs (and I'm quite fluent in it, although I haven't been practicing it for ages!) and I've just started learning Spanish this year... But I already picked up some vocab during my summer holidays in Spain. Moreover, Spanish and French are really similar to Italian so that gives me a good advantage when it comes to these languages - I understand most of what's being said, and I like that

I'd say that multilingualism is a priceless skill that everyone should treasure. We should all "nourish" our neurons by exposing ourselves to all of our languages daily.

p.s. I forgot to mention my newly-acquired skills in Esperanto. Overachiever

Edited December 2, 2013 by vals

[Simigee]

In my Spanish HL class we did a little mini unit on the importance of Multilingualism and Bilingualism- we looked at issues in Barcelona and the rest of Spain in particular.

The students in Barcelona are having to learn Catalan, Spanish AND English in schools- and in the IB program many students take more languages.

I attended SEK in Barcelona for two weeks as an exchange program and my partner knew how to speak French, English, Catalan, Spanish and German... FLUENTLY

They normally use Spanish in the terms of tourism in Barcelona

Catalan is used as their first language and the language primarily still exists just because it's a part of Barcelona's culture.

Similar to here in Canada, with learning French and the separation of culture between Quebec and the rest of Canada, Barcelona had some issues with being involved with the rest of Spain. They felt that they were being cheated by the Spanish government as they paid high taxes and most of their tax money went to other places in Spain such as Madrid.

In class we learned how Multilingualism and Bilingualism is important because it allows people to learn more on other countries and other cultures. Also it helps in the development of our communicative skills and with the development of language and speech development sections in our brains. Exercising to learn a new language is beneficial for our brains.

[r1111]

There are so many billions of people on Earth. We are all so diverse. Why should be afraid of this diversity? Is diversity not a good thing? We want biodiversity and we like to be able to have a lot of choices of things to buy so why shouldn't we accept cultural diversity? We can really learn from other cultures and other people. we should learn many languages and utilize them to communicate with other people and have an easier and more meaningful time travelling to other places. I think it really helps one become more open-minded.

I think it's good that I am learning French in the IB Diploma as this may be beneficial if I move to Canada. Also, I didn't just learn the language but also a lot about french culture. Finally, I feel privileged to go to an international school with people from such diverse backgrounds. Before I used to be annoyed at those people who didn't speak English very well/often but now I realize it's hard to learn a new language and I shouldn't judge others.