There was an interesting NPR program this weekend about research finding that people who are multilingual have different personalities when they speak different languages. At first I thought this was something really new and amazing. However, after listening to the show, I realize that it's more cultural than anything. For example, the woman in the show shared her experience of going to school and relaxing at recess, speaking Spanish, but then when she got serious and studied, she spoke English. So she considers English much more "cold" than Spanish. When she gets really angry, it's Spanish she speaks, not English. She can speak with emotion better when she speaks Spanish.
What are your thoughts and experiences with speaking two or more languages?
I suspect that those who grow up multilingual from infancy will pick whatever language best expresses a particular idea or emotion under a particular circumstance. The NPR example didn't present someone multilingual from birth - or before birth, for that matter.
I'm not bi-lingual but would guess that most people feel more comfortable speaking in their birth language. Those few mentioned by Geoff who are bi-lingual from infancy would, again at a guess, feel more comfortable with the literal mother's tongue.
Similarly I'd say multi-lingual people would be most comfortable in their birth language; I'd hazard a guess that they'd be next most comfortable in the language they learned second* then the one learned third, and so on.
* Or perhaps the language they speak next most fluently...
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
I've known multi-lingual people who would switch languages mid-sentence when an idea was expressed more readily or precisely in another one. I think we all do it to some degree, even if we're supposedly mono-lingual. Here in the USA, where Spanish is now ubiquitous, I often hear Spanish speakers switching back and forth with English in a single sentence.
Come to think of it, isn't that one of the reasons why we borrow words from different languages and make them English words?
Similarly I'd say multi-lingual people would be most comfortable in their birth language; I'd hazard a guess that they'd be next most comfortable in the language they learned second* then the one learned third, and so on.
I think this is the key, arnie, to the supposed "multi-personalities." It's very clear in both examples they gave. I'd like to see the recent studies, though, that they mention.
Kalleh, for the bilingual from infancy-- Latin Americans & Indo(?)-Americans are the two groups I'm familiar with-- I'd say you had it right in your first post, it's not about personality, it's cultural. I don't think it matches the Sapir-Whorf idea either. These groups are bi-cultural as well. There are going to be ideas, expressions, and phenomena that are connected to only one of those cultures-- hence bilingual-from-birth Latin Americans convsersing in 'Spanglish'.
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This is an interesting piece on the question of being bilingual from birth. It apparently happens when both parents speak different languages at home to their infants/children. That makes sense. I also thought the window of time of learning languages was interesting:
quote:
At the moment, the 'optimal' time for learning a second language appears to be 'at the same time as the first language', i.e. in the home beginning at birth to three years (providing the parents speak these two languages as their mother tongue). The next best time for learning a second, third, and even a fourth language, appears to be between the ages of two to seven years. A third period for learning a second language is from about ten to thirteen years of age, this is in cases when the second language is not the language of either the parents or the environment. This is the reason behind the push to introduce 'foreign' language learning into the curriculum of elementary schools, in the grade when the child is about ten-eleven years old.
Lastly, I thought it interesting to think of "prestige" languages, as opposed to "non-prestige" languages. This was written by a European. Does anyone know which languages are prestige and which aren't? In my experience, we don't have prestige languages in the U.S., though I absolutely could be wrong.
Several countries have main languages which are spoken by only a relatively small number of the world's population. A couple of examples would be the Netherlands and Finland - Dutch and Finnish are not widely known outside their own countries. What they mean by 'prestige' languages, as I understand it from the article, are mainly ones that are more widely spoken and would be useful, such as English.
Prestige languages change over time, and to a certain degree by the country's geography or trading partners. A couple of centuries ago the international language was French; now it is English. In the future it may well be Mandarin Chinese. A North Korean, who is situated close to and trades often with China, would have Chinese as a prestige language.
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
Interesting - I had it all wrong then. I'd have thought English non-prestigious as it is so mundane. I'd have thought French as prestigious because it is so beautiful.
A prestige language is a language that is considered better in a community. So among English speakers, Standard English is a prestige language as opposed to Scots or AAVE. In France it is standard French as opposed to Breton or Occitan. In the Philippines, it is Filipino as opposed to Tagalog (apparently).This message has been edited. Last edited by: goofy,
My new community is much more diverse than any in which I've lived before. I've seen many people, indeed the majority of my customers and neighbors, are multi-lingual. I am clearly the least lingual of those I know, in fact, even though I may have more formal education than some of them.
Anyway, I see people smoothly speaking different languages all around, switching into English when needed to accomplish a certain task (like communicate with the Librarian who is, sadly, only monolingual). The younger generations are what I would consider, growing up as bi-lingual or multi-lingual from birth (or nearly so). Generally, any languages you learn before you're 7 or 8 can be considered "native" to you because you are less likely to have any kind of "foreign" accent when speaking it. So these kids are fully gifted in at least 2 languages. I would feel awkward asking them how they feel about speaking in different languages, but I have not noticed any outward awkwardness as they fluidly go from one to another.There seems to be no stigma attached to any language here.
******* "Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions. ~Dalai Lama
I am not sure that I agree, CW, at least from listening to that NPR segment and then reading that article by the Finnish linguist. The two people on that program each learned English well before 7 or 8, but they both clearly see Spanish as their native language and use the two languages differently. It's an N of two, I know, but it makes sense to me that you're going to have a native language unless, like that link of mine above showed, the parents are both speaking different languages to the infant so the are raised with no native language.
Kalleh, your link above is very interesting & I'll read the whole thing eventually. But to reinforce your post: an American cousin of mine whose Mom was French ended up marrying a Frenchwoman & raising kids in France. They-- like many who'd read the 'latest' [circa late '70's] research, decided the best way to make their kids bilingual was for each parent to speak to their children exclusively in their [that parent's] native language. This was a success w/all 3 kids. The degree of the success did not hit me until visiting stateside w/my cousin; while in the auto he received a whiny, demanding call from his middle adolescent child [in France]-- her accent was authentic Chicago, my cousin's exactly!!
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Over the years as a teacher of FL (Fr & Sp) to the very young, I have found frequent clients among parents whose kids are exposed primarily to English in the family because one parent does not speak the other's language well. Even though the, shall we say Spanish-speaking parent makes an effort to direct Spanish to the children, family conversation is always in English. As soon as the kids hit daycare, the peer group takes hold & the kids become primarily English-speakers-- & the Spanish-speaking parent finds her kids cannot converse with their grandparents (on their occasional visits). I find such kids have high listening comprehension skill in Spanish but relatively little speaking skills. They are not truly bilingual.
As I've said in the previous post, perhaps the only way to ensure bilingualism in such kids is for the parents to discipline themselves: one engages the kid only in English, one only in Spanish. The kids will push back against the 'foreign' parent as they get older; he must stand his ground.
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Some years ago The Smithsonian magazine featured a humor article on the last page. I remember reading a quite funny piece by Rudolph Chelminski about this very subject. Since he and his spouse are bi-lingual, his kids code switched, often with funny results. If someone can find that article it would be fun to put a link to it here.
In Portland, Oregon, there are two French schools, one of which starts with pre-school children as young as three. Since "upscale" types who can afford such schools likely spend less time with their kids than their teachers do, do you suppose that at least some of them grow up fully bi-lingual?
Here is a related article. I hadn't thought of English like this before:
quote:
The beauty and creativity of English is beyond debate. You need only appreciate William Shakespeare’s iambic pentameter or William Faulkner’s prose to understand its richness. Plus, as U.S. society continues to innovate, English creates new words every year. In contrast, the Real Academia Española, the body that oversees Spanish, tends to borrow words liberally from English. Last year, it adopted "tuit" to mean "tweet."
I never intended to say that children don't grow up bilingual, or multilingual, or don't have different accents - what I have learned, though, from that article by the Finnish linguist and from the NPR report of 2 people raised with different languages as children, is that, except in the situation where the infant is raised with 2 parents speaking different languages, the children will still have a native language. I am sure there are those who don't agree with me, including linguists other than the one I quoted, but for now that's how I read the evidence. Therefore, Geoff, I'd not think those children would be considered fully bilingual (no one native language).
I know some bilinguals and it's as though they have two native languages. One is Spanish and English: she is definitely native in English and her Spanish sounds native to me. From what I learned at University all those years ago, multilingualism is not that uncommon.This message has been edited. Last edited by: zmježd,
I see a difference between multilingualism and having two(or more) native languages. Anyone who is fluent in another language is bilingual, but he still may have only one native language. At least that's how I am understanding some of the pieces I've read on this.
That's not to say no one can be fully bilingual or multilingual (my term for having 2 or more native languages).
However, the question, as this thread has evolved, is really about being natively bilingual (or multilingual). There probably is a more official name for that. I think that's why the NPR program talked about multiple personalities. The personalities really aren't different - it's just that one of the languages is native, while the other isn't, so there is different behavior when they are spoken.
Just today I had the professional opportunity to talk about this. The discussion was about internationally educated nurses who are bilingual and wondering if they would need to take an English speaking exam in order to be licensed in nursing. While they'd more than likely pass the test, after reading many of the articles in this thread, I'd think they would need to take the test if English weren't their native language.
Hmmmm... My family physician is of Indian lineage, but born and raised in Trinidad. Do you suppose she had one bit of trouble comprehending the English spoken at med school here in the US? I don't think so.
Which raises another question: Are terms and tools of the medical profession universal, or do they vary from continent to continent? We know that automotive terms vary, but I've seen British mechanics functioning flawlessly in the USA. Same for docs and nurses?
That's an interesting question. I know the terms differ somewhat, but whenever I've heard international speakers, the communication is pretty well understood. The tools question is interesting though. In civilized countries, I'd say they're close, but I am not sure.
