Being Bilingual
I thought this was an interesting take on bilingualism For those of who are bilingual and bi-cultural I would like to hear your thoughts. Do you feel orphaned like this poet is. And do you feel stuck between two languages?
13 Answers
I'm overcoming right now, the hurdle of trying not to sound/feel stilted in Spanish. I agree "te quiero" and "te amo" don't work for me as well as "I love you" which is, really magical to say and hear. But getting past that, English is simply who I am, and will always be the key to who I am. Knowing Spanish will be great, but to deny English as my mother tongue would just be foolish. I love Spanish, and I will be fluent one day I promise you that, but I will never forsake English, I love English and I will never be "between languages" as long as I never forget that English is my mother tongue. Good read though. 
For those of who are bilingual and bi-cultural I would like to hear your thoughts. Do you feel orphaned like this poet is. And do you feel stuck between two languages?
I can´t say that I feel orphaned or stuck between the two languages as the poet feels, but I have felt stuck between the two cultures most of my life - this being the result of being, as Heidita says, a "half-native." This is not a bad thing.
Mixing the two cultures doesn´t seem so unatural as does mixing the two languages for I simply can´t do it. For this reason, I have never felt very good at translating. As long as I can remain in one language or the other, I´m OK, but I could never be a simultaneous translator. People who can do this have a very special gift.
On the contrary, I am the furthest away from the feelings of this author. Eventhough English is my first language, I have been speaking Spanish for over 35 years and I feel just as rooted (sometimes more) in Spanish than my mother tongue. Don't get me wrong. I think English is a great language and is the language that probably has the most exceptions to its gramatic rules. Nevertheless I think Spanish is a very lyrical and etherial language which has allowed me the opportunity to identify with the ideas, thoughts, feelings and culture of artists, poets and authors as well as ordinary people like me. I have been able to adopt a totally different way of being by acquiring a command of the language. In addition, so many doors have opened for me and I have met so many wonderful people because of my knowlege of the language. At times, I think knowing both languages makes one a sort of a chameleon being able to move through different worlds and unique situations on life's journey. I wholeheartedly embrace both languages and accept my bilingualism without trepidation.
I think the poem is hilarious, not to mention extremely clever.
I am no orator in either language, and I definitely feel far more comfortable writing than speaking under pressure. But altogether, I find that speaking more than one language is enriching and satisfactory, and opens a lot of opportunities.
I would never think of complaining about this that has taken so much time and deliberate effort to achieve.
I enjoy writing and should have done much more at an earlier age in my life.
I can claim to be bi-lingual but Spanish is not my 2nd language.
I can see no disadvantage being bi-lingual. In fact it is very advantageous it allows one to "feel" and use one's native language with more imagination for example.
But
I do know the feeling of not knowing where I really belong. (which country) This is quite common for people who have lived for extended periods in various countries. That can be a disadvantage in life.
For most of us, who use language primarily to communicate, I can't imagine this being a problem. But for a poet or a writer I can see how it would be frustrating. Like you're painting a beautiful oil painting but you realize the most beautiful sky for it would be a watercolour.
I must say, I feel much more interlinked and connected to another society than being isolated and tormented since learning to speak Spanish. There is one interesting detail though; many times, I will turn on the TV or be put in some situation where somebody starts talking, and my brain will still be in Spanish mode like Buzz Light-year from Toy Story 3, so I start hearing Spanish even through they aren't talking it. It's like Google Translate gone wrong. I have talked to all of my friends about it, but none of them can sympathize as they are all monolinguals; though I made a breakthrough with my Spanish professor.
In my Spanish class, we have a variety of students with different skill levels, sin embargo we are all required to enforce a completely Spanish learning environment , so if we say anything outside of such, my professor will reply automatically with "no entiendo...", pero el otro día, ella estaba adresando la clase, y me llamó el nombre. Cuando eso me pasó, no le estaba poniendo atención; así que le respondió en inglés. Como normalmente hacía ella, me dijo "no entiendo.". Ese día, en cuanto de que terminó la clase, me acercó y dijo "lo siento; en realidad no te entendía. Estaba en modo español." ¡Qué chistoso!
Well for me, I feel like I've been displaced my whole life. As a kid, I was told that I was not American (by other ignorant kids) just because I was not white even though I was born in America and knew nothing other than being American.
Then came my 2 year stead in Spain. Once you live in another country for extended period of time, get to know the language, learn to love, learn to hate, laugh in another language..at least for me or people like me, you come to see as everyone as just people, and not categorize 'this person is from this country, this from this, white, black, etc etc'. I came to realize, hey, if I had been born in Spain, and then spent 2 years in the U.S.A., the same thing would have happened, but in reverse.
So, the advantages of being bilingual/tri/cuad/etc are bountiful in that you see the whole world and its people as one..at least I do now. We all have the same wants, desires, we all hate it when a mosquito bites us, but we simply express all these commonalities in a different way (the language). Before, it was for sure like 'America is normal, everything else is either strange, exotic, and different'. Not anymore.
I always used to wonder 'Man, what are those Spanish people saying over there??' Must be pretty interesting/funny or 'they must be plotting something!'. You know what though? They all talk about the same boring stuff we do! Qué desilusión! We are all the same! (well, not at a fundamental level, but..you all know what I mean!).
-Charlius-
Being Bilingual !
It is something that I am living with it from the beginning of my life . Besides my Mother tongue I had to learn my country's national language ,so I was able to speak in two languages when I was 7 . Then I began to learn English and When I entered guidance school , I also started studding Arabic which is taught in our schools besides English .
And Now I am leaning Spanish .
So now you can judge am I bilingual ,or may be 5lingual (just a kidding)? But this is not a problem with me ,because When I learn a new language ,I learn a new method of living and thinking . Now it seems I am 5 persons rather than just 1 .
****But mother tongue is something else . I love it with all my heart .****
I love the philosophy hidden behind learning languages
He certainly gives away his age in the poem
But that aside, a very dear friend of mine who's native language is French, yet worked and lived a great deal in America, once said: "Eventually, you belong to neither culture. I have many friends in the same situation and we call ourselves 'citizens of the ocean.'"
I found his words quite eloquently stated the collision, as well.
I have no problems with 2 languages, having had to learn my mother tongue as well as the country's common language since young. Well, or so I thought I didn't. It must be the environment I was brought up in, and am living in now.
Almost 90% of literate people in my country are at least bilingual, some can speak more than that, and almost everyone of these bilingual people know very simple words in a third and fourth language. (There are 4 official languages here.) It has resulted in a giant cultural and lingustic mash where we are capable of saying a sentence made up of words from 2 or 3 languages, and both the speaker and listener won't realise it (i.e. we both understand what we're talking about / listening to).
The problem only arises when we have to communicate to people outside the country. That's when the 'what did you say??' pop up.
Oh and of course during examinations, when we'd form a sentence in one language using another language's grammatical structure, or when we forget a word in the specific language, write the same word in the other language.
Personally, I can think, speak and write fluently in 2 languages, as well as translate between them. But I have to agree that sometimes the same idea just cannot be expressed as beautifully in one language as in another. Proverbs, for example, is culture based. We can translate a Spanish proverb into English, or find out an English proverb with the same essence but different literally.
I don't think that being bilingual has been too much of a disadvantage for me. I speak two languages in my everyday life, and I'm learning Spanish as a third language.
I've been back in America for less than a year now, and I'm almost used to speaking English full-time, but I still have the occasional lapse. The biggest problem is when the perfect expression for what I'm wanting to say is not in the language I'm currently speaking. My brain locks up, I stutter over my words, then have to take a few seconds to figure out how to say it in my target language. I don't think that I've bothered anyone too much, so far. I usually just tell them, "Sorry, English is my second language now," and we all laugh about it.
Now that I'm learning Spanish, I find that my second language often gets in the way. Especially with numbers. I know how to say all numbers in Spanish, but if I'm reading in Spanish, I automatically say numbers in my second language. Or, if I'm trying to think of how to say something in Spanish, my second language keeps butting in, making things murky in my mind.
But, I'm sure this will pass and I'll get everything compartmentalised in my brain. And then I can begin perfecting all three.
I could never understand how being bi-lingual would be disadvantageous, I see nothing but advantages. Someone said that Spanish is a "heart language" and I couldn't agree more. The rhythm and music of Spanish just rolls off the tongue, I love the way it feels in my mouth. My wife loves for me to talk to her in Spanish, and that's certainly a plus....
I think that we somehow will always 'default' to our native language in times of crisis or times that we really have to 'dig deep' and speak from our heart. A friend of mine, whose native tongue is Spanish, but is also fluent in English had to make a trip to the emergency room. Although he was conscious, he was in pain and groggy, and he just could not express himself in English, it was completely amazing. He 'defaulted' to his native tongue, so his wife began to translate for him so the doctors could understand. Certainly not scientific evidence, but it certainly stuck with me.
Now, I have had weird things happen to me. Right in the middle of saying something in English, the next few words would 'come out' in Spanish and I wouldn't realize what happened until someone said "what did you say???". Other times I would be speaking in English, and I wouldn't be able to express my next thought, the English just was not there, but the Spanish thought was, kind of like being in a pipeline waiting to come out. It is the most incredibly weird feeling. Of course, English will always be my 'default' because it's my native tongue. I have ways of expressing myself in English that I don't think I'll ever be able to learn in Spanish, there's just not enough time.
