Comments on: How do you define being bilingual?

By: How I Plan To Help My Children Become Literate in Spanish |SpanglishBaby™

How I Plan To Help My Children Become Literate in Spanish |SpanglishBaby™ — Wed, 14 Aug 2013 18:28:12 +0000

[...] people think the definition of bilingualism is being able to speak in two languages, but mine also includes reading and writing correctly in [...]

By: Vanessa Pasquet

Vanessa Pasquet — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 09:57:05 +0000

Loved your post. i just loved it. for many reasons, and not just because we share love for Mario Vargas Llosa.
I may add my own language switching experience here, as everyone. Born in Chile, raised in Argentina, moved to France, worked in China fro a while, my parents told me that it was important to know how to speak correctly in any language you can. Mom is Chilean, Dad is French, I attended to French schools all my life.
But here is a question that I came up reading your article? With two languages at home, is it possible to attain the same level of expertise on a third level taught at school (and heard all around in the coutnry you are living in?). Example is this: Mama habla expañol, Papa parle français, but the family is living in the United States or in the UK. It’s interesting to wonder which language is going to take over on another just because the kid is more exposed to one than the others, and why.
Parents should keep up giving their kids books to read in their own languages, so they keep practising. They should keep up talking to them with good language sentences and forms, so the kids have a reference in terms of pronunciation and grammar. School is doing (let’s hope so!) the same in the tirhd language. But my deepest hope is that somehow it’s possible for a couple to raise a kid in a bilingual home, no matter the outside influences of school or TV.
Great topic! Great article!

By: eski diziler

eski diziler — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 16:35:39 +0000

Thanks for a lot

By: BethO

BethO — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 20:03:48 +0000

I am fluent in my second language, and often think in it, and there are many times where using anything else would just feel unnatural. But it is and I think always will be my second language, added to my life when I was already in my 30′s. To me being bilingual is when two languages have always been part of you. Even if maybe you speak one of them better than the other, having both is who you are.
What I want for my son, in raising him bilingual, is that whether he finds himself in my home town / home country, or in his father’s home town / home country, he feels that he in some sense belongs there… and also, that place belongs to him.

By: Beth Butler

Beth Butler — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 20:31:22 +0000

Ahhhh…..always making us think Roxana! I love your entire perspective on this topic, I envy you your ability to flow between the two languages seamlessly, and I thank you for your continued candid sharing!

I continue to practice, practice, practice my 2nd language of Spanish and though I was required to read and write in it in Chile and Mexico both, if you don’t use it you lose it!

Watching las noticias, reading the newspaper and conversing with native Spanish speakers is keeping my bilingual. My job now? To convey the passion I have to maintain my two languages with all three of my children.