Me and my life-long commitment to English (Olga, Russia) 20
A charming and super educated bilingual (Apoorva, India) 26
A humble and a hard-working bilingual (Masumi, Japan) 30
A level-headed bilingual full of determination to succeed
(Sharifullah, Afghanistan) 33
A Europeans experience with English (Milena, Austria) 35
Inspired by a teacher (Geetanjali, India) 38
A multilingual and multicultural future psycholinguist
(Jonathan, Malaysia) 39
A Latin American with an American accent (Pedro, Paraguay) 42
A brave researcher willing to make sacrifices
(Jelena, Montenegro) 44
A smart and polite bilingual gentleman (Naseer, Afghanistan) 47
A fellow linguist on a thorny journey to English
(Julia, Hungary) 49
Sophistication, intelligence, and style (Dania, Jordan) 52
Navigating the multilingual New Jersey (Alejandra, Colombia) 54
A routine life in Spanish and English (Samantha, USA) 56
A researcher experiencing bilingualism in Asia and the U.S.
(Suqin, China) 58
A dreamy bilingual with lots of stories to tell
(Angelo, Timor-Leste) 60
Being a bilingual in «the Windy City» (Cristina, Mexico) 63
Bilingualism as a family tradition (Marcus, Malaysia) 65
Building a life between two different languages and cultures
(Shazia, Pakistan, USA) 66
Balancing two languages and cultures as a heritage speaker
of Spanish (Natalie, USA) 68
Attempting to be a heritage speaker of Russian in the U.S.
(Rebecca, USA) 70
A translator living with two languages back home
and in the U.S. (Marta, Spain) 72
Slow but consistent adjustment to living in the U.S.
(Carmen, Peru) 74
A Pole and American at a time (Joanna, Poland, USA) 75
Building relations with each of your languages (Krisha, USA) 78
A Russian integrated into the American student culture
(Anna, Russia) 81
An American exposing some prejudice against bilingualism
in the U.S. (Alana, USA) 83
Neither totally American nor totally Latino (Genidi, USA) 85
Adopting a businesslike approach to bilingualism
(Saffet, Turkey) 87
An articulate and outspoken heritage speaker of Spanish
(Rebecca, USA) 89
A colleague from my former job and her bilingual experiences
(Yekaterina, Russia) 92
Methodically becoming bilingual (Lyu, China) 95
Friendships as a path to bilingualism (Jorge, Peru) 97
Postgraduate studies and bilingualism (Saeed, Iran) 98
Bilingualism with a Sicilian flavor (Francesca, Italy) 100
Four Nashville Interviews 102
A strategic way to deal with a foreign language
(Bashir, Afghanistan) 102
Living in between indigenous and foreign languages
(Ruzza, Indonesia) 105
An empowering male teacher of English (Wilson, Colombia) 106
Living a bilingual life in Africa (Ahmed, Sudan) 108
Bilingualism encouraged by family (Juan Manuel, Argentina) 110
A male dreaming of bilingualism and foreign language
teaching (Jorge, Spain) 111
A strong bilingual female forging an international career
(Kristi, Georgia) 113
A lady with ambitions of becoming a polyglot
(Mariam, Syria) 116
An American forming mindful connections
with foreign languages (Tristan, USA) 119
Talking to three native speakers of French,
la langue de lamour 122
A French-Conglosese lady set to make a global difference
(Estelle, France) 123
Bilingualism as a utilitarian and geopolitical tool
for building international bridges (Magda, France, Algeria) 124
Legally bilingual (Cathy, France, Senegal) 127
A bilingual «chica» who knows her way around the world
(Erika, Ecuador) 129
Using a foreign language at work and in the household
(Nina, Russia) 131
Successfully overcoming the fear of embracing bilingualism
(Minsun, Korea) 134
An American about to experience a new language on another continent for the first time in her life (Natalie, USA) 136
A reflective English teacher on bilingualism
(Candelia, Argentina) 138
CHAPTER 2. ISSUES SURROUNDING BILINGUALISM
PART 2.1. LANGUAGE LEARNING AND TEACHING AS A JOURNEY
What is the right age to start learning a second language? 141
What kind of difficulties do learners have at different stages
of learning? 143
How do learners feel as they are learning
a second language? 145
Does it take something special to become
a successful language learner? 146
Doing it on your own 150
Why do people even bother to learn languages? 152
What other languages (apart from English)
are popular ones to learn? 155
What are the benefits of learning a foreign language? 156
Language learning tips from the participants 157
And what about language teachers? 160
How do language teachers teach? 161
What did the participants say about their language teachers? 165
What is it like to be a language teacher and what is expected
of them? 169
What does the future have in store for language learning
and teaching? 174
PART 2.2. IDENTITY, CULTURE, POLITICS AS «BIG» TOPICS
Who are bilinguals and where do they belong in the world? 177
My own story with the concept of identity 177
Defining identity 179
Types of identity 182
Accent as an identity marker 190
Identity and L2 writing 192
Do you feel like a different person when you switch between languages? 195
A few thoughts on culture and politics 199
Culture (more ambiguous than it might seem) 199
Politics (more than just a passing interest for linguists) 205
Life after Fulbright: how much bilingualism is in it? 211
Epilogue. Looking into the (increasingly uncertain) future 216
Acknowledgments 219
References 222
CHAPTER 1. INTERVIEWS WITH BILINGUALS
Part 1.1. WHO DO WE CONSIDER BILINGUAL?
As there is a word «bilingualism» in the title of this book, it would make perfect sense to start by explaining what it is. Answering this question in a straightforward ways seems difficult. Put simply, bilinguals are those individuals who speak two or more languages. But obviously, there are two questions that arise how do we define «knowing» a language and secondly, how well is one supposed to «know» it to be called bilingual?
Modern linguists do not agree on the definition of bilingualism. The Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary (Merriam-Websters Collegiate Dictionary, 2003) proposes such a definition: «having or using two languages especially as spoken with the fluency characteristic of a native speaker». There is a question of whether this proficiency level is achievable and whether individuals using a second language but not being so fluent can be considered bilingual (Liddicoat, 1991). A more diverse definition is set forth by A. Fantini (Fantini, 1985) who sees the following as essential in describing bilingualism: the number of languages used by an individual; types of relations between them; their functions; degree of proficiency; alternation of languages and interaction between them. Haugen (Haugen, 1953) attempts for an even more precise definition by classifying anyone capable of producing coherent ideas in another language as bilingual.
A rather liberal definition is suggested by Diebold (Diebold, 1964) and J. MacNamara (MacNamara, 1967) where anyone with a minimum competence in any of the four language skills (listening, speaking, reading, writing) is classed as bilingual. So, as opposed to a widely held belief, beginner language learners in formal academic settings of educational institutions, or e.g., tourists with a working knowledge of a few spoken phrases can be called bilingual. Edwards (Edwards, 2006) holds that almost anyone finds themselves having to be bilingual as in order to be able to travel and take advantage of the benefits of the global world and they have to speak a language rather than their own. The same researcher (Edwards, 2003) dismisses monolingualism as a disease that has to be cured. Attempting to embrace the complexity of the term, Yuko G. Butler and Kenji Hakuta (Butler & Hakuta, 2004) believe that bilinguals are individuals with various degrees of communicative skills (in oral and/or written language) enabling communication in two or more languages in a certain linguistic community.