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Bilingualism

Hey guys! Today, I am reaching out to the bilingual community, or whoever is interested in bilingualism! I knew bilingualism was a good topic of debate but I didn’t know so many people had different views on it. Some people think it actually makes people more intelligent or creative (which would be awesome if that’s actually true) and then others think it actually decreases functions is your brain (how crazy does that sound?!), so why even bother? Then we always have those people who don’t have an opinion or just think neutrally. Their opinion is that it does neither help or hurt...so there’s that. Now, hopefully all of you reading this have an opinion on it and knows what it is but just in case you don’t, according to the handy dandy google dictionary, is fluency in or use of two languages. What’s cool is that you can be bilingual in a couple different ways. First off, even if you have only a little bit of proficiency, you could be considered bilingual, and of course it goes all the way up to being an almost-native speaker. Also, bilingualism can be classified as multiple combinations. You could be be bilingual in speaking but not reading or writing or vice versa, which I don’t know about y’all, but I think it pretty nifty. And as many of you may know, the best time to get started teaching or expressing another language is a cute little baby. Yes, babies are soooo cute and eventually, they will knowledge to take over the world if they start being bilingual. Only not really. Let’s move on to the next topic please, I feel like I am boring you guys… Alright, so now I’m gonna delve into why people think it enhances your brain. One reason and a very great one at that, is since you have 2 languages in your brain, it makes it think a little more than someone might if there was only, say, 1 language. I mean, come on, how cool would it be to have 2 or more languages in your brain and be more intelligent? This process of making the brain think more, challenges it to process more information and does more work each and everyday. Maybe the brain sings “work, work, work, work, work” by Rihanna. Maybe not. I don’t know. Anyways, aside from being a more brainy person, your future jobs and companies are looking for people with unique traits and bilingualism is definitely one of them. Bilinguists hold many, many opportunities. A big factor that affects how good of a bilingual you are (is that even a term I can use?), is the environment you grew up in or around. If you are constantly around other bilingual people and use both of the languages the same amount, you will adapt to each language better than if you focused on one more than the other. Some other random reasons why being bilingualism can be helpful is because it makes you think more quickly, brainstorm more easily, and come up with better ideas or think of things you may not have thought of before. We can thank our brain for this because since we already are differentiating between two languages so quickly, your brain is like “Oh, bro, let me do other things just as fast as this.. just watch me!” I hope this information is not obvious for you guys...I’m trying to help form an opinion for you guys. Sorry if I’m sucking. But, you know, this one cool dude named John Jacobs said that, “When matched by quartiles for I.Q., the bilinguals still scored higher on the creativity tests. Bilinguals scored better, comparatively, on non-verbal tests than one the verbal. The bilingual children have a significantly higher I.Q. than the monolinguals in spite of the verbal orientation of the I.Q. tests used” (Jacobs and Pierce 503). This is a study that pretty much proves some bilingual people are more intelligent in some areas. Hmm. Interesting. If you’re still reading this, thanks. ALOT. So, I guess I’m gonna start explaining the next perspective which may not be as supported but it still exists. This is the view that being bilingual can decrease levels of intelligence or creativity. These people also think that it doesn’t give you any advantages in life. WTF!? I’m not saying it’s wrong, but...I’ll let you guys decide that. There is another cool dude named Rafael Diaz that found some myths people believe and they are totally crazy. Here is a summary of these myths: Kids will suffer retardation if taught at an early age, will not get the same content mastery as their peers, they will not reach an okay level of their native or target language, or that they won’t have any interaction with either of the ethnic groups of the languages (Diaz 24). I’m not sure if those are true but I guess he’d have to come up with those somehow. These could have been the results of poorly planned experiments or someone fooling around and messing up the results in a certain area. Whether these are true or not, the peeps who believe these having evidence and sources to back themselves up. There are also other factors that affect how bilingualism may decrease functionality is whether you are a rich boy or not. If you were of a wealthy family compared to poor, you were more likely to succeed. Many people teach differently and how the students react to these is how they will come to accurate conclusions. Ah, finally. You are all probably thinking “Wow, I’m so happy this post is almost over-- it’s so long. I’M SORRY. I HAD TO GET MY POINT ACROSS. Anyways, let’s get back to the post so this can be over with. There is one final perspective and that is where people have no opinion on this or they think that being bilingual doesn’t do anything, like no harm or no good. I can see this view...mainly because they just don’t think it’s a big deal and it doesn’t do much so why waste time? It gets stressful and both groups, teachers and students, will get frustrated and give up. No one wants that happening so they just might not even try. This results is no one benefiting from trying to teach or learn bilingually. Maybe if they try, they will end up not speaking either language correctly or getting them mixed up even.  Maybe each language gets in the way of another one and stops you from learning any other languages. No bueno. (Haha, get it? I used Spanish in an English paper. Yeah, okay. Let’s get back to the paper.). These views may come up out of fear but I believe anyone can power through and overcome anything if they really wanna try. In order to meet all the needs and wants of people, we can come to a conclusion and do something that works for everybody. Yay, teamwork! We can perform a study on an amount of people who would count as the majority and see what the results are. The other views will have to accept whatever the results of the experiment. So, yeah, this post is over! I hope y’all enjoyed this and be looking out for more of my blog posts!  I also hope this formed an opinion for you guys and lets you see some different viewpoints. Thank guys! (P.S. I guess I’ve gotta give those dudes that I mentioned earlier some credit for their work for helping me in mine.

Also, here is a bilingual song (Spanish and English) to just let you see what it's like and how cool bilingualism really is!

Ed Sheeran- Shape of you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HImSwqyx9Ao

                      Diaz, Rafael M. “Thought and Two Languages: The Impact of Bilingualism of Cognitive Development.” Review of research in Education; vol. 10, 1983, pp. 23-54. American Educational Research Association, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1167134. Accessed 3 Dec 2017.

Jacobs, John F. and Pierce, Marnell L. “Bilingualism and Creativity.” Elementary English;vol. 43, no. 5, May 1966, pp. 499-503. National Council of Teachers of English, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41386031. Accessed 3 Dec 2017.