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Fluency in two or more languages is a skill that is very convenient for career and communication. However, it can improve other areas of our lives. We have recorded several confessions from bilinguals about how languages affect their character and attitude.
The benefits of bilingualism have been proven time and time again. A leading expert in this field, Ellen Bialystok from the University of York (Canada), found, in particular, that bilinguals (native speakers of two or more languages) demonstrate better cognitive abilities. This is due to the fact that they constantly have to switch from one to another, which requires some mental effort.
“A bilingual always has both languages active, he can’t just take and “silence” one of them,” comments Helen Bialistok. “Which means that while the brain is using one language, part of its attention is focused on not letting the second language interfere.” With the experience of such training, bilinguals are better at multitasking and at the same time better focusing on the task that they are doing at the moment.”
Bilingual children are able to plan and complete complex tasks better than children who speak only one language
Other benefits of bilingualism include a four-year (on average) delay in dementia and better recovery of brain function after a stroke. Bilingual children have particularly well-developed executive brain function, and they are able to plan and perform complex tasks better than children who speak only one language.
Many of those who are fluent in several languages admit that they feel every time as if they were different people. Some even believe that languages themselves impose different personalities on them and that each language has its own soul. For example, German is perceived by many as the language of logic, Italian is more romantic in nature, and English is more practical.
We recorded several confessions of bilinguals about how knowledge of different languages affects their attitude and character.
Sara Guidi English-Italian
“I pretended to understand Italian because I wanted to impress my father”
“I was taught to speak Italian by my father, he is from Italy. He talked to me and sang lullabies, but I only mastered the language at the age of five or six, and before that I just pretended to understand, because I really wanted to impress my father. Now we can easily switch from one language to another, but in private with each other we speak only Italian – I know that this gives him great joy. I never think in Italian while I am in England. But when I come to Italy to visit my father’s family, I switch completely and start thinking and even dreaming on it. I become more open when I speak Italian. Yes, and I find the Italians themselves warmer, more emotional. And if I meet an Italian in England, I involuntarily begin to behave more freely and uninhibitedly, I lose my English restraint.
Alex Bellos, English-Portuguese
“Portuguese language liberates me”
“When I speak Portuguese, I am a different person. And I like myself that way. Brazilians have musical, temperamental speech. There are many aspects of language that affect how we speak. For example, you can add suffixes to most nouns and adjectives in Portuguese – diminutive or augmentative.
It’s incredibly embellishing and emphasizing and reinforcing everything you say, and so great for creating amazing stories. It is more onomatopoeic than English. You are completely given to the word. Let’s say you say in English “I love it” – but you can also say it with irony, with a mockery. And in Portuguese it always means “I love it!”. The Portuguese language reminds me of the inner freedom that I must rediscover. I moved to Brazil at the age of 28 and within six months I could speak fluently. I planned to live there for a year, but I delayed for five years. My parents speak different languages, but they don’t speak Portuguese, so it was my way of expressing my identity. Portuguese does not seem difficult to me. Is that difficult to give the correct pronunciation. The language is constantly being updated, which is very liberating.”
Jen Harvey English-Chinese
“It seems to me that two Jens live in me – an Englishwoman and a Chinese woman”
“My mother from Hong Kong, when she raised me, spoke to me in Cantonese, and my English father spoke in English. And it often seems to me that two Jens live in me – an Englishwoman and a Chinese woman. Communication in Chinese is a very strong and real connection with my childhood, with my mother. I often don’t even notice what language my mother now speaks – Cantonese or English. My boyfriend has now moved in with us, so my mother tries to speak English more often. But one day she forgot, switched to Chinese, and we talked with her for a long time, not even noticing that my young man did not understand us. I feel softer, more feminine in my Chinese incarnation, and in English – businesslike, decisive, self-confident. If my mother scolds me in Chinese, it sounds much more threatening than in English. And not because she owns the first better. There is some special tension in the Chinese language itself. Thanks to the knowledge of Chinese, I feel closer to my mother’s family, who lives in Hong Kong, I can immerse myself in their lives, this is important to me.
Farshid Dabesh-Khoy, English-Farsi
“Knowing a second language allows you to keep secrets in public”
I was born in Iran and until the age of 11, when we moved to England, I studied English in a regular school as a second language. To end up in a British high school after that was a big challenge for me. But now I speak English without an accent, unlike those Iranian guys who moved at the age of 13-14: now their accent is already a little noticeable. There was a moment when I began to communicate fluently in English, but continued to think, count and reason with myself in Farsi. But then, gradually and quite imperceptibly for me, all this also switched to English. Even now I only speak Farsi at home with my parents. I think I use this language more often when I want to express difficult feelings, because it is deeper than English. Or I myself associate it more with emotions, I don’t know. My wife is also Iranian, but at home we mostly speak English. She and I decided that when we have children, when we have them, we will return to communicating in our native language so that they grow up bilingual. One of the biggest pleasures I get from being bilingual is being able to confide in a language that no one around me understands. My wife and I are so used to doing this in Britain that we once got into an awkward position in Iran. At some party, we talked about intimate things in Farsi, forgetting that people around understand every word we said.