Most of the time it’s seen as desirable to speak more than one language. When isn’t it? When you’re hoping to become President of the United States.
An interesting article at The New Republic explores the reasons why bilingualism becomes an issue in presidential campaigns:
In 2004, it was John Kerry who was derided by George W. Bush for being a Francophile who “looks French.” And in 2008, Barack Obama faced criticism for his upbringing in Indonesia.
It’s tempting to suppose this is an expression of a boorish—and typically American—lack of interest in other languages and cultures. More specifically, one smells an unreflective jingoism among Republicans. Does the GOP think that part of being serious Presidential timber is to speak only English? That’s probably an oversimplification. In general the issue is not whether a presidential candidate speaks more than one language—it’s which languages he speaks and how.
Historically, not many presidents have been bilingual. Some have had functional second languages, but the only one raised with two languages (English and Dutch) was Martin Van Buren, the eighth president back in the 19th Century.
Should bilingualism be something people look for in their country’s leader?
What language will people speak in the future?
That’s the subject of a chapter from new book “The Language Wars: A History of Proper English” by Farrar, Straus and Girous, extracted at Salon.com. English currently continues to dominate as the lingua franca of business and popular culture and it’s widely used in other industries. It’s also the most popular second language in the world: more people speak English as a second language than there are native speakers.
This has consequences – the authors see the rise of different, local Englishes as being the main challenge facing the language. Native speakers may soon have no advantage as English becomes a standard requirement, as seen from a study published by the British Council:
When polled in 2005, more than 80 per cent of people in the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden claimed to be able to speak English. The figure was around 60 per cent in Finland, 50 per cent in Germany, 30 per cent in France and Italy, and 20 per cent in Spain and Turkey. These figures can safely be assumed to have increased. They come from a study published in 2006 by the British Council, an organization set up in 1934 and today operating as an “international cultural relations body” in more than a hundred countries. In 1989 its Director General, Sir Richard Francis, stated that “Britain’s real black gold is not North Sea oil, but the English language.”
The full extract is absolutely fascinating – take a look! It’s also a great affirmation for native English speakers learning a second language – your bilingualism will be a great advantage in future years.
An interesting interview at the Huffington Post with Professor François Grosjean aims to bust some myths about what it means to be bilingual.
Professor Grosjean is a world recognised expert on bilingualism and Emeritus Professor of psycholinguistics at Neuchâtel University in Switzerland. He lists a number of myths about bilingualism, including that bilinguals have equal knowledge of their languages, and that ‘true’ bilinguals must have learnt both their languages as a child.
Interestingly, Grosjean also gives hope to those who feel they’ve ‘forgotten’ a language they once learned. Whilst he qualifies the statement by saying that there has not been much study in the area, “it would appear that much more remains than we would have thought at first. The language just needs to be reactivated and aspects of it relearned.” It’s never too late to try and become bilingual.
Take a look at the rest of this fascinating interview.
Research from the University of Washington suggests that babies lose their bilingual ability as early as their first birthday if they are not exposed to different sounds.
The study suggests that introducing two languages before the child can speak seems to be the best way to raise bilingual babies. By around a year old, the monolingual babies in the study appeared to only respond to an English distinguishing sound, whereas bilingual babies still responded to both the English and Spanish sounds.
“This difference in development suggests that the bilingual babies “may have a different timetable for neurally committing to a language” compared with monolingual babies, said lead author Adrian Garcia-Sierra.
“When the brain is exposed to two languages rather than only one, the most adaptive response is to stay open longer before showing the perceptual narrowing that monolingual infants typically show at the end of the first year of life,” Garcia-Sierra said.” (Source: Wired)
How time flies… this is my 100th post for the Listen & Learn blog!
The very first post was back on the 4th April 2010, welcoming everyone to the “all-new, super-shiny” blog. That means I missed the first “blogoversary” of the blog earlier this month, but I suppose it would be overkill to celebrate twice in the space of a couple of weeks!
Since April last year I’ve written some hints and tips to help you with your language learning; told you all about my language resolutions for 2011; covered the latest research into bilingualism and learning languages; and even brought you some language-related humour.
I hope you’ve enjoyed the first 100 posts – expect more of the same for the next 100!
The answer is yes, according to a new study at Newcastle University, England.
Bilingual people think differently to monolingual people, according to researchers, with language use making the difference rather than proficiency. The study looked at Japanese and English speakers and tested their colour perception – useful because of the variation in ways different languages place colours on the spectrum. In Japanese there are additional ways of describing light blue (mizuiro) and dark blue (ao) that English does not have. Results found that bilingual Japanese-English speakers identified colours differently than single language speakers, depending on which language they used more often.
“As well as learning vocabulary and grammar you’re also unconsciously learning a whole new way of seeing the world,” said Dr Athanasopoulos. “There’s an inextricable link between language, culture and cognition.
“If you’re learning language in a classroom you are trying to achieve something specific, but when you’re immersed in the culture and speaking it, you’re thinking in a completely different way.” (Source: Science Daily)
Dr Athanasopoulos says this can also give you an edge when dealing with international business clients as it gives you an insight into their culture and how they think.
I was alerted to this film over at the Omniglot blog, and it looks really interesting.
Speaking in Tongues follows four children as they attend immersion school in San Francisco. The children are native English speakers but learn to communicate in Mandarin and Spanish, two of the most spoken languages in the world.
There’s a commitment in America to remain an “English only” nation, with opinions on both sides of the fence. Some say bilingualism is essential to America’s economic development and national security; others warn that national identity is at risk. According to the makers, the answers are in the movie – the children find that learning a second language “transforms their sense of self, their families, and their communities”. The opportunity to become ‘global citizens’.
It sounds like a really engaging film, I hope to get to see it soon!
