Bilingualism myths

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.