Reflect on your experiences of (trying to) read and write in your target language. Are you bilingual? If so, would you agree with the arguments made in the two readings on bilingualism
I am trying to learn how to write in Hindi using Roman/Latin characters, which has been a bit difficult because there is no one correct way to write Hindi in Latin characters. The spellings of the words can differ and they are often based on phonetics. I wanted to learn this type of writing instead of the actual script because I find it more useful because I have friends and family who communicate through text message in this form. I have not focused much on reading but that is something I should work on more. However, there are not many literary sources that are written using latin characters because writing in latin characters is vey informal.
I can speak multiple languages but I feel confident in English and French so I would consider myself bilingual. After reading the article and based on my own experiences being bilingual I understand the pros and cons. The benefits are that you are exposed to different cultures because with language comes culture and you have to be able to quickly toggle between two languages, which I believe sharpens your processing skills. However, I do see the drawbacks in that sometimes you may not be fully proficient in either language and it can get confusing or exhausting to switch back and forth between languages.
I am not sure if being bilingual makes you smarter because I think it depends on the person. I think it can definitely give you a different skill set as compared to monolinguals if you are passionate about the language, but for some people it could inhibit their learning. For example, when my older brother was born my parents would speak English and Telugu in the house but while he was growing up my parents found that his speech was delayed and he did not start speaking at the age he was supposed to. So, my parents switched to only speaking English at home and then once he grasped that, they reintroduced Telugu. This has happened with my cousins and my friend's brother as well. I think for some people it may be harder, especially at a young age, to process multiple languages especially if you are not formally being taught them yet.
Replies
I have always found languages that use a different script to be so interesting and challenging at the same time. For a long time, I have been wanting to learn a language with a non-latin script but I have been afraid it might be too difficult. Reading about your experience learning Hindi using Latin script, made me realize that you do not have to learn traditional script right away.
I think that it is interesting that you are learning to write in Hindi using Roman/Latin characters. I was wondering as to why this is instead of learning how to write in Hindi alphabet. I remember reading an article saying that a lot of people use Roman/latin characters and was wondering if you knew why.
In terms of texting it's a lot easier than using a proper Hindi keyboard. I think Hindi alphabet is mostly used in newspapers or news articles but if you want to communicate on a more informal basis then they use the Roman/Latin script.
I definitely agree with you that the link between bilingualism and intelligence cannot be expressed in simple correlational terms! ... The other day, I was reading an article about how overthinking can hinder performance (here in case you are interested). Come to think of it, if bilingualism can broaden your "toolbox" of experiences and concepts to draw from, it can also open more space for getting lost there!