I actually agree with both of the articles in some way. I’m not a bilingual, but I’ve learned English for years and living in the U.S for three years. English, for me, has become a language that does not require translation into Chinese to understand, in most of times. I can resonate with the article when it mentions that Bilinguals need to switch language quite often, which helps to build up the ability to observe and comprehend things. I can react to things, such as interpret and understand other people’s work during conversation; Not the translation or understand the meaning of the language, but the intention, the “want” of other people.
But I also agree with idea that maybe multiculturalism is the reason for bilinguals to seems smarter, instead of speaking two languages. I’ve learned to adapt the U.S culture during learning speaking English and living in the U.S. As I overcome a lot of cultural differences, I became more adaptive to new environment, people and culture. This experience helped me a lot when I went to Denmark for a study abroad in study abroad (from my home to the U.S). Also, sometimes, I found myself not able to think in Chinese as native as my other friends who stay in China and go to college there. I could not write essays in very beautiful, logical and Chinese Chinese. I write more like translated Chinese, from English. I consider this as a huge disadvantage of being fluent in a 2nd Language. Since I’ve been used to the English structure, grammar, rules and procedures and I’ve been speaking and using English a lot more than Chinese in collage, it seems that I’ve “lost” Chinese in some way.
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