Post Learning Journal #9

[Mary Chang]

I personally don't think bilinguals are necessary smarter than monolinguals but there were parts of the articles that I especially could connect well to while there were also certain parts that I disagreed with. For example, being a bilingual myself, I do agree that we have a better sense of executive function especially because we have to switch attention willfully from one thing to another and hold information in mind. I consider myself as being very bad at multi-tasking so I tend to ignore distractions to stay focused on one thing which probably helps in me switching to another language completely when in need. However, because I'm not a good multi-tasker, I disagreed with the part of the article that said with this executive function, we can do more things at once. I also strongly agreed with the part of the article that said "bilinguals may have a reduced vocabulary in each language." While I may be fluent in Korean and English, I have a very limited set of vocabulary for both languages unless I constantly challenged myself to learn and use new and more advanced words. This is partially why I wanted to take Korean in SDLC because I have realized how limited my set of vocabulary is for Korean. Also, being a bilingual, I sometimes struggle because of this limited set of vocabulary in both languages; sometimes, I can only think of the word in Korean when I'm trying to explain something solely in English and vice versa. I also do agree with the part that being a bilingual puts you in a lot of situations where you have to switch languages quite often and such act requires us to be more observant and monitor our surroundings better to track changes. I notice small changes very well and adapt quickly when I switch languages depending on the audience.