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Meaning of "bilingual" | ||
Tags: Multilingual | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5374 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 1 of 16 29 October 2014 at 5:50pm | IP Logged |
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What does "bilingual" mean to you?
Does it mean completely native in two languages (this seems to be the basic dictionary definition)? Where does it fall in comparison to "fluent" (i.e. is "bilingual" more of a compliment to you than "fluent")? If someone refers to you as bilingual when do you correct them and say you are not (do you correct them if you are at B2/C1/C2)? Should a business be referred to as a bilingual business if they carry on business in the two languages but there are only B2-ish level speakers in one of the languages? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4706 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 2 of 16 29 October 2014 at 5:51pm | IP Logged |
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This means practically native in both languages. I would consider myself a bilingual
Dutch/English speaker. Not so much trilingual with French or Russian or whatever. Edited by tarvos on 29 October 2014 at 5:52pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6596 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 3 of 16 29 October 2014 at 6:49pm | IP Logged |
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It seems to have a different meaning in some locations, such as Canada. In a casual conversation I'd simply point out that Russian is my only native language. Admittedly on HTLAL I'm peeved with this usage, though.
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| aokoye Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5540 days ago 235 posts - 453 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Dutch, Norwegian, Japanese | Message 4 of 16 30 October 2014 at 1:16am | IP Logged |
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To me (and I have a feeling this is the dictionary definition) bilingual means functionally proficient in two languages. Multilingual to me means being functionally proficient in at least two languages.
A bilingual society, to me, means a society that functions in two languages. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| shk00design Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4443 days ago 747 posts - 1123 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 5 of 16 30 October 2014 at 3:34am | IP Logged |
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The local Chinese community in Canada normally consider many of the second & third generation kids to
be bilingual simply being able to speak Cantonese or Mandarin. The writing is difficult to learn and not many went through classes but speak the language with their parents. In terms of spoken Chinese, many can understand TV & radio programs, movies but when it comes to reading a newspaper or magazine the answer is usually no. They would still consider the younger generation to be bilingual in English & Chinese. Have a friend who speaks fluent Chinese & Vietnamese. Including English I'd consider him to be trilingual. However, when it comes to research writing in English, he tends to misunderstand the meaning of certain words such as "vehicle". When it is used in a sentence it can refer to a car or bus for transportation. When you use the word as "vehicle for change" it refers to the "method" for change. Otherwise he managed to do shopping and other activities in English. The definition is very vague. I've met 1 man who did not complete his high school education and may be considered functionally illiterate. He can communicate fluently in English but cannot read a newspaper or a restaurant menu. In this case we are talking about English with an alphabet and not Chinese. There are people from various places like E. Europe, Italy, etc. who speak English with a noticeable accent but can read an English newspaper. With European languages once you learn the alphabet, the rest can be put together phonetically. I met 1 Korean who said he learned the Korean alphabet in 1 afternoon. With Chinese & Japanese you still have to learn the characters. Edited by shk00design on 30 October 2014 at 3:40am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6581 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 6 of 16 30 October 2014 at 7:24am | IP Logged |
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I've been influenced by this website to start thinking of "bilingual" and "diglot" as two
different things. A biligual is a native speaker of two languages (i.e. grew up speaking two languages), whereas a diglot is someone who speaks two languages, no matter how they were learned. I am thus a monolingual hexaglot, despite the fact that my English is probably C2. This is not how most people interpret the word, though. The common definition of a bilingual is just someone who can converse in two languages. Regarding the word "fluent", I don't use it at all. First rule of HTLAL: Don't say "fluent". 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4621 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 7 of 16 30 October 2014 at 10:42am | IP Logged |
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My wife could barely speak a word of English until she was 19, so she's certainly not native in this language, but I would definitely class her as a bilingual person now. After many years in the English-speaking countries, she uses the language effortlessly in all business and social situations.
Fleunt can mean all sorts of things. Many of my friends hear me speaking German for 2 minutes and are convinced I am fluent. But I know I still have a lot to learn. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Henkkles Triglot Senior Member Finland Joined 4252 days ago 544 posts - 1141 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English, Swedish Studies: Russian | Message 8 of 16 30 October 2014 at 12:41pm | IP Logged |
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Well in a Finnish discourse a bilingual person is someone who grew up speaking two languages, fair and square. If you didn't you're never going to become 'bilingual'. In Finnish we just say 'knows x languages'. Apparently in English contexts the definitions aren't as strict.
I even went to a Swedish speaking kindergarten but I sure as hell am not bilingual as I forgot like everything. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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