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Bilingual ?

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Smart
Tetraglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5339 days ago
352 posts - 398 votes 
Speaks: Spanish, English*, Latin, French
Studies: German

 
 Message 1 of 36
15 April 2010 at 2:04am | IP Logged 
Elaborated on page four, ignore the below text for I explained further with more personal details on pg4. Thanks



___________________________________
Hello, perhaps this is not the correct forum. I was contemplating the advice center but I believe that is for novice questions, the other recommended forum is probably not a good place either.

I have never asked before, but when I was overlooking the forum, I noticed people labeled themselves bilingual. Now I speak English and Spanish with native fluency.

Here's the question:
I am wondering if I began to learn Spanish at 3, basic-fluent at 8 and was fluent at 11 if I am bilingual?

I use the language daily and I even read literature in it.

However I do not use it as a true secondary "native" language, as English is the de facto language of my state (California). [my conversions in-house and with friends is predominantly English]

So am I considered bilingual or no?

Thanks guys!

Edited by Smart on 20 April 2010 at 2:27am
1 person has voted this message useful



Delodephius
Bilingual Tetraglot
Senior Member
Yugoslavia
Joined 5403 days ago
342 posts - 501 votes 
Speaks: Slovak*, Serbo-Croatian*, EnglishC1, Czech
Studies: Russian, Japanese

 
 Message 2 of 36
15 April 2010 at 2:13am | IP Logged 
I don't use Serbian 99% of the time but I'm considered bilingual by everyone I know. Even I consider myself bilingual. However, I might as well consider myself trilingual since I speak English fluently. I actually wrote that in my college application. :-P
1 person has voted this message useful



Smart
Tetraglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5339 days ago
352 posts - 398 votes 
Speaks: Spanish, English*, Latin, French
Studies: German

 
 Message 3 of 36
15 April 2010 at 2:24am | IP Logged 
Delodephius wrote:
I don't use Serbian 99% of the time but I'm considered bilingual by everyone I know. Even I consider myself bilingual. However, I might as well consider myself trilingual since I speak English fluently. I actually wrote that in my college application. :-P


I see. I will label myself bilingual on the forum then.
1 person has voted this message useful



datsunking1
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5585 days ago
1014 posts - 1533 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: German, Russian, Dutch, French

 
 Message 4 of 36
15 April 2010 at 3:26am | IP Logged 
If you are fluent, you are bilingual.

However don't get carried away. We have some kids at school that know 3 words in a language and their like I SPEAK [INSERT LANGUAGE]

One girl brags about what she knows... "I speak four languages, I'm so much smarter than everyone."

I said some simple German to her (Hey, what's up, whatcha doin' etc) She had no clue what I said and said "That doesn't even make sense." Yet I knew it did because all the rappers and TV people say it lol I just quitely laughed and went on...


I can read much better than I can speak (lack of natives in PA) but I feel that I have a pretty good skill. I certainly would be able to have everyday conversations (I'm probably not even close to your skill level.)

By the way, how did you make 68 posts in two days? :D

1 person has voted this message useful



Smart
Tetraglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5339 days ago
352 posts - 398 votes 
Speaks: Spanish, English*, Latin, French
Studies: German

 
 Message 5 of 36
15 April 2010 at 3:33am | IP Logged 
datsunking1 wrote:
If you are fluent, you are bilingual.

However don't get carried away. We have some kids at school that know 3 words in a language and their like I SPEAK [INSERT LANGUAGE]

One girl brags about what she knows... "I speak four languages, I'm so much smarter than everyone."

I said some simple German to her (Hey, what's up, whatcha doin' etc) She had no clue what I said and said "That doesn't even make sense." Yet I knew it did because all the rappers and TV people say it lol I just quitely laughed and went on...


I can read much better than I can speak (lack of natives in PA) but I feel that I have a pretty good skill. I certainly would be able to have everyday conversations (I'm probably not even close to your skill level.)

By the way, how did you make 68 posts in two days? :D

My vocabulary in Spanish is huge. I know 4 or 5 words of Dutch. But I wouldn't say I KNOW Dutch :P

Oh I made all these posts because I am awesome :D

edit - rappers? Azad?
I love his songs :P

Edited by Smart on 15 April 2010 at 3:34am
1 person has voted this message useful



Arekkusu
Hexaglot
Senior Member
Canada
bit.ly/qc_10_lec
Joined 5381 days ago
3971 posts - 7747 votes 
Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto
Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian

 
 Message 6 of 36
15 April 2010 at 5:08am | IP Logged 
I think you are refering to being native in 2 languages. To which the answer would be
that you aren't. I can pretty much say that I am equally comfortable in English as I am
in French (my first language), even though I didn't learn English until I was a teenager,
but I'm not an English native and wouldn't label myself as such.

I always thought that the double asterisk on this site was reserved for people who were
natives in 2 languages. I don't think it denotes a near-native.
1 person has voted this message useful



Johntm
Senior Member
United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5422 days ago
616 posts - 725 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 7 of 36
15 April 2010 at 5:18am | IP Logged 
datsunking1 wrote:


However don't get carried away. We have some kids at school that know 3 words in a language and their like I SPEAK [INSERT LANGUAGE]

One girl brags about what she knows... "I speak four languages, I'm so much smarter than everyone."

Wow, in that case I'm right up there with Iversen. I know several random words from some languages.

I like this quote I saw from a comedian on Comedy Central
"Knowing multiple languages doesn't make you smart. You can still be an idiot and know 7 languages. It just means more people will understand that you're an idiot."
It's amazing how much you can learn from comedians sometimes.
5 persons have voted this message useful



Smart
Tetraglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5339 days ago
352 posts - 398 votes 
Speaks: Spanish, English*, Latin, French
Studies: German

 
 Message 8 of 36
15 April 2010 at 5:45am | IP Logged 
Arekkusu wrote:
I think you are refering to being native in 2 languages. To which the answer would be
that you aren't. I can pretty much say that I am equally comfortable in English as I am
in French (my first language), even though I didn't learn English until I was a teenager,
but I'm not an English native and wouldn't label myself as such.

I always thought that the double asterisk on this site was reserved for people who were
natives in 2 languages. I don't think it denotes a near-native.

Bilingual/Trilingual area. Therefore, I am bilingual.


1 person has voted this message useful



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