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Week 8 [28.11-04.12] The phenomenon of bilingualism

In times of globalisation contact with other languages is inevitable. It is estimated that more than half of the population is bilingual. The increase in migration, intensive economic exchange and fast developing tourism industry force people to learn foreign languages. Mass media and modern means of transport enable us to spread languages even faster. International marriages have never been more popular. All of these factors contribute to the growing number of bilingual people. Among them, there is one particular group which seems to benefit the most. They are called simultaneous bilinguals: people who acquire two languages from birth.
http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2015-05-21-1432234752-9588891-Bilingual_kid.jpg

According to many studies, simultaneous bilingual children seem to exceed monolingual children in tasks requiring abstract thinking, executive control and greater attention. In addition to having a huge impact on the human mind, bilingualism also influences emotions and the perception of the world. Language always comes together with its culture. One may say that language shapes the way we see the world. The more languages we know, the deeper awareness about the world around us we have.
What is more, it was proved that bilingualism may alter neurological structures. The recent research conducted by scientists from the University of Ghent shows correlation between bilingualism and later diagnosed Alzheimer’s disease. It is a relatively new theory and more research needs to be conducted, however, it is likely that bilingualism may delay Alzheimer’s symptoms. If you want to know more about this research, here is the link: 
On the other hand, for many years it was believed that bilingualism has a negative effect on children. This is mainly due to the fact that children who acquire two languages from birth usually start speaking later than monolinguals. Additionally, in the early stage of life they tend to mix both languages. In comparison to their monolingual peers they perform worse at vocabulary tests and their language abilities in each language are on a lower level.
https://2016bilingual.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/cropped-bilingual-comic1.jpg

In my opinion bilingual children catch up with their monolingual friends very quickly and excel in many other areas. I would say that disadvantages of simultaneous bilingualism are limited and in many cases they vanish as children get older. 
What is your opinion? Do you think bilingual children have easier lives? Or is it better to firstly acquire one language well and then focus on others?


Sources:


Comments

Sylwia Pechcin said…
I think that learning how to speak and understand people in one language is hard work. I mean - for a little baby everything around him is new, he has never seen anything and has never talk to anybody so he may be in kind of shock being attacked by these stimulus.
In my opinion it's better to learn child one language and then - even if it would be in a very young age, start teaching him some foreign languages.
Unknown said…
Of course bilingual childeren have easier life from the beginning. It's good situation when at school people speak in one language but at home parents speak in second language. In this situation child speaks two languages since he is born. I think that it is good for child. I think in future this child will learn next language easier.
Unknown said…
Of course bilingual childeren have easier life from the beginning. It's good situation when at school people speak in one language but at home parents speak in second language. In this situation child speaks two languages since he is born. I think that it is good for child. I think in future this child will learn next language easier.
Maciej Główka said…
I agree with you 100% that it is really hard work to learn how to speak and understand people in one language. I think that everyone knows someone, who even after many years of education still have problems in speaking properly;).
To not confuse and shock baby, one parent should speak to he or she in only one language. Doing this, they make baby feel natural hearing and speaking in two different languages.
Maciej Główka said…
I agree with you, I think that most bilingual children don't stop on two languages, they probably learn new languages faster than other, non bilingual children.
Unknown said…
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Unknown said…
I used to know (haven't seen him in a while) a kid speaking fluently 3 languages at the age of 6. That's because his parents are Polish-Austrian mixed marriage and his mother talks to him in polish, father in german but when they are all 3 togeather they mostly speak english.

I don't know if it has something to do with multilingualism but that kid was a little genius. They said that he was as capable as average 11 years old at the age of 6, but I think that in some ways he was brigthter than some (most) adults. He used to read whole semi-scientific books by himself. Impresive at his age if you ask me.

I was his babysitter and a kind of private teacher for a month in Austria. I usually don't like kids but we had a great time together. He had troubles with making contacts with his peers and really, really liked me because I was the only adult person ever treating him as an equal. It's funny that I had to show to a six yeras old that there are things apart from reading like for example building a dam made of rocks across a mountain stream.
Maciej Główka said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Maciej Główka said…
Very interesting story, I wonder what does this kid do now and what will he or she do as a teenager for example. I think that most "little geniuses" have problems with peers contact. However, it made me a little bit worried, that you had to show him other activities than reading. All in all, it is still a 6 year old child and should have fun as much as he or she could.
Unknown said…
In my opinion it is a great idea. I was brought up in this way. It has a lots of advantages, such as:
1. It is easier to learn another language from birth than it is during any other time in life,
2. You will have a head start in school,
3. If you want to study more languages later in life, you will have a leg up. The differences in sounds, word order, stress, rhythm, intonation and grammatical structures will be easier to learn.
4. It helps you to develop superior reading and writing skills,
5. You will have a better analytical, social, and academic skills,
6. It helps you to feel at ease in different environments. It creates a natural flexibility and adaptability.
7. Career prospects are multiplied many times over for people who know more than one language.
Unknown said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said…
It sounds like a really interesting experience. Generally, most people treat children not serious at all what I consider a big mistake. Parents should explain everything to the child what he/she would like to know (in the plain way of course) and don't say you're to young, because child doesn't learn anything that way.
Unknown said…
I don't believe bilingualism has a negative effect on children, just the opposite. I have no idea why for so many years it was thought to be harmfull fo children, probably the same groundless assumption as with being left-handed.
I myself recognise it as a great idea to bring a child that way. That would give him/her better start in the future, wider perspective and natural ability to change languages when speaking.
Unknown said…
I know two, two years old girls who started learning english in kindergarten. And they are good ad it. Process is long, after first lesson they were able to say "hello", then they started to learn about colors and they were pointing at stuff saying "różowy pink", "niebieski blue".
There is nothing wrong in teaching kids different language, but it have to be done wiesely, so they won't have any problems with differentiation of which language is basic one, which one should be used in school, home or somewhere else. By learning foreign language young age kids will have less problem with languages in future, but learning process have to be adapted to kids capabilities.
Unknown said…
I think that it does not matter, children adopt naturally to their surrounding, so I think that if one parent talks to child in differen language than the other, it should not be a problem.
Unknown said…
I think that if parents do have option to raise kid surrounding it with two languages, they should do it. It not only speeds up development, but also might help the kid in the future, for example with career. It is always god to know 2 languages.
Unknown said…
In my opinion it is good to teach kids languages as soon as possible - from the early stage. Children drink in the knowledge just like a sponge drinks in the water. For the kid everything around is totally new, so he learns a lot of information all the time. It is good - in my opinion - to teach him right away two languages because it is simply going to be easier for him later. And it will be very useful for him as well.
Maciej Główka said…
Beside all of advantages, I am curious to know if you, as a bilingual person, see any drawbacks of such education?
Maciej Główka said…
I also have no idea why for many years bilingualism was thought to be harmful for children. I am really glad, that it is changing.
Maciej Główka said…
I agree with you that teachers must have good really good skills and some good way to reach really young children. This process should be made as some game for children, otherwise they won't learn a lot and will be bored quickly.
Maciej Główka said…
I agree with you, I think that 2 languages is minimum number of languages to know nowadays.
Maciej Główka said…
I couldn't agree with you more, in my opinion it is good to start teaching children as quick as you can.
I'm afraid I can not say much about bilingual children as I don't have any of them among my friends or family members. However, some time ago I've read an article about this topic. The main conclusion of that article was that a child should clearly know who it is supposed to talk to in specific Language. To achieve that, for example, child mother's should talk to it in English and child's father in Polish. I'm not sure if this theory is 100% right, but it appears to be reasonable solution which doesn't confuse a child.
Unknown said…
I think bilingualism make life easier. My cousin lives in Germany and goes to school there, even though his parents were Polish he must use two languages. I noticed that bilingualism people have a greater ease of communication and are more open to other people. Sometimes the place of residence forcing us to know two languages because many countries have more than one official national language for example Belgium or RPA. I found an interesting article on this subject, I recommend to read:

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20160811-the-amazing-benefits-of-being-bilingual

There is also an interesting paragraph about the fact that such persons sometimes have a split personality even than I see the same advantages of being bilingual.
Unknown said…
I like the statement in the article about bilinguar children being better in tasks requiring abstract thinking. It really shows how learning languages can affect the way you think. It's all about using certain tools to express a concept you have in your head. In my opinion similar thing happens if you learn programming language. What's more most of programming tasks are abstract.
Maciej Główka said…
I've also heard about this theory, it sounds reasonable for me. Child will feel natural that mother is speaking one language and father other one. However I don't know child age, after which this division is not necessary.
Maciej Główka said…
Very good article, especially part about split personality. Idea that you gain a new personality with every language you speak, that you act differently when speaking different languages is really interesting. However, I think that advantages of bilingualism still overcome disadvatanges.
Maciej Główka said…
Interesting point of view, I agree that programmers must deal with different levels of abstraction in their programs.
Michał Pycek said…
I agree with the opinion that it is better for small children to grow up with two languages, because they have the ease of learning many different scopes of knowledge or skills. I have also heard about it, that they do it slower than the monolingual children, but still I think that at the end they are privileged and surpass the other children with the ease of knowledge possession and application. Such children can use this skill in the future without any limitations because their language will in a way define what they can do and how they can work with it.
I know a guy who is bilingual and to him it is like a blessing because he can work in Poland in his second language and it makes his skill very special and extraordinary.
Piotr Basiński said…
In my point of view it's not so great to be bilingual for childrens. It's put pressure on brain and as included in presentation they can have worse marks from language tests at school. In my opinion the biggest anvantage is to be able to speak in English, people whose are English native speakers don't have to learn any different language at all. It's hard to judge it is good or bad to learn two languages since birth. All in all everyone will be able to learn second language at school later.
Unknown said…
I don't know from the experience, but I would like to have a bilingual child. In my opinion, it will easy child's life in the future. I don't think there is something bad in bilingualism. Foreign languages are necessary in our tomes, so I would like to teach them my children from the early age.
Unknown said…
I’m can probably call myself a simultaneous bilingual. Since childhood, few members of my family and also my baby sitter were speaking Russian. And my mom and dad where speaking Ukrainian. I don’t remember that I had any troubles with grasping those languages. But my mom tells me that for some time in a childhood I was mixing words. Probably bilingualism helped me to learn Polish faster as well. As learning languages is a skill and-and getts better with repetition. Children brain works faster than adults brain and learning 2 languages at a time is not an issue at all.
Andrzej Gulak said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Maciej Główka said…
Having 2 native languages in CV is really a head start in many different jobs. I think in near future we will see more and more bilingual people.
Maciej Główka said…
Good for your children ;)
Maciej Główka said…
It is true that knowing English gives you an opportunity to communicate probably in about 80% places in the world. However, learning new languages gives you some skills which can be really helpful in your future life.
Maciej Główka said…
I agree with you, child's brain is like sponge so learning a new language is a lot easier than for adult.
The only drawback of bilingualism I can see is mixing up words. But it depends where the child is being raised. I think that the child will speak fluently the language which is spoken in the country. In time he/she will speak second language good enough to have a normal conversation.
I think that it’s good idea to teach a baby two different languages at the same time. The babies have much bigger abilities to learn than kids few years older than them. The brains of babies can develop quicker because of huge number of pluripotential stem cells that can easily form new neurons. I have also heard about perks of being bilingual from this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMmOLN5zBLY
Moode said…
I think that it is easier for bilingual children. They get to speak two languages fluently from the beginning. I am not sure if this affects them in any way, like you have mention starting to speak later than others. I would like to be able to speak two languages from the beginning. My friends cousin has a baby boy who’s parents teach him to speak Polish, English and French.
Unknown said…
I am Ukrainian too. In my family everyone speak Russian, but I have grown up with the both languages. And when I was five, I've started to learn English. When you are a kid it is very easy to collect the new words. But now when I already speak Polish and come to visit my family in Ukraine I mix the words sometimes and is sounds funny) When I practiced English a lot I even had my inner voice speaking English too)

I know one Ukrainian couple who live in Poland with their small son and daughter. And they kids speak Russian at home, Ukrainian in Ukraine and Polish at the kindergarten. The 5-year boy was helping us with the Polish words :)

As I mentioned in the other topic - kids need to start foreign languages as early as possible. I don't see the problem here.
Unknown said…
I think that bilingual children do have it easier in their lives. It will be easier for them to find a job because they at the start know two languages. And they do have deeper awareness of the world. And their parents shouldn't worry about the fact that when they are young they will have some difficulties. Children adapt and learn very quickly and in the future they will have a better start.
Dajana Kubica said…
I have a friend whose father is English and her mother is Polish. I had not noticed that he had some difficulties. I admire his ability to communicate in English, even though the whole life spent in Poland. He never mentioned that he had some difficulties in childhood. I think children being born in such families have an easier start when it comes to learning languages. They can focus on learning another language. I wonder what language these children think. Maybe they mix the two languages together?
Hard to say as I don't have deep knowledge on that subject - it definitely affects some things positively, and some negatively. Personally I'd probably be still up for classic way of learning - by learning your native language first, and then learning another one based on that, although second language doesn't necessarily need to come much later - children nowadays are learning English even in kindergarten, and that is really early in my opinion, which profits greatly in the future. However, "forcing" children to speak 2 languages right away might not be the best thing to do, at least in my opinion.
I think bilingual children have easier lives. They learn to communicate in two languages from birth and they train brain in this way.
They naturally will be able to communicate with others not only from their country.
I'd love to be bilingual myself and I'm kind of jealous of people that are. Though you really need to have parents with different first languages for that to work properly.
Unknown said…
Bilingualism is a great thing. I think kids that have parents speaking in two different languages and learning from the moment they start to talk are really lucky. The cons of this are so marginal compared to the pros that I wouldn't even take them into consideration, we no longer live in a world where knowing our own language perfectly can outweigh knowing both our own and a second one really good, not to mention, those small differences disappear with age.
The truth is that I would love my future children to be bilingual. I regret every day that I don't speak many languages because it is a great advantage for life. And of course I think that bilingual people have easier life. I read that childrens don't have any problem with learning a few languages at one time. Also they can't even tell a diffrence between them. It comes naturaly for them. They only start to mix them up when it comes to 5th language. So I think the earlier kids start to learn new language the easier they have later. And I don't think there is any disadvantages of knowing more than one language. It is always a good thing and helpful in life.

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