Bilingual

I found reading about two languages to be interesting in the textbook. I myself, am not bilingual. I have a friend from Germany who can speak very fluent English on top of German, her native language. I wish I could speak two languages, so when I would go in for a job interview I would have something that some other teachers wouldn’t have. I feel our world and surrounding areas around us will turn into a bilingual area someday, and we will have to adapt to a new language. This reminds me of my great grandparents who spoke mostly Pennsylvania-Dutch. They could speak English, but communicated towards one another in Dutch. My grandparents remember it and could say phrases today, but my parents on the other hand cannot say too many things anymore. I was too young to remember how to say anything today. As the textbook said, young bilingual children site both languages in the same area of the brain, yet they manage to keep them separate (Berger 2011). I find this so fascination. Children are constantly learning new things every day, and they can really teach the adults somethings sometimes.

Reading about language loss was something I know my friend can relate to. When she was here for a year from Germany, she was forgetting a lot of German and could not communicate well when she would talk to her parents. Even though she was 22 at the time, English felt like her native language to her. When her and I communicate when she is home, she will forget many words in English and I will have to remind her which words she is looking for. When she just comes for a brief trip, she can flip back and forth from English to German quite easily. It’s interesting to see how easily someone can communicate in a different language. Even though she is currently in college, she is still taking English classes. She does have a thick accent when she speaks in German, but she is very easily understood. My family even enjoys teaching her the Philadelphia “slang” so she can fit in a little better with the area J