What does it mean to be bilingual?
Download this program (Right click and Save As…) If you speak just one language, you probably think that’s pretty normal, and that people who speak more than one are an exception, or at least a minority. In fact, it’s just the opposite. Three quarters of the people in the world, including many in the U.S., are bilingual or multilingual. It’s monolinguals who are a minority breed. Bilingualism, of course, can mean different things. And not all bilinguals speak two languages at the same level. For example, after September 11th, 2001, bilinguals responded to calls for people who could handle both English and Arabic. But their skills weren’t good enough to meet the need. Some spoke both languages fluently but couldn’t read and write one of them well, or vice versa. So how do you get to be bilingual? Often, it happens early in life, in a home where two languages are spoken. Parents sometimes speak both languages to the child; sometimes one parent uses one language and another uses the oth
