HCast
Being bilingual I was born and raised in Japan until elementary school, and moved to the US before middle school. I went back to Japan after graduating high school to go to a university in Japan. When people ask me if I am bilingual, I say yes. I speak and write in both languages. Am I a master in both of the languages? I can't say so with conviction. There are different degrees to being bilingual. I have been asked if I am "fully" bilingual, as in native status in both of the languages. For a long time I considered myself "fully" bilingual. I can express my feelings and read or listen and understand the languages well. Lately though, I feel like I am fooling people (and myself) when I tell them that. Can I express an exact same idea in both Japanese and in English in the same manner? I'm never 100% confident in my English grammar. I'm always reluctant to proofread in English for someone in fear of being called out that my English is not "native" enough. At the same time, whenever I try to correct someone's Japanese post on italki, I'm afraid that my correction may not be "correct". I tell myself I can't be the only one with this kind of insecurity... Or am I? Either way, I believe writing here and having people correct me really helps, both my language skills and my confidence. Hope I become comfortable enough soon so I could help more people learn the languages! And thanks always for the corrections by kind people:)
Mar 29, 2015 9:53 AM
Corrections · 8

Being bilingual

I was born and raised in Japan until I was in elementary school and moved to the US before middle school. I went back to Japan after graduating high school to go to an university in Japan.

When people ask me if I am bilingual, I say yes. I speak and write in both languages. Have I mastered both of these languages?  I can't say so with conviction. There are different degrees to being bilingual. I have been asked if I am "fully" bilingual, as in native status in both of the languages. For a long time I considered myself "fully" bilingual. I can express my feelings and read or listen and understand the languages well. Lately though, I feel like I am fooling people (and myself) when I tell them that. Can I express an exact same idea in both Japanese and in English in the same manner? I'm never 100% confident in my English grammar. I'm always reluctant to proofread in English for someone in fear of being called out that my English is not "native" enough. At the same time, whenever I try to correct someone's Japanese post on italki, I'm afraid that my correction may not be "correct".

I tell myself I can't be the only one with this kind of insecurity... Or am I? Either way, I believe writing here and having people correct me really helps, both my language skills and my confidence. I I hope I become comfortable enough soon so I could help more people learn the languages!

And thanks always for the corrections by kind people:)

 

Your english seems great! I think most people deal with insecurities and frustrations when learning a second language, but remember that everyone fluent in any language once started from the beginning. Good job!

March 29, 2015
Ciao, Andrea! (Is that right?) Yes, I do feel very fortunate about my upbringing, I almost feel I didn't take full advantage of it growing up. Instead of regretting that, I am trying to re-learn basic grammar and vocabulary so that I can confidently say that I know both languages very well. By the way, I think accents make people unique and interesting. I was brought up in Tokyo and my English accent is also standard American English, so I kind of find it boring:P Good luck to you, too!
April 7, 2015
Hi everybody. I would like to have your problem HCast! I am a native Italian speaker and I have been working hard to learn English for many years (and how you can read, I still have a lot of work to do!). This is my tip: try to consider yourself enough lucky not to have to learn another language. I know that I will never be able to speak English like a native speaker and this was very frustrating for me in the past. But now I realize that languages are just a tool to communicate. It doesn’t matter how your accent look like, but what you can say and understand. Good luck for the University!
April 4, 2015
Thank you so much for the encouragement! When studying a language (or in my case, two!) I feel there is no end. But if I look at it from a different perspective, it's an endless journey filled with amazement and I am very happy to see so many people here who are on the same adventure.
March 31, 2015
Hi there! To begin with, I think that to be bilingual is absolutely awesome and that already makes you an amazing person. Secondly, your level of English is just like any other native English speaker and I couldn't find any issues in comprehension at all so you can say definitely, with conviction, that you are a fluent and highly articulate English speaker. Thirdly, as a teacher of a language I often ask questions of native speakers to discover the way in which particular words are used and in what context, and there are always differing answers!!!! While this is frustrating, it also shows that no matter who you are and what language you speak, there will always be differences in the way in which the target language is used by different people and others will always have differing opinions to yours. This is okay and doesn't mean that you are wrong!! It just shows how diverse each language can be and the different ways it is used. So keep up the corrections!!! We are all learning!!!
March 29, 2015
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