When would you say somebody is bilingual? I give you two examples, me and my stepdaughter.I grew up in the Netherlands, then when I was 14 I moved to the UK where my father had found a job in the oil

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Antony Hoogervorst

When would you say somebody is bilingual?

I give you two examples, me and my stepdaughter.

I grew up in the Netherlands, then when I was 14 I moved to the UK where my father had found a job in the oil industry. I am pretty comfortable with English, but still my Dutch is better. Could I call myself bilingual or not?

Another example is my daughter. She moved from Latin America to the UK (and later she moved to the Netherlands) when she was 6. Her mother speaks Spanish. From that moment she grew up with three languages that were constantly code switched: English, Dutch and Spanish. Now I could say she is trilingual even, but I notice she makes gender mistakes in Dutch. And sometimes I can even catch her making some small mistakes in Spanish. She is almost 'in between three languages'. She is fluent, fast and eloquent in three languages, but still not without errors. Dutch being the language that would her mother tongue I think.. but if I would call it her mother tongue, it is still not perfect.

Commentaires · 6

You can be bilingual in the sense that you can speak well two languages. However, when people say that word they normally mean that a person has two mother tongues.

I don't know, it seems like we cannot agree on what bilingualism really is. I mean, I've seen people with very poor linguistic skills even call themselves bilingual, they don't even speak well their 2º language!

Anyways, I think the best idea is to simply stop putting labels on yourself and onto others. Look at me, I speak 4 languages fluently and I don't even identify with the word "polyglot". I'm just me.

And also, don't worry so much about your daughter making little mistakes, we all do.

The American Heritage dictionary defines "bilingual" as "Using or able to use two languages, especially with equal or nearly equal fluency."

To me, "bilingual" suggests a person who has spent much of his younger years speaking two languages and thus has learned both of them by a long process of natural immersion, not by deliberate study of a "second" language. But that's just the way I think of it.

Well the thing to point out here is that in general people very often overestimate their own ability in a language. I would only call myself bilingual if I would be sure to almost never make any mistakes. If it is just being fluent, being able to switch rapidly, to speak without hesitation, then I could even add Spanish and German to my list of native languages. In my opinion this would be silly. Yes for me, in my humble opinion, bilingual is perfect, for say a 99.999%.

I consider bilingual those who are able to switch from one language to another with ease. Of course, with a minimum level of communication, but you don't have to be a native speaker to be called bilingual in my opinion :)

Mwa, okay, but should I fill in my profile as bilingual or not? :)

Nah, well, I will be modest, and only claim Dutch to be my native language.

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