Being Bilingual Assignment

10/28/2013

The entire 10.1 class is bilingual. In fact, most are multilingual, speaking as many as FOUR languages!! This is so exceptional that I, Ms. Nina, had to ask:

Is being bilingual an asset? Why?

This week (Oct. 28 - Nov. 1), you will answer the above question with a five-paragraph persuasive essay.
To start, you will write your first draft in whichever language you are most comfortable:

Dina, Marga, and Moon, please write your first draft in Malay, Burmese, and Korean respectively;
everyone else, please write your first draft in English.

Your final draft will be due Friday, Nov. 1.
As always, if you have any questions, contact me.

2 Comments

Victoria

11/1/2013 01:51:55 am

Being bilingual… an asset?

We were viewing, what probably was, the 90th house in three months since we moved to Yangon. I asked my mom if I could repaint the nice tidy room I had my eye on earlier. I wanted to paint it in teal and grey. Our agent, David, immediately picked up on the conversation and promptly relayed my question to the house owner. This he did fluently and charmingly in Myanmar language. David is an American who arrived in Yangon last year. Of course, we got the house. This, I believe, clearly illustrates that being bilingual is an asset.

Many scenarios support the benefits of being able to communicate in another language other than one’s own. In a highly globalised world where international travel is a way of life, being able to understand and be understood in all settings and situations is an advantage. For example, family friends who recently came to visit us were composed of a French mother and an American father. My mom is Filipino and the two local house helps who came to help us in the house were both locals of Indian decent. Somehow, the house got cleaned, gluten-free cake was baked and the possible horrors of allergy attack were prevented. Our guests had serious intolerance to gluten and lactose and one can only imagine the consequences if their dietary requirements were not communicated well.

With the rapid advances in information technology, online platforms such as social media allows for a freer exchange of information, and a wider venue for transnational and transcultural dialogue. I could be sitting in my room and talking to friends in other parts of the world. My friends could be Russian, English, Spanish, etc. We all have to communicate using a common language, which is often not our own language.

Commercialized cities such as London, New York, Hong Kong and Singapore are known for their cultural diversity. The diverse culture of these cities on the one hand provide for exchange of ideas and creative knowledge. On the other hand, this diversity also requires the residents to at least be able to communicate in a language, normally English, to help them integrate into the society and lead meaningful lives.

Finally, we only need to look at our school setting. Part of the learning experience we gain from being a member of an international school is the exposure to different cultures. It is a great opportunity to be able to establish friendships and meaningful relationships with one’s classmate, who may speak a different language from us, but who also can speak a common language with us. The opposite – everyone having different first language but no common, second language – is unthinkable. Being bilingual is an asset not only to the individual, but to the society in general.

Victoria

11/1/2013 01:52:21 am

Being bilingual is an asset and a great skill to have. The importance of having to know two or more languages has been increasing as the world is rapidly developing. Although being bilingual has it’s own cons, the towering list of amount of pros outweighs it effectively. Learning two or more languages has been proved to develop an individual’s thinking, help global economy, and shapes a person’s personality and attitude. These benefits including many others will explain why being bilingual is an asset.

A number of studies propose that being bilingual improves the brain’s executive function, a term for the control of cognitive processes including memorization, reasoning, planning, solving problems, as well as performance. In short, the executive function is the same as an executive administration of a big and well-heeled company. Thus, being bilingual improves an individual’s thinking by developing the brain’s executive functions. In an article from NY Times, the writer Yudhjiit Bhattacharjee states that being bilingual “forces the brain to resolve internal conflict, giving a mind the workout that strengthens its cognitive muscles”. People who have what they call a Third Culture Kid, a child who grew up in a different country from where he was born, are mostly bilingual and multilingual. Being a Third Culture Kid requires you to learn a different language in order to adapt in a distinct environment that you are in. In order for them to learn at schools, they have to get used to the native language unless it’s an international school, in which case they are also taught foreign languages. These become their “mental gymnastics”, stretching their mind and helping it to grow.
Being bilingual helps global economy. It is advantageous to know more than one language in applying for a job and being a businessman. A far-reaching company would see bilingualism a necessity for its employees, making communication and trading with other companies uncomplicated. Most successful companies are branched all over the world and their need for bilingual workers are increasing. A company like Ford who have plants in China and India, is in need of bilingual professionals in order to make a successful negotiation and to study new markets. Many of the world’s notable electronic companies such as Nintendo, Sony, and Panasonic come from Japan. Samsung, the world’s biggest smartphone maker is based in Korea. These well-known companies have subsidiaries all over the world and bilingual workers are, indeed, a need.

Learning languages help shape a person’s personality and attitude. Language is a strong bond between individuals. It is the most commonly used way to communicate and interact with each other. A person speaking in your own language tends develop trust and openness between you and him. Being bilingual increases one’s self-esteem. They are more confident in speaking in public and socializing. One example is a study that took place in The University of Windsor. They compared 57 bilingual and 677 unilingual students from grades 9, 10, and 11, talking to them about bilingualism and mapping their self-esteem. The results showed that bilingual students have extensively greater self-esteem than unilingual students. Bilinguals have an open mind. As I mentioned earlier, Third Culture Kids are mostly multilingual and bilinguals. Thus, keeping their minds open. Having to know other languages makes individuals communicate with another individual that has a different culture than their own. Exposing them to a foreign culture leads them into contact with distinct values, behaviours, and attitudes. It also brings them to learn more about another culture’s stories, folks, history, literature, music, etc. In addition to that, being bilingual makes you seems more mature. Learning another individual’s culture teaches you how to be respectful and know that each and every one has different beliefs and cultures.

Lastly, being a bilingual is fun. Learning a new language is not supposed to be hard and a pain. It takes time, practice and patience. Personally, I like being a bilingual. Learning new words from another language is a part of my everyday life. It can be sometimes frustrating but the good things that it brought me such as meeting new people and learning about their and their places’ culture, surpass it. Bilingualism will help an individual’s thinking, help developing countries and and in a big picture, the world, and shapes a person’s personality. To this extent, I believe that being bilingual is a reliable and profitable asset to have in consequence to improving one’s cognitive skills, helping the world’s economy, and improve shapes a person’s personality.

Being Bilingual Assignment

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