“Enclosed in my own four walls, I found myself as an immigrant imprisoned in a foreign country;… I saw my family as strange aliens whose foreign customs, rites, and very language defied comprehension;… though I did not want it, they forced me to participate in their bizarre rituals;… I could not resist.”
In this post, I will address the question Lauren raised in her post last week: what makes you feel bi/multilingual? First, I will explain how I perceive multilingualism, and then I will present my experience with translation as an example of what makes me feel multilingual. While I find Lauren’s question intriguing, I even have some further questions: what does it mean by bilingualism/multilingualism? If multilingualism refers to someone being able to use or speak several languages, then what level of proficiency serves as an indicator for a person being bi/multilingual: limited, professional, full, or native (native-like)? How is proficiency defined? And more specifically, does the term multilingualism have the same sense in the eyes of those who belong to a language education community (like BILD members) and those who are outside the field?
Continue reading
