Victoria Tothill-Brown
“Are you bilingual?”
“Yes.”
“When did you start learning French?”
“I don’t speak French.”
“But you said you were bilingual.”
I have had the above conversation more times than I care to acknowledge. I will never forget the time my high school counsellor, after I told her I wanted to forego the standard French classes to take Japanese, called me a “bad Canadian”. More than 10 years of studying and seven years of my life spent in Japan, I sometimes wonder if there’s space in the Canadian identity for “bad” bilinguals like me who struggle with a lack of national identity.
I will admit that I am a bilingual in the purest sense of the word. I speak two languages: English and Japanese (save for some sacres and enough French to stutter my way through buying a sandwich). I’m also a “bad” language speaker.
Continue reading “Bad bi(lingual)s, bad bi(lingual)s, whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do when they come for you?”