This is the struggle that many bilinguals face while carrying on with their lives as people who communicate in two languages. Bilinguals are often expected to speak both languages to perfection in order to be fully embraced by both cultures. In the case of Latinos in the United States, for example, an individual is expected to be able to quote Shakespeare and Cervantes, be familiar with Oprah and Cristina, and sing the lyrics to a Beyonce song as well as a Juanes song. Korean American children, for their part, must be able to excel at school entirely in English, while also being able to sit down and talk to their grandparents about traditional Korean culture, morals, values, and cuisine. Interestingly enough, however, is that most bilinguals can do all of the above, relatively well, yet the mostly monolingual U.S. society expects them to do so without flaw and without mixing or interjecting foreign languages or ideologies, for fear that it will ultimately “taint” the language. Yet what many monolinguals fail to comprehend is that “bilingualism is not monolingualism times two” (Garcia, 2009, p. 71). Being bilingual is much more complex than that.

Bilingualism is often plagued with the misconception that bilingual individuals must have complete or native like “control” or “dominance” of their languages in order to truly be considered bilingual. As Ferreira (2010) mentions,

Multilinguals are, for example, required to show balanced command over their languages, where balanced is to be understood as synonymous with “perfect,” or else jeopardize their entitlement to the label multilingual itself. That is, they must behave like the sum of several monolinguals, whose behavior is, as said, the model of linguistic competence (p. 4).

Many monolinguals still view bilingualism in this manner or at least expect it. Monolinguals often assume that if an individual looks like, declares that, or has some sort of characteristic or connotation of being bilingual, then he or she must be able to communicate in both languages as if there were two monolinguals in one. This was certainly the case for my best friend, Christina, the daughter of second-generation Puerto Rican parents born and raised in New York. Christina has all of the external and physical features of a typical Puerto Rican, yet is not able to communicate effectively in Spanish. She is fully able to understand someone who speaks Spanish to her, but is not able to provide responses or directions in complete sentences in Spanish. Interestingly, a few years ago, Christina applied for a receptionist position at a law firm that was seeking a bilingual receptionist. She was interviewed and was given the job, solely because she looked the part. No one measured her proficiency in Spanish; they were simply satisfied with her English and assumed that she was equally able to communicate in Spanish. For the most part, Christina was able to carry out the duties outlined for her new position, and even attempted to communicate with her Spanish-speaking clientele using gestures, short phrases, and code-mixing, making up words based on her knowledge of the meaning of certain words in English and Spanish cognates, such as rufo, for “roof” and laca for “lock.” In time, the company opted for hiring a Spanish interpreter/translator in order to supplement her lack of language skills in Spanish.

In the case of bilinguals who possess a formidable command of two languages, as was my personal experience, the issue or underlying question becomes: Which of the two languages am I stronger in? I consider my language skills in both English and Spanish to be fairly respectable. I am able to communicate effectively with English monolinguals as well as Spanish monolinguals. For many years I believed that my English and Spanish language skills were equal in all aspects. The majority of my schooling was in English and I later graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish. I was convinced that I had an effective dominance of two languages, that I was in fact two monolinguals in one person. Yet, I often felt myself traveling to and from both “worlds,” actually a much more appropriate way of explaining this connecting, merging, meshing the two languages. This often led me to question my language abilities. Was I truly 100% efficient in both English and Spanish? Fortunately, I soon discovered the reality of my situation after reading Garcia’s (2009) comments on bilingual as individuals languaging differently and having diverse and unequal experiences with each of their two languages. I realized that a bilingual is a unique individual, whose ability to process and deliver oral information is unlike that of a monolingual person. As a bilingual individual, I have the advantage of “pulling” or extracting information from a variety of sources, background knowledge, experiences, and familiarity with two languages and cultures. I compare this busy and distinct activity or linkage that goes on in my mind with a two-way street, where the only separation between two lanes is a simple yellow line. While cruising down the English lane and engaging with my surroundings I am easily able to make a U-turn to go onto the other side of the street, the Spanish side, if I see something that catches my eye. I am also able to park and cross the street on foot and enjoy the bilingual world that I live in. I can speak to one neighbor and then another; I can ask for ham or jamón at the deli or the bodega; I can buy some bread at the bakery or a pastelito on a food truck. I can do these things because I am able to comprehend and communicate effectively enough in both languages. This discovery, this new truth of who I truly am, has freed me to a certain extent. I no longer have to burden myself with being absolutely perfect in English or Spanish, because I will never be two monolinguals in one, and frankly, I am relieved and actually overjoyed that I am not.

Garcia (2009) makes another interesting point about the languages of an individual being rarely equal, having different power and prestige, and being used for different purposes, in different contexts, and with different interlocutors. One of my college professors, from the Judicial Court Interpreter’s program at the Community College of Rhode Island, once shared with the class that a person’s “dominant” language is the one that is used for arguing or romancing a spouse. For a long time I held this notion to be true, and would often say, “Well, then Spanish is my dominant language, because I like to do the above in Spanish.” Presently, however, I think I have to disagree. It is not about having complete dominance over one or the other, but about the advantage that bilinguals have of strategically selecting the language that they prefer for certain conversations, pastimes, work, and family. Gutierrez (as cited in Garcia, 2009) refers to this code-switching as a hybrid language use. Once a monolingual classmate asked me, “How do bilinguals code-switch? It must be so difficult to do, because when I hear it I feel as though it is so complicated.” I simply smiled, exhaled, and said, “You know, it isn’t hard at all.”

I consider bilingualism to be a true advantage, an opportunity to think, learn, communicate, and live using the best of who you are. Some may deem the behavior and languaging of bilinguals to be unusual, because they simply do not understand its uniqueness, its richness and the fact that it is embedded in the very fibers of a bilingual’s being. Bilingualism, the ability to link, merge, connect, and mesh two languages and experiences in order to communicate and express oneself is a truly unique, complex, and marvelous gift.

References

Cruz-Ferreira. M. (2010). Speaking of multilinguals. Bilingual Family Newsletter, 27(3). Retrieved from http://www.bilingualfamilynewsletter.com/archives.php

Garcia, O. (2009). Bilingual education in the 21st century: A global perspective. Chichester, England: Wiley.

Yara Rodriguez currently resides in Providence, Rhode Island. She is the daughter of Puerto Rican immigrants, born and raised in the United States. Yara is a fourth grade bilingual elementary school teacher, a dedicated wife and mother of two children.