Double the Languages, Double the Benefit - James Leung

James Leung

ENG 11000-B FC

March 23, 2015

Double the Languages, Double the Benefit

In America, we live in a melting pot of cultures from all around the world.  With these various cultures also brings their plethora of languages.  While English is the main language spoken in the United States, languages such as Spanish, Mandarin, French, and German are spoken by many Americans as well.  Having all these languages in one country allows for the individual to learn more than just their native language.  Although one might say learning another language can take away native culture or family ties, being bilingual predominantly creates positive and advantageous impacts on Americans.

The ability to understand and speak more than one language fluently is likely to improve how others view a person professionally and increase respect.  Speaking more than one language gives a person an edge over someone who can’t.  Since there are so many bilingual people in America, a person not being able to speak more than one language could lead to other people thinking that person is lazy or unintelligent.  Joy Luck Club author Amy Tan, describes various situations that highlight the disadvantage of not being able to speak more than one language.  According to Tan, her mother is able to speak Chinese but her mother’s English is limited.  When department stores, banks, and restaurants would hear her mother speak to them in English, they would ignore her, be rude to her, and so on.  Tan was forced to speak for her mother many times because these things would happen (78).  If Tan's mother's English was better, the people at the banks and stores most likely would not have been mean to her and respond the way they did.  Tan's ability to speak well not only Chinese but also in English paid off as she was given respect and proper responses, while her mother was treated rudely.  Similarly to Tan’s mother, my grandmother also was mistreated because she could only speak Chinese fluently.  My grandmother went to the doctor one day and the doctor tried taking advantage of her because she could not speak English.  He prescribed a whole list of medications for her to take, a list of medications that she did not actually need.  However, when my mother, a bilingual speaker of English and Chinese, went to the doctor with my grandmother the next day, his attitude changed and said she actually didn’t need to take all of the medicine.  Additionally, many companies see bilingualism as a good trait for a professional to have in their arsenal.  When applying for a job, the chances of a company hiring someone who is able to speak more than one language is more likely because that person is able to communicate with more people.  Bilingualism can also lead to mental advantages over people who speak only one language.

Being able to speak two languages allows for people to simply know more and grants intellectual advantages.  While it is true most kids who learn to languages at the same time are out under more pressure and given more work compared to monolingual students, in the long run the ability to get past the work and pressure will become a skill for the bilingual students.  This is a skill that single language people will be lacking of.  Amina Khan of the Los Angeles Times, states in her article "Bilingualism good for the brain, researchers say", that being bilingual, "keep[s] the brain more nimble, allowing bilingual people to multitask better, pick out key information faster and more effectively ignore surrounding distractions."  Khan is saying when in a working environment, bilingual people are more efficient and their minds can get the job done quicker than one language speakers.  Being able to process information faster also means that bilingual people can study at a faster rate.  This is why in the long run struggling to learn two languages at a young age can potentially be beneficial outside of even just language. Another positive impact of bilingualism is allowing a person to learn more about different cultures.

Bilingualism allows for a person to become more cultured than a person who only knows one language.  Growing up in the United States, some people are born into two or more cultures, American culture and their native culture(s).  Throughout their life, kids are either encouraged to learn English and their native language or to just focus on English.  In Richard Rodriguez's memoir "Aria: Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood", he states that bilingualists "say that children who use their family language in school will retain a sense of their individuality-their ethnic heritage and cultural ties" (344).  In other words, kids who speak two languages are able to also learn two cultures, their families' and American culture.  Those kids who choose not to continue learning their family language will lose or not even get to know a part of their heritage because they chose to focus just on English.  Cultural messages are lost in translation, so to truly understand them one must learn the language of that culture.  Personally, as a monolingual speaker of English myself, I know very little about my Chinese cultural heritage.  When I was little, often I shook my leg repeatedly at the dinner table and my grandma yelled at me.  I asked my parents why was shaking my leg allowed, but all they could tell me was that it was bad luck due to there being words in Chinese that are very difficult to describe or translate to English..  Why was it bad luck?  I still do not know today.  If I knew Chinese in addition to English, I would most likely know the real reasoning of this cultural practice.  However some people such as Rodriguez, may believe that bilingualism can hinder familial intimacy.

Although some may assume that bilingualism will ruin family intimacy, it can actually be the resistance of learning another language that hinders the close ties with family.  Rodriguez grew up in a very English speaking neighborhood and in a dominantly Spanish speaking household.  He claims that after the nuns told his parents to speak English more at home, the intimacy that he had with his family was lost.  He blames learning English for the loss of intimacy that Spanish gave him and his family (334-399). It may be true that after Rodriguez learned English, he lost intimacy with his family.  But learning English was not the cause for the damage in his family’s intimacy, it was Rodriguez’s reluctance to learn English that resulted in the downfall of the intimacy between him and his family.  If Rodriguez instead went along with learning English in school, then the nuns would have never visited Rodriguez’s parents.  It was Rodriguez’s resistance to becoming bilingual that changed the dominant language of his home and removed the intimacy he felt with his family.

America has and probably always will be a land of many diverse languages and people.  Being  able to speak more than one language will allow one to communicate with a lot more people than they could by just knowing one.  Another language has the ability to open a person to another world they had no idea about.  The different types of culture, people, and information that come attached to a language can all be gained if someone learns another language and becomes bilingual.  Another language is just another strength that you can gain and not a weakness that will hinder your life.  The positives and advantages of bilingualism far outweigh any negative difficulties or trials that come along the process of learning two languages.