Ino 1

Kie Ino

ENG 028

Professor Batty

29 April 2018

Is Being Bilingual Really Important

Recently, the world is becoming more globalized and we see foreign people much more

often than before. Because of this, being able to speak other languages other than your own is

taken seriously all over the world. While I’m on the subject, I’m going to talk about why we

should or should not become a bilingual. How does being bilingual affect one’s sense of

identity? Why should a person become a bilingual? I believe increasing the skill to speak any

kinds of languages would have a huge positive effect in a variety of areas and it would help the

person to have more confident. Here are my opinions why I think people should be able to speak

more than one language.

First of all, those bilingual people would find themselves more useful compared to those

people who do not have a second language. If the person can speak English/Chinese for example,

he/she can talk with anyone from all over the world. James Lane, author of Babbel Magazine,

wrote “If you’re reading this article, you may be one of the 360 million-odd native English

speakers, or one of the half a billion people who speak it as a second language.” According to

him, English is the most spoken language in the world as lingua franca, which means that the

most common language for people’s second language in English. I was already taking an English

class when I was in kindergarten and my elementary school even had a course which students

and teachers only speak English through the 6 years. I can see how importantly educational

department is trying to help students be able to have their own second or third language.
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Needless to say, the ability will let bilinguals have the greatest differences compared to

monolinguals to look for a job, opportunities, and other situations. Also, the person might be able

to help travelers to have a better visit by explaining things in their language and help them

understand. I’ve seen friends saying that they had no clue what to do when they went to Japan

because no one spoke English in Japan. There is going to be an Olympic game in Tokyo in 2020

where people from any countries get together. The people concerned are already gathering those

bilinguals to prepare for a number of foreign visitors.

Of course, not every single person is thinking that it is important to become a bilingual.

Kristina R Olson Ph.D., an author of “When Does Being Bilingual Help or Hurt?”, said, “While

the size of an individual’s vocabulary or lexicon varied widely, on average monolinguals had

more vocabulary in their one language than bilinguals had in either of their languages alone.” I

could agree with this because I know bilinguals spend times to learn another language while

monolinguals work on their own language. Furthermore, if a bilingual is studying abroad, he/she

would have to study in another language even the person does not understand what teachers are

saying. Therefore those students are not likely to learn the details of the class. Then monolingual

would definitely be more developed when it comes to what they know. Not only her, there is a

lot of negative opinions about being a bilingual. One of them is that those children might get

stressed out from the pressures from their parents who want their child to be able to speak native

language. Those parents in general, seem to make their kids do what they could not do when they

were younger. If a parent did not speak any languages, then he/she would definitely want his/her

kid to become a bilingual. By forcing those kids to learn another language could cause the them

to start thinking that learning language is just to please his/her parents. Another opinion is when

someone is different than other people, they tend to be more interested in the person and want to
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see how the person is different. Those bilingual people will get stressed out eventually by getting

asked and pressured by school, parents, or company because monolinguals could expect too

much on bilinguals. I have seen one of my bilingual friends who was born to be a bilingual

because of her foreign parent, being asked to speak another language by classmates and she was

obviously feeling uncomfortable. From this experience, I can imagine those bilingual kids losing

their place in school which would never be a positive effect. I also said that children could find

learning language is not fun, but they have to do it just to make their parents happy. It is true that

those young kids could lose the important reasons/points to study extra subject. Especially, when

they don’t find it interesting or fun. This could also lead them to feel that they never want to

study the language again.

But beyond those negative effects, other positive effects are more important, I’d say. I can

assure that the person would have a better creativity than monolinguals. Because they can

communicate with people from other countries, they can share and learn a variety of different

points of view. In 1922, in “Logico-Tractatus Philosophicus”, the philosopher Ludwig

Wittgenstein wrote, “The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.” It’s a clear fact

that the more words you have, the bigger your sight becomes. In my experience, there was a

difference with the perspectives of history between the States and Japan. Especially, they taught

me a whole different fact about nuclear bomb the U.S. dropped in Hiroshima, Japan. If I could

not understand English, I could have not experienced this while I was on the exchange program.

By learning another culture as you learn its language, the person can include the differences

between his/her own culture and others and create something new. The person even might be

able to find the normal things more important or interesting by changing the point of view that

he/she leaned by communicating with foreign people.

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Therefore, I still believe being bilingual is one of the most important things that people

should start thinking about in order to increase their flexibility. When people have no idea what

to do for their future, they could at least acquire another language which would become a huge

help and power later in the future. Studying an extra language is something anyone can in the

world can. There is no limit, there is no impossibility. Then why would you not take a chance?

And if those people who were born to be a bilingual are stressed out right now because of the

problems that I described earlier, they might want to start to think positively and appreciate their

specialty because there are so many people working so hard to get the ability as theirs. There is

nothing bad about having an extra skill is one of my most important beliefs. I definitely would

want to become a bilingual or even trilingual so I can increase my chances in the future.
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Works Cited

James, Lane. “The 10 Most Spoken Languages In The World.” Babbel Magazine, 24 April 2016,

https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/the-10-most-spoken-languages-in-the-world/

Kristina R Olson Ph.D. “When Does Bilingual Help or Hurt?” Psychology Today, 27 April 2014

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/developing-minds/201404/when-does-

bilingualism-help-or-hurt

Ludwig, Wittgenstein. “Logico-Tractatus Philosophicus” 1922 from Great Philosophers, 2002

https://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl201/modules/Philosophers/Wittgenstein/wittgenstein.html