“Bi- and Multi- Lingual”

Different Points of Views

            Many languages around the world are spoken everyday, but when people learn many languages in order to better themselves. Are they really bettering themselves? To be able to know many languages and express yourself in each one, is considered a virtue by many. There are very few people who believe that this will lead to the “mixing” of languages producing things like “Spanglish” and “Franglais”, not wanting this and wanting to keep their language “pure”. They choose to oppose this.

            Many young people and younger generations accompanied by ones who are a bit older, are now coming together (with the invention of the internet), to teach each other their language in hopes of helping another and also acquiring another language. Learning five or maybe even six languages at one time may be hard for some, but to this community of peoples this is the way to live and learn. Many of the younger generations are also learning languages more avidly in school, and also studying and living with families in other countries in order to better “complete” their studying and learning of another language.

            In doing so in learning many languages many people have decided to mix their language with another language in order to better express themselves and socialize with others who also have the ability to understand them. Many people support this, but many people also do not, wanting to keep their language sacred. Speaking a mixed language in front of someone who does not approve of this will often draw major attention and acquiring looks as if you have “murdered and mutilated” their language.

“Myself as writing for the education of the public, can say that learning many language in my point of view is a great thing. Many who do not agree because they think that we might try to “mix” two or three languages together, fail to realize that it is not the total mixing of the two language. That each language will also still continue to exist in their own standards, and IF we decided to mix the languages, it is not the action of making two languages one, but making two languages into three languages.”   

            To learn a language and to be able to communicate with people who are not of your cultural or your language and to learn and to appreciate the special things that are different about their culture than of yours, is that such a bad thing? Many say yes, but many also believe that this is the greatest thing that has ever come, even though it has been around forever. More recently learning languages has become a very large thing in all cultures, because as you learn a language you also learn a people and a culture, making them apart of you.

            To choose to become bi or even multi-lingual is one’s choice. And with that choice comes the responsibility to be true to your original people and to be even more true to the people who you are learning to except and who are learning to except you, until you can hold them all in very high regard and say “This is me”.             

- Caramelicious