Being bilingual means speaking two languages. 43% of the world’s population is bilingual, but only 20.6% of the US population is bilingual, and 12.5% have Spanish as their first language. In the US, many people speak foreign languages, so much so that the US has no official language. Federally, the US allows citizens to speak whatever language they please. But what are the advantages and disadvantages of raising your children to be bilingual?
Being bilingual can greatly improve cognitive skills in children, these include critical thinking, multitasking, and problem-solving. It can open up new opportunities in different cultures and new social experiences.
On the other hand, it can slow down language development (not often but it happens), lead to language confusion, cause difficulty learning, and cause social and emotional difficulties. It can also cause the child to struggle to form a solid identity due to exposure to multiple cultures.
I think it would be beneficial to raise a bilingual child as knowing multiple languages can provide them with more opportunities both in jobs and international travel.
Would you want to be raised bilingual?
Do you want to raise a bilingual child?
Replies
Great topic choice and super job replyiong to comments! I do think your summary could be a bit longer.
I do not care if I was raised bilinugual or not, but if I had to choose I would've like to been raised learning two different languages. There are many benefits to being bilingual. If I had a kid I would like to raise a bilingual child, but I would not be able to since I only speak one language.
I think being raised bilingual would be extremely beneficial because they would be able to easily communicate in multiple languages and help them in the future. They would have lots of opportunities for things like jobs. I would love to raise my child bilingually because it would improve their life a lot but I probably wouldn't be able to because I am not fluent in any other language than english.
I would not want to raise a bilingual child becuase I wouldnt know what they are saying. And if i say something bad in a different language they can understand that and get mad or upset about it. I just dont think I personally do it.
I think that I would like to be raised bilingual because it can help with communication skills and I could possibly learn more about the culture. I don't think I will raise a kid bilingual because i don't really know other languages.
In my opinion, it would be good to raise bilingual kids. It would benefit the communication and learning skills of the children, which would help them later in life. It would also help them get jobs and there would be no negatives to it if taught properly. It would also help them learn about other cultures and know more about them.
I think that it is a good thing to be bilingual or speak multiple languages, just to help you communicate with people that you typically wouldn't be able to communicate with if you only spoke one language. I think that it would also open more job oportunities for them.
I agree that speaking more than one language can open up whole new opportunities for someone for jobs and making friends. It could do wonders for someone's social life and it would look great on a resume.
As a bilingual child, I can agree that it has improved my learning skills and has made me more open to doing more things that require skills, being bilingual has never made me confused in both languages or has given me an identity crisis, being bilingual has given me many opportunities of meeting different cultures. As someone who is experienced, I would like to raise a bilingual child because I already know the benefits based on my experience.
I agree that knowing multiple languages can help your self-confidence in trying new things. I think being bilingual yourself could be a great bonding point between you and your kids so they don't feel left out of a conversation just because you switched languages.
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