Bilingualism

Living Bilingualism
By: Samuel Caviedes

Bilingualism has been defined as the practice of living two languages and/ or cultures simultaneously. This phenomenon is becoming more and more known and practiced around multilingual countries, like in Europe and North America, although now we can say that it’s becoming not only a popular practice worldwide, but it has become a need for every nationant continent. Bilingualism enables and increases the possibilities for a better communication between one country and another. This is a way to not only better our life style but also our future generations’ life style with better employment options and less poverty. Now in days with our speeding growth o technology and internet, it’s easier to understand and experience multiculturalism as well.Music, fashion and stereo types are now in days easy to follow and practice because all the social networks we use like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube which literally feeds us and provide us so much which is being literally updated by every second that passes. It makes us and our country even more diverse. About 10 or more years ago when internet and technology weren’t as strong as they are.People from all around started to travel in the search for a better life. This phenomenon has evolved and developed because of migration. People like my family were encouraged to meet and travel to different countries due to an economic famine which was affecting many people around the world. In my case a family of three, the dad, the mom, and a three year old, who migrated from one country likeColombia to a completely different country, culturewize like the United States of America and more specifically Sunrise, Florida.

My personal experience was very interesting and made the person who I am today. I moved to the USA when I had just turned three and first I learned Spanish with my parents and when I got into pre-school came the good stuff “two languages at once, Spanish and English”. Asusual I was afraid to start school and that first year of pre-school at “Precious Promise Academy” was really tough because at first I had a lot of trouble with learning English. My teachers sent my parents a letter because they were surprised that I didn’t know the colors nor the alphabet and basic word, so my parents answer explaining that we came from Colombia and well that I knew all of that,but in Spanish. My teacher understood and in a few months, to be more precise in about 3, I was talking English. I still kept talking Spanish at home and thanks to that and my parents I always spoke good fluent Spanish. I also knew of other classmates who had similar situations but with time they lost their Spanish cause at home their parents would speak to them in English. American children whoare immigrants like in my case and become bilingual because they speak English at school and Spanish or their parents’ native language at home. Others have parents who speak 2 different languages and each parent speaks to their children in their own language. Studies also show that a person has the capacity of learning up to three or four and even more languages. It all depends on how manylanguages a child is taught because the younger the child is, the easier and the faster they pick up the language. I had the privilege of learning both languages at age 3. Kindergarden was a whole new ride because I would be going to a new school and I would start Elementary School. I had an amazing experience that year because at only 5 I would become a translator. My class mate’s name was Peter and myteacher Ms. Hoover thought that he didn’t speak English, so I had to explain everything to him in class. Later on everyone would find out that it wasn’t that peter didn’t know English. He knew it perfectly the problem was that he had autism and had trouble with speech, so that’s why he had trouble interacting in class. Despite this, it was great for me because from then on all of my teachers used...