Bi Awareness Week starts Tuesday - so let’s talk about those... what do you call them? Ah yes, bilinguals.
Them. And probably polyglots too, since it’s all about that bi+ spectrum now.
One of those awareness weeks where you’re not entirely sure how to celebrate - but hey, we can always reflect on the unique joys and struggles of bi(linguals) life.
Let’s start with the hard stuff:
These biligual people (let's call them "BP" for short) are often accused of being uncertain, unreliable, confusing, which is...fair enough.
After all, everyone knows that people who speak just one language are paragons of clarity. They never mix up words, never forget them, and once they lock into a register, they stay there their whole lives - flawless and unwavering. Obviously.
Another classic BP problem: when they speak in one language, people around them tend to forget they speak another one too.
So they go: “But altså, weet je, I'm much more than this.” And the world shrugs: “Who cares?” (if someone does care, they’ll find a translator.)
Still, there are joys.
You get the jokes in multiple languages. Fewer people seem truly alien.
You can instantly tell when someone is talking complete nonsense because they’ve mistranslated or twisted something on purpose.
Then again… that one’s a double-edged sword. You start to notice just how often meaning gets distorted on purpose😔
Oh, and one more thing:
When you’re tired of speaking a language where every single object has a gender for some reason, you can run to one where it doesn’t - or at least, doesn’t insist on doing it so loudly.
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Shawn Khan