Bilingual, bicultural
Language is the main symbol of a culture, through which people
communicate, pass on traditions, and therefore, are able to form a society. Speaking
a particular language identifies the person with a certain culture. We start to learn our
mother tongue when we are small children, requiring no formal education. We just start
by learning different words and then learning how to put them together to make sense,
and from there it gets more complex as we go to school and learn more vocabulary words
and grammar. Some people have the opportunity to learn one more language in addition
to the one they learned when they were small children. Anyone with communicative
skills in two languages be it active or passive are reffered to as being bilingual. Being
bilingual makes people special, as their lives are enriched by being able to relate to
different people from different cultures.
Truly, it is enjoyable to hear a person who is from another country speak
his or her language, and you to be able to understand it. I speak two languages, English
and Romanian, and I enjoy it very much when I talk to someone that is from Romania,
especially people from the older generation, as they speak of the way of life in the old
days, and telling stories about hardships, poverty, war, and how they raised and
maintained their families, and what it meant to be Romanian in those days.
In the same way, it is a privilege for me to be able to speak and
communicate in the English language. I am able to live and function in this society where
English is the language of the land. I am able to communicate with other people, watch
television and understand the news of the day or watch an entertaining show, go to school
and receive a degree, participate at parties and gatherings, and probably one of the more
significant things being able to have and hold a job, and be part of the functioning of the
society.
