Premium
The benefits of being bilingual
Author(s) -
Fritz Gregory K.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
the brown university child and adolescent behavior letter
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1556-7575
pISSN - 1058-1073
DOI - 10.1002/cbl.30126
Subject(s) - wonder , conversation , linguistics , psychology , political science , sociology , social psychology , communication , philosophy
Whenever I travel abroad, I am invariably impressed by the language abilities of adults and children in whatever country I'm visiting. In a recent trip to Argentina, I enjoyed the opportunity to use my rudimentary Spanish, but usually the conversation shifted pretty quickly to English because whomever I was speaking with was much more fluent in English than I was in Spanish. A number of such experiences over a week can't help but make one wonder why being bilingual in the United States isn't more common compared to other countries.