Bilingual Stories – The Bilingual Advantage Starts at Home

My heritage language has helped me look more cultured and gotten me more respect and praise from elders in my community and my family back in India for the level I am able to communicate with them easily.

— Mihir T.,

I grew up in a pretty diverse neighborhood so thankfully there were many different languages spoken all around me. It was never really an issue that I could speak another language, especially since other kids could too. Sometimes there was a belief amongst family friends that the kids who spoke the heritage language were going to be worse at English. This was far from true, in fact, as we grew older most of the kids who did not learn our heritage language due to their parent’s mythical beliefs continue to be sad they never learned the language.

— Ysabel F.,

I started kindergarten knowing absolutely no English since I had always spoken Japanese at home until then. Although I don’t remember, it was probably frustrating to have been a child who couldn’t communicate with people around me but I was able to very quickly catch up on my level of English. I learned how to do simple math (multiplication, division, etc.) in Japanese so whenever I would do math in school (even now), I would say the math operations in Japanese in my head. Also, I feel like I picked up a new language (Spanish) faster than my English-only speaking peers so I think knowing another language helped with that. I like being able to have private conversations with my family in public without worrying about people understanding what we’re saying but it’s also annoying when people look at you differently due to speaking a different language in public.

— Chikako B.,

Speaking my heritage language at home is definitely helpful all the time. Good communication.

— Kevin L.,

I know as a general principle, it allows me to have a much more open view of the world. I am more curious and excited to learn from other cultures, but at the same time I am able to make a lot of connections between things. I make friends easier who also speak a different language at home, as we connect over cultural differences.

— Inga A.,

I was able to help people that spoke my heritage language but had trouble with English.

— Alejandro M.,