THIS IS HOW YOU CAN REACH PERFECT BILINGUALISM
So, did you reach perfect bilingualism in French?
Do you think you’re far from reaching it? Or that you have no chance?
If you ask yourself “did I reach bilingualism”, that means that you’re still learning.
You may have heard that there are more definitions for bilingualism, and I’m going to show you what are the ways other people see it, and then I’ll share with you what I came up with, a view that can help you attain higher levels of confidence in your French.
Read the article below to find out everything you need to know to give yourself enough motivation to learn and speak French – and proudly call yourself bilingual – and watch the video for some French that’ll come easy.
(This week: the verb VENIR – to come)
Let’s first see what is considered to be a bilingual.
Kevin M. Wong wrote in The Huffington Post the 4 definitions for a bilingual:
1. Receptive Bilingual
someone who has native-fluency in one language, and can understand but not speak a second language.
2. Dominant Bilingual
a person who is more proficient in one of two languages. These speakers tend to have native fluency in language one, with elementary to average proficiency in language two.
3. Balanced Bilingual
a person who is equally proficient in language one and two, but does not necessarily pass for a native speaker in either language.
4. Equilingual
a person who speaks two languages with native-like fluency. In other words, they are indistinguishable from native speakers of either language. This is the strictest form of bilingualism, which is considered by many as the gold standard.
After so many geeky terms, the article concludes that perfect bilingualism doesn’t exist after all.
As you can tell, most of us fall in the first category, and long to migrate to the 4th.
Problem with the term “gold standard” is that most people end up being disappointed, because not only are they far from being in the 4th category, but many articles declaring that the skill is unattainable anyway, so then why bother?
Many people drop learning altogether because many people are perfectionists.
For your benefit, I created an additional category.
5. J’Ouellette Bilingual
someone who has native-fluency in one language, and can understand and speak French at least at an elementary level, using basic words and grammar, and short sentences. In other words, someone who converses as soon as they know a few words, and enhance their vocabulary and grammar gradually, being able to operate in a francophone environment and improves through consistent practice.
Based on my definition (J’Ouellette), you are bilingual as soon as you can use, let’s say, 10 words and 3 verbs. It is up to you what level of bilingualism you evolve, but you can operate in French.
Don’t forget, I’m the product of total immersion – when I immigrated to Canada, I did it in English – and I know EXACTLY what are the advantages of using basic but clear language.
This is my approach in the J’Ouellette® Intensif program – a solid immersive program – which includes everything you need, to overcome those stubborn challenges that keep you stuck, so you can become masterful at speaking French, and be on your way to be confident with your French conversation.
If not now, then when? : )
NOW IT IS YOUR TURN!
Write for me in the comments below, what is your strategy to become bilingual, which definition do you prefer and why?
Let me guess.
Do you constantly have the feeling that you can’t hear what the French say and you don’t know how to read all the French words because they are written so much differently than they sound?
Learn 3 secrets that will help you be self sufficient in the way you pronounce French words – even if you don’t know what they mean – so that you can read that sophisticated menu in your favorite French restaurant.
Immerse yourself as you FINALLY reach your dream of becoming bilingual, learn to speak Parisian French on Skype and BREAK your language barrier!
…and now, please SHARE this article with your friends. They’ll love you for it! : )
Always in your corner,
Llyane
Photo credit: A.G. photographe, thelocal.fr
Great post! Thank you for posting such an informative article. 🙂
No one can resist being or trying to be in the gold standard. I wish to speak my languages well so that the others can understand what I speak and I understand when they speak.
I think bilingualism has to do with the efforts and exposure put into a language. There are four skills that are necessary to master to be in the gold standard – listening, speaking, reading and writing. Exposure is a different thing to me, I expose myself to different languages in different ways, through different mediums. Since there is almost no similarity in the method of exposure, I’d talk about the efforts that might help me attain fluency in another language.
We are talking about French here so, I will go into the details of the strategy for becoming fluent in French. I have been studying French for five long years. I feel that all these years, I haven’t progressed as much. This year, I will, without resolutions try to expand my vocabulary. Writing in French is still a long way to me because I haven’t spent enough time learning words.
I will be immersing myself this year into the language. Online sources won’t be the only source I will be using. This summer, I plan to buy some more books and add them to my French resource library. I am planning on listening more – more of songs and videos with a text to refer. I plan to dedicate time in Facebook this year, especially in French study groups (like Llyane’s The Parisian French Conversationalist: Club J’Ouellette) which will help me strengthen my grammar concepts and find the exposure to pratise French.
I haven’t decided on the time I am going to dedicate but I am sure that by mid-year, I will be spending at least one hour of casual French session reading and writing French. Facebook is a handy tool so I will be able to converse and spend my time learning French fruitfully. 🙂
Back to the preferred ‘bilingual definition’ question, I’d most definitely go with J’Ouellette’s definition because I believe that exposure to a language helps you know it better. I am at the ‘Receptive Bilingual’ stage, so I have long ways to go. 🙂
“You don’t learn a language, you live it.”
Thank you for your wonderful comment, Anneysha!
5 years and now using online / reading materials to become bilingual – it looks to me that the “living” of the language part is missing a little from the mix.
It breaks my heart to see people working so hard for so long and using resources that are nice-to-have, not must-have. My clients go from zero to high intermediate conversationalists (using my intensive program and my immersion retreat) in one year. I’m talking about people who invest themselves in the language as much as you do.
I love that you are in my Facebook group, to be exposed to my method more – in my view it’s indeed “conversation” first, even if only with 10 words. THAT makes you live the language from the get-go. Whereas learning words, more words and rules, more rules can be deceiving, because it gives you the reward of “knowing” but not of “speaking”.
I will not go in depth here about my full method and what it entails – stay in touch, read this blog – but I’ll say this:
CONGRATULATIONS on your motivation, discipline and resourcefulness, this is an amazing place to be and you will have great results. Make sure you’re not staying in the “learning” mode, go out in the “conversation” mode (and my Facebook conversation group is a good start, I’m sharing there ways to do it), and let the books be complementary to your conversation. Then only, will you have broken the code of “living” the language 😉