I’ve written before about how people who are bilingual actually develop separate personalities for each language, and it’s interesting to analyze how the connections between the two sides work. I’m a normal American from California who’s somehow able to switch into Japanese mode, bowing and using polite language as needed — I even bow while speaking Japanese on the phone. Since I learned the language in a normal classroom, the synaptic links between Japanese and English sides of my brain were built piece-by-piece, as eat new concept was internalized. My daughter’s experience is somewhat different: she learned to be Japanese and write kanji normally here in Japan, but our frequent trips to the U.S. have also allowed the English side of her to develop into a Hannah Montana-loving American teenager. The interesting thing is that in her case, the two sides are hardly linked at all, and whenever I ask her to translate a certain word she fumbles, despite the fact that she can recite her favorite High School Musical quotes without pause. Recently she’s been learning English using the “YouTube Method,” watching all those Disney Channel shows, and it’s fun to hear the English slang she pulls out.
Being bilingual is fun, but it can be a strange experience at times, too.
