Becoming bilingual is a way of life. Every bone and fiber of your being is affected in some way as you struggle to reach beyond the confines of your first language and into a new language, a new culture, a new way of thinking, feeling, and acting.
Principles of Language Learning and Teaching, H. Douglas Brown (via raincium)
This is such an interesting quote.
Living a bilingual life really affects …everything. I dream and I think in English, although I don’t live in an English speaking country. Curiously enough — especially since I live in my native country — my struggle is to keep a meaningful relationship with my first language, beyond the obvious means of everyday communication.
I often feel I live in a linguistic exile. To find a healthy balance between the two languages in my life is difficult. I admire people so much who juggle three or more languages.How do you do that? I already find it difficult to live with two languages in my mind, and they are common and comparatively easy languages.
(via etharei)
Think in English, at home everything is in English, internet in English, read in English. Work, school, surroundings, healthcare & therapy, all Finnish. Family/extended family apart from inlaws, old school friends: Swedish. It’s not confusing, but it takes some compartmentalisation. also losing a bit of contact with my minority culture. what’s my first language anymore? my Finnish is sometimes a bit limited, I have a noticeable non-native accent in English, but I hardly use Swedish.
(via dirtydirtychai)