https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Wed, 06 May 2026 21:44:04 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/are-you-bilingual-1#post-2508033 Mon, 28 Mar 2016 09:58:09 +0000 MediaNaranja 2508033@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@lamariniere: OMG...I tried to explain douchebag to my husband once (native Spanish speaker)...it did not go well. I just told him to never say it, lol.</p> <p>Apart from English (native language) I speak Spanish fluently. If we're getting more specific, I guess I would say Andean Spanish, which has a lot of native Quechua/Kichwa vocabulary mixed in....so instead of saying "hermano/a" for brother/sister or "niño/a" for child, you would say "ñaño/a" or "guagua"...lots of little changes like that. My husband is from an Andean country, I spent nearly four years living there, and we speak Spanish at home.</p> <p>However, put me in front of a Dominican or Puerto Rican and I have a hard time understanding them even though it's the same language!! But between the accent and the different vocabularies it can be hard to follow along :P </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/are-you-bilingual-1#post-2507916 Mon, 28 Mar 2016 08:34:17 +0000 snowjewelz 2507916@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>English &amp; Chinese (Cantonese + Mandarin) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/are-you-bilingual-1#post-2507832 Mon, 28 Mar 2016 06:49:26 +0000 lamariniere 2507832@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@looch: the cultural references are always funny. My DH and I watched Zoolander (the 1st one) a few weeks ago and he had some "ah ha" moments when he finally connected some English things he hears to their origins in the film. Another good one is trying to explain "douche bag" to anyone that isn't American. :silly: </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/are-you-bilingual-1#post-2507826 Mon, 28 Mar 2016 06:44:44 +0000 looch 2507826@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@lamariniere: I think your children will pick up the nuances as they get older. </p> <p>My husband is an interesting case, he gets the idioms, but what often goes over his head are the cultural references. Those are the times when you can really see he was raised in Europe as opposed to me, the typical American child of the 80s and 90s. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/are-you-bilingual-1#post-2507821 Mon, 28 Mar 2016 06:37:43 +0000 lamariniere 2507821@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@looch: yes. I think being bilingual and being fluent are two very different things! I think it's hard to be truly bilingual unless you are born/raised using the two (or more) languages effortlessly. I always say my children are trilingual, but they are probably bilingual in 2 languages and fluent in a 3rd since they probably don't get all of the cultural nuance of the 3rd language, especially since we don't speak it at home. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/are-you-bilingual-1#post-2507813 Mon, 28 Mar 2016 06:28:52 +0000 pachamama 2507813@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I'm fluent in Spanish and English. I've lived abroad and have been teaching Spanish for 11 years. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/are-you-bilingual-1#post-2507809 Mon, 28 Mar 2016 06:23:49 +0000 looch 2507809@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@lamariniere: I agree with your assessment. My husband is fluent in three languages (German, English, French) and is conversant in Italian.</p> <p>Beyond English, I am conversant in Italian and German. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/are-you-bilingual-1#post-2507780 Mon, 28 Mar 2016 01:57:25 +0000 lamariniere 2507780@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Astro Bee: I'm a translator so when I translate from Canadian French it is a whole different set of problems for me than translating from French French. My DH is French, so I ask him questions occasionally and sometimes he has no idea what they are talking about. :silly: . I think most people would consider me to be bilingual, but since I work so closely with language, I feel like I can't say that I'm truly bilingual. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/are-you-bilingual-1#post-2507763 Sun, 27 Mar 2016 22:51:25 +0000 Meowkers 2507763@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Yes. English and Russian. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/are-you-bilingual-1#post-2507667 Sun, 27 Mar 2016 19:36:41 +0000 yin 2507667@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Sort of. I speak broken Cantonese with my parents. Not fluent enough to teach my kids but I can understand it and communicate enough through Chinatown and Hong Kong. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/are-you-bilingual-1#post-2507656 Sun, 27 Mar 2016 19:26:21 +0000 mrsjyw 2507656@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Yea! Korean and English! Proficient in Spanish! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/are-you-bilingual-1#post-2507621 Sun, 27 Mar 2016 18:08:36 +0000 Astro Bee 2507621@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@lamariniere: When in France, I am always asked if I am from Montreal (no, I'm not) because I speak Canadian French. There are so many nuances to Canadian French because it didn't evolve (the same way) as continental French did. It's really old French, and a lot of native European French speakers would have trouble understanding some of it because many words and expressions aren't used there anymore. You are right in that there are varying degrees of bilingualism. That being said, I wouldn't say I don't speak English 100% because I don't understand all the nuances of the Queen's English, specifically words or expressions like the following:<br /> <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_British_terms_not_widely_used_in_the_United_States" rel="nofollow">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_British_terms_not_widely_used_in_the_United_States</a> </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/are-you-bilingual-1#post-2507608 Sun, 27 Mar 2016 17:53:18 +0000 Astro Bee 2507608@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Both DH and I are bilingual - English and French - as required by our jobs. We're retested every 5 years in reading, writing and spoken interaction. I've bought a few French board books for LO, but we haven't done much more for him yet. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/are-you-bilingual-1#post-2507594 Sun, 27 Mar 2016 17:24:11 +0000 erinpye 2507594@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Yes, Spanish and English. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/are-you-bilingual-1#post-2507593 Sun, 27 Mar 2016 17:23:16 +0000 lamariniere 2507593@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I think the definition of bilingual is a bit loose, depending on who you ask. To me, being bilingual means not only having a written an oral command of two languages, but understanding nuance and cultural implications of the language. I consider myself to be beyond fluent in French, especially spoken French, but I'm not quite bilingual since there are still cultural usages of the language that I may not be aware of or, for example, Canadian French can be quite different from the French in France and I may not understand vocabulary or usage in specific contexts. That said, most French are surprised to find out I'm American when they hear me speaking French. With my job I work with language all day long, so I am constantly learning that there is so much more to learn! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/are-you-bilingual-1#post-2507590 Sun, 27 Mar 2016 17:11:58 +0000 Dahlia 2507590@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Yes, Spanish and English </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/are-you-bilingual-1#post-2507519 Sun, 27 Mar 2016 13:11:42 +0000 LindsayLou 2507519@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I studied French all through high school and college, but sadly, I've let it lapse. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/are-you-bilingual-1#post-2507518 Sun, 27 Mar 2016 12:50:17 +0000 hb3233 2507518@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Both DH and I are bilingual, but unfortunately in (very) different languages, so we only speak English at home. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/are-you-bilingual-1#post-2507513 Sun, 27 Mar 2016 12:39:02 +0000 MamaCate 2507513@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I am fluent in Spanish and English. So is DH. We are both Caucasian and Spanish is a second language but one we both use professionally. We want LOs to learn but have been terrible about following through on this! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/are-you-bilingual-1#post-2507512 Sun, 27 Mar 2016 12:36:14 +0000 Alba4 2507512@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Yes... Spanish &amp; English </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/are-you-bilingual-1#post-2507505 Sun, 27 Mar 2016 12:26:49 +0000 Charm54 2507505@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>French and English, I went through French immersion in school and live in a bilingual community. I should probably do a better job of speaking French around my girls but they will be in immersion when they start school, too. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/are-you-bilingual-1#post-2507503 Sun, 27 Mar 2016 12:23:00 +0000 Mrs.Waffles 2507503@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Yes, I am Hispanic, and can speak, read, and write Spanish fluently. DH only speaks English, so it's hard for me to speak Spanish to LO because all of our conversations are in English. But I really need to start making it a habit to speak both languages to LO, because I want him to be bilingual as well. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/are-you-bilingual-1#post-2507502 Sun, 27 Mar 2016 12:19:32 +0000 simplyfelicity 2507502@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>No, but I really wish I spoke Spanish because most of my students are Spanish speakers who are learning English (very low English skills.) The two years I took in high school was not nearly enough. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/are-you-bilingual-1#post-2507501 Sun, 27 Mar 2016 12:12:46 +0000 Mrs. Bee 2507501@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I speak/read/write Korean fluently. I was born in Korea and moved to America when I was 3. But my parents spoke Korean to me growing up and I went to Korean school in elementary school. I can also speak/write Spanish pretty well (which has really come in handy!), and I attribute that to already being bilingual.</p> <p>Are you bilingual or more? How so? </p>