The bilingual immigrant

Tuesday, January 15th, 2013 In Other articles By Ulrika As a relatively new immigrant, and bilingual from an early age on, my sense for language and language usages have developed and changed. My native language is not the language I usually speak, read in or listen to anymore. I live in a country in which another language is spoken, so I usually speak a second language although I’m still thinking in my native language. At first, switching to a different language can be frustrating. No one understood my desperate attempts at creating sentences; in this way, the immigrant becomes an outsider, excluded from society. With time, the vocabulary grows as the speed of understanding increases and a new linguistic identity is created.inflatable water pool So what will multiple linguistic identities do to a country’s official language? If I look at my home country, I think that the more influences we get, the more our language grows and develops. I know that many people think that influences from other languages are harmful to their native language, that it “ruins” the language, but from my own experience, I can’t see how a growing and living language process can be considered as negative. We receive new words that can reflect what I want to say in a clearer and more diverse way. Sometimes I can’t even find the right word in the language I’m speaking and have to borrow a word from another language to express myself. Occasionally, when I don’t know how to translate a word, I just make up a new one to describe what I want to say. When it comes to writing Espresso Translations proofreaders ensure your translated text is absolutely word-perfect. To speak a foreign language is to take part in a new culture, identity and heritage. If you need help to make yourself understood in a language you have not yet mastered, we can help you with both translations and interpretation.  Contact us for a free quote!