Bilingual

**LuckyDucky** · 08-15-09, 05:59 PM

Interesting argument i had with someone from my school. If you know how to speak another language, are you bilingual? I say no, that in the practical modern world you cannot fully understand and utilize a language without also being able to read and write in that language.

So what do you think? Can you call yourself bilingual just because you "speak" a language?

**DonVitoJr** · 08-15-09, 06:09 PM

I want to create a new word. Pre-Bilingual. If you just speak it you can get your way around another contry. But i would not consider it Bilingual if you don't know how to read that language, even if you can speak it.

**Phaedro** · 08-15-09, 06:16 PM

Bilingual means literally, 'two-tongued.' By that definition, it refers to the spoken language. Analogously, being polyglot means literally 'multi-tongued,' if you can speak more than 2 languages. I see your point that if you are truly proficient in the language, then you can likely also read/write it. However, to throw a wrench in that logic, if you are illiterate, do you have no language?

**asianator365** · 08-15-09, 06:19 PM

It was always my understanding that you are bilingual based on spoken language ability only.

**MotoZ** · 08-16-09, 06:59 PM

Originally Posted by LuckyDucky

Interesting argument i had with someone from my school. If you know how to speak another language, are you bilingual? I say no . . .

Silly.

**CallousDisregard** · 08-16-09, 07:10 PM

Bilingual is a great term until you ask that guy to fill out a form and he can't because despite being hired as a " bi-lingual worker" he isn't really competent to communicate in all forms of that language.

**MotoZ** · 08-16-09, 07:46 PM

Originally Posted by CallousDisregard

Bilingual is a great term until you ask that guy to fill out a form and he can't because despite being hired as a " bi-lingual worker" he isn't really competent to communicate in all forms of that language.

The words bilingual, trilingual, polylingual, etc. relate to the ability to speak languages.

If an employer expects a bilingual person to read and/or write in addition to speaking then the employer needs to be smarter and ask more questions. For example, "Which languages are you proficient at reading and/or writing? Please state the languages and associated degrees of proficiency."

Something like that.

Capisci?