If "monolingual is the new stupid," where is the data?

[Anonymous]

I stole that line from a Private Schools thread, it's not mine. I've often wondered though, if - as supporters often say - being bilingual is such a brain boost, then why aren't the legions of bilingual people I know demonstrably more successful as a group than the monolingual people I know?

[Anonymous]

On a personal level, I think it's great to be bilingual for many reasons. Unless you're in a field where being bilingual really matters, though (such as international business, etc.), then it won't make a huge difference in terms of someone's professional success or not.

[Anonymous]

Look outside your world. Anywhere outside of the US, being bilingual is very important. We really lag behind the rest of the developed world.

[Anonymous]

My husband is multilingual (four languages) and making a very high salary. Is that what you mean by "successful?"

[Anonymous]

I saw that original thread and thought the person sounded pretty rude. (I hope she/he is not a parent from my children's school.)

That said, we do seem to be the only country left in the world where it's perfectly acceptable to be a monolingual college graduate. In most other countries, including ones far worse off economically than our own, MOST children---not just the "gifted" kids or the kids from the upper classes---are learning at least one other language in elementary school. It's amazing to me that Americans are still willing to settle for less, and it's a big reason that we chose a language immersion school for our children. If the rest of the world's kids can do it, why can't American kids?

[Anonymous]

My husband is multilingual (four languages) and making a very high salary. Is that what you mean by "successful?"

Thank you for that anecdote of one.

[Anonymous]

Look outside your world. Anywhere outside of the US, being bilingual is very important. We really lag behind the rest of the developed world.

OP. Well that's part of my question -- have the monolingual Americans really lagged behind the tri-lingual Swiss, Canadians or South Koreans for the last, say 35 years? In my own travels I have observed that most people under 50 in many developed countries speak 2 languages sort of well. So .... what, exactly?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

My husband is multilingual (four languages) and making a very high salary. Is that what you mean by "successful?"

Thank you for that anecdote of one.

If you are the OP, I was being serious in my question about what defines successful.

But I am curious. Are the "legions" of bilingual people you know American-born? I think I hang out with very well-educated people, but none of the bilingual or multilingual people I know are American-born, at least not without some close family ties to another language (parents are foreign-born, for example).

[Anonymous]

My husband and I are both bilingual. Honestly, it has made zero difference whatsoever in our success. We are not in fields where it matters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I saw that original thread and thought the person sounded pretty rude. (I hope she/he is not a parent from my children's school.)

That said, we do seem to be the only country left in the world where it's perfectly acceptable to be a monolingual college graduate. In most other countries, including ones far worse off economically than our own, MOST children---not just the "gifted" kids or the kids from the upper classes---are learning at least one other language in elementary school. It's amazing to me that Americans are still willing to settle for less, and it's a big reason that we chose a language immersion school for our children. If the rest of the world's kids can do it, why can't American kids?

This is true, but with a few exceptions (notably Germany and the Scandinavian countries, where most people speak English well), having many people study a language does not at all translate into (no pun intended ) people really learning the second language well. To take the country I know best, France, everyone studies a language throughout school and almost no one actually ends up being able to speak it well! Read it, yes, but not speak it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
My husband is multilingual (four languages) and making a very high salary. Is that what you mean by "successful?"


Thank you for that anecdote of one.


If you are the OP, I was being serious in my question about what defines successful.

But I am curious. Are the "legions" of bilingual people you know American-born? I think I hang out with very well-educated people, but none of the bilingual or multilingual people I know are American-born, at least not without some close family ties to another language (parents are foreign-born, for example).

Hi, Op back again ... I really do know tons of bilingual people in DC (not surprising, I know); not US-born. They all do seem to be quite successful and well educated.

But. That's also true of the monolingual Americans/US-born people I hang with in DC, too. (I'm not counting the many of us who took Spanish in 8th to 11th grade as anything but monolingual). Meanwhile my US born friends who now live in other countries do speak the native language, but they certainly didn't grow up bilingual.

I bet, in DC, we all have similar reports. That would be true in NY, San Fran, etc., too. Lots of bright, interesting, ambitious adults with cool jobs and 1,2 or 3 degrees. Some are bilingual and some are not. That's why I was struck by that other post saying, essentially, growing up with one language makes you comparatively stupid.

[Anonymous]

So far, everybody here is telling anecdotes and nobody is really describing any kind of controlled studies.

The Canadians really pioneered early language immersion so a lot of the studies come from there. I might be able to dig something up. It looks like when you control other variables (i.e., same socio-economic background and same L1 curriculum), children who develop early fluency in a second language (L2) perform better on cognitive tests of subjects OTHER than either language. In other words, they speak L1 the same as their monolingual peers, they get cognitive benefits in other subjects (such as math, sciences, etc.) and of course they have fluency in the L2 as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
My husband is multilingual (four languages) and making a very high salary. Is that what you mean by "successful?"


Thank you for that anecdote of one.


If you are the OP, I was being serious in my question about what defines successful.

But I am curious. Are the "legions" of bilingual people you know American-born? I think I hang out with very well-educated people, but none of the bilingual or multilingual people I know are American-born, at least not without some close family ties to another language (parents are foreign-born, for example).

Hi, Op back again ... I really do know tons of bilingual people in DC (not surprising, I know); not US-born. They all do seem to be quite successful and well educated.

But. That's also true of the monolingual Americans/US-born people I hang with in DC, too. (I'm not counting the many of us who took Spanish in 8th to 11th grade as anything but monolingual). Meanwhile my US born friends who now live in other countries do speak the native language, but they certainly didn't grow up bilingual.

I bet, in DC, we all have similar reports. That would be true in NY, San Fran, etc., too. Lots of bright, interesting, ambitious adults with cool jobs and 1,2 or 3 degrees. Some are bilingual and some are not. That's why I was struck by that other post saying, essentially, growing up with one language makes you comparatively stupid.

OK, I saw one report that says that 9% of Americans are bilingual. If that's the case, just by shear numbers you would of course know far more successful monolingual Americans than bilingual ones.

[Anonymous]

I think in the US you can be monolingual and if your first language is English, you probably can, depnding on where you live. We have an advantage in that sense. There are so many more possibilities if you are bilingual, though.

And I also wonder how you define success -- monetary???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I stole that line from a Private Schools thread, it's not mine. I've often wondered though, if - as supporters often say - being bilingual is such a brain boost, then why aren't the legions of bilingual people I know demonstrably more successful as a group than the monolingual people I know?

Because you're not making an apples to apples comparison? If your personal exposure to bilingualism is the person who cleans your house then it reflects more on you than on people with a high degree of fluency in more than one language. OTOH, if you looked at controlled studies in an academic setting that's where you'd expect to see it.