(Olga, Russia) 20
A charming and super educated bilingual (Apoorva, India) 26
A humble and a hard-working bilingual (Masumi, Japan) 30
A level-headed bilingual full of determination to succeed
(Sharifullah, Afghanistan) 33
A European’s experience with English (Milena, Austria) 35
Inspired by a teacher (Geetanjali, India) 38
A multilingual and multicultural future psycholinguist
(Jonathan, Malaysia) 39
A Latin American with an American accent (Pedro, Paraguay) 42
A brave researcher willing to make sacrifices
(Jelena, Montenegro) 44
A smart and polite bilingual gentleman (Naseer, Afghanistan) 47
A fellow linguist on a thorny journey to English
(Julia, Hungary) 49
Sophistication, intelligence, and style (Dania, Jordan) 52
Navigating the multilingual New Jersey (Alejandra, Colombia) 54
A routine life in Spanish and English (Samantha, USA) 56
A researcher experiencing bilingualism in Asia and the U.S.
(Suqin, China) 58
A dreamy bilingual with lots of stories to tell
(Angelo, Timor-Leste) 60
Being a bilingual in «the Windy City» (Cristina, Mexico) 63
Bilingualism as a family tradition (Marcus, Malaysia) 65
Building a life between two different languages and cultures
(Shazia, Pakistan, USA) 66
Balancing two languages and cultures as a heritage speaker
of Spanish (Natalie, USA) 68
Attempting to be a heritage speaker of Russian in the U.S.
(Rebecca, USA) 70
A translator living with two languages back home
and in the U.S. (Marta, Spain) 72
Slow but consistent adjustment to living in the U.S.
(Carmen, Peru) 74
A Pole and American at a time (Joanna, Poland, USA) 75
Building relations with each of your languages (Krisha, USA) 78
A Russian integrated into the American student culture
(Anna, Russia) 81
An American exposing some prejudice against bilingualism
in the U.S. (Alana, USA) 83
Neither totally American nor totally Latino (Genidi, USA) 85
Adopting a businesslike approach to bilingualism
(Saffet, Turkey) 87
An articulate and outspoken heritage speaker of Spanish
(Rebecca, USA) 89
A colleague from my former job and her bilingual experiences
(Yekaterina, Russia) 92
Methodically becoming bilingual (Lyu, China) 95
Friendships as a path to bilingualism (Jorge, Peru) 97
Postgraduate studies and bilingualism (Saeed, Iran) 98
Bilingualism with a Sicilian flavor (Francesca, Italy) 100
Four Nashville Interviews 102
A strategic way to deal with a foreign language
(Bashir, Afghanistan) 102
Living in between indigenous and foreign languages
(Ruzza, Indonesia) 105
An empowering male teacher of English (Wilson, Colombia) 106
Living a bilingual life in Africa (Ahmed, Sudan) 108
Bilingualism encouraged by family (Juan Manuel, Argentina) 110
A male dreaming of bilingualism and foreign language
teaching (Jorge, Spain) 111
A strong bilingual female forging an international career
(Kristi, Georgia) 113
A lady with ambitions of becoming a polyglot
(Mariam, Syria) 116
An American forming mindful connections
with foreign languages (Tristan, USA) 119
Talking to three native speakers of French,
la langue de l’amour 122
A French-Conglosese lady set to make a global difference
(Estelle, France) 123
Bilingualism as a utilitarian and geopolitical tool
for building international bridges (Magda, France, Algeria) 124
Legally bilingual (Cathy, France, Senegal) 127
A bilingual «chica» who knows her way around the world
(Erika, Ecuador) 129
Using a foreign language at work and in the household
(Nina, Russia) 131
Successfully overcoming the fear of embracing bilingualism
(Minsun, Korea) 134
An American about to experience a new language on another continent for the first time in her life (Natalie, USA) 136
A reflective English teacher on bilingualism
(Candelia, Argentina) 138
CHAPTER 2. ISSUES SURROUNDING BILINGUALISM
PART 2.1. LANGUAGE LEARNING AND TEACHING AS A JOURNEY
What is the right age to start learning a second language? 141
What kind of difficulties do learners have at different stages
of learning? 143
How do learners feel as they are learning
a second language? 145
Does it take something special to become
a successful language learner? 146
Doing it on your own 150
Why do people even bother to learn languages? 152
What other languages (apart from English)
are popular ones to learn? 155
What are the benefits of learning a foreign language? 156
Language learning tips from the participants 157
And what about language teachers? 160
How do language teachers teach? 161
What did the participants say about their language teachers? 165
What is it like to be a language teacher and what is expected
of them? 169
What does the future have in store for language learning
and teaching? 174
PART 2.2. IDENTITY, CULTURE, POLITICS AS «BIG» TOPICS
Who are bilinguals and where do they belong in the world? 177
My own story with the concept of identity 177
Defining identity 179
Types of identity 182
Accent as an