Arabic-L:PEDA:What is a bilingual?

[Dilworth Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Wed 18 Dec 2002
Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson <dilworth_parkinson at byu.edu>
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1) Subject:What is a bilingual?

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1)
Date:  18 Dec 2002
From: dwilmsen <dwilmsen at aucegypt.edu>
Subject:What is a bilingual?

>  true native-like fluency -- thinking and dreaming in Arabic, and
> reading and writing Arabic with  the same facility as his or her
> native language. I would like to think it is possible, but I have
> never heard of anyone succeeding. Would you say that you are truly
> bilingual, functioning identically in Arabic and English?

The problem here is with definitions.  What does it mean to be truly
bilingual?  That one
speaks a language with exactly the same facility as a native speaker?
That
may not be
possible.  But the appearance of it is.  Which to my way of thinking is
nearly
the same
thing.  I myself am aware of the limits of of my abilities of
expression, but
no-one else
seems to be.  There are, for instance, idiomatic expressions that I
recognize
but do not
use.  And I am always encountering new and unfamiliar ones.  But they
does not
show in
my speech.  I do  come up with non-native construction now and then,
usually
when I have
been speaking much English, or when entering an unfamiliar field of
discussion.  Then I
encounter interference from English and sometimes Spanish.

But I also experience interference from Arabic when I speak English.  I
think
this is the
true sign of a bilingual.

A simple example, I once found myself saying in English "I am afraid
from"
(xaayif min)
rather than "I am afraid of" .  The same sort of thing happens to me on
a
regular basis.  A
curious problem I have encountered in almost all Arabic speakers of
English is
a
confusion with deixis  they say "that" when we would say "this", and
vice
versa, e.g.,
"That's a nice day."  I myself can fall into that specific type of
error.  It
can be a bit
distressing.  Often in English conversation I can retrieve an Arabic
word more
readily
that an English one I have know for most of my life.  This causes great
amusement
amongst my Arabic-speaking colleagues.  (I have also been mistaken for
a very
skilled
non-native speaker of English).

So, yes I do think -  and dream  - in Arabic.

I can read some types of Arabic texts with much greater facility than
even
well educated
native speakers.  To me, for instance, the Quran is truly couched in
clear
Arabic.  For
many native speakers it is not quite so clear.  I am not even sure why
that
should be.
Maybe it is precisely because they are not always trained in the use of
dictionaries, and
so the archaic language is a bit more opaque.

Where does my near native facility show at its weakest?  In reading
aloud, and
in writing.

I lay that to the relative lack of emphasis placed on either in the
university
Arabic
curriculum.

But I can certainly write a memo or a letter in Arabic.

And I can and have given extemporaneous speeches in formal Arabic.

In Egypt, anyway, it is a class marker for one not to be terribly
proficient
in producing
written Arabic.  I just got through giving a tutorial to a translator
from
Oman whose
proficiency in written Arabic was about that of mine.  She is typical of
upper-middle
class Egyptians in that regard:  her educational emphasis was on
European
languages - she
didn't pay too much attention to her written Arabic.  But she acquired
it over
her entire
16 years of schooling, with the result that she was good enough to work
as a
translator
(and a translators must be very good).  I acquired mine in about the
same
time, only eight
of which were in formal schooling.   So, I am like an educated
upper-middle
class
Egyptian, and evidently some Omanis.

This raises some difficulties when we begin to talk about near-native
proficiency.
Proficiency to do what?  (to quote a paper by the moderator of this
list).

David Wilmsen

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End of Arabic-L:  18 Dec 2002