MP-Monolingualism - It's not what you think!

[R. A. Stegemann]

Hi everyone!

Having anticipated, but not sufficiently protected myself, from Trond's
response, I feel obligated to offer a rapid reply.

MP-lingualism is not bilingualism-light; rather, it is everything
between monolingualism and true bilingualism. For the most part I wish
to eschew the term bilingualism, wherever balance is lacking in the
proficiency of the two languages implied. In this regard proficiency
and function are one and the same!

Although I agree with Trond that what is most important in creating a
bilingual individual, is the child of a bilingual parent, the
overwhelming task is finding parents and child peer support with
sufficient L2 mastery. Living on a border between two Scandinavian
countries, where your L2 is the other's L1 is one thing; being raised
in an East Asian country with English as your only second second
language is quite another.

With regard to proficiency and function Trond and I appear to be
talking past one another, but that is because we apparently have
different notions of what anarchy and a healthy social atmosphere is
all about.

Certainly, if my failure to have acknowledged Trond's first post
entitled "Bilingualism" has led to our disagreement, I would like to
apologize forthwith. Truly, I found what he wrote to be quite accurate,
and largely agree with most of what he wrote. Once again, my concern is
with the meaning and use of bilingualism -- not Trond's description of
Scandinavian society and language use.

Hamo


R. A. Stegemann
EARTH's Manager and HKLNA-Project Director
EARTH - East Asian Research and Translation in Hong Kong
http://homepage.mac.com/moogoonghwa/earth/
Tel/Fax: 852 2630 0349
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