bilingual interactions

[Dave Paulson]

I too have experienced this phenomenon but not entirely in the ways listed
above. In my experience "asymmetrical bilingualism" has been encountered in
the course of my own language learning.

The first anecdote I can point to comes from Vietnam where my students,
friends, and some of the family I was living with would routinely speak to
me in English while I would carry out the conversation in Vietnamese. Now,
given the range of individuals who would use this communicative tactic, one
can safely assume it was employed for a number of reasons.

In the case of my students, I am nearly certain they saw our interaction as
a chance to converse with a native speaker, and would even go as far as to
ask me to stop speaking Vietnamese to give them exercise in their listening
skills. Many of my friends (anthropologists and younger people) would
generally discuss academic topics and/or have informal conversations -
vocabularies which I have yet to fully develop. If they did relate that
information in Vietnamese I would have been left in the dust. In this case
we see clear accommodation for a non-native speaker. With the case of the
family, I generally encountered this with the father who, unlike others in
the house, had studied English in university and used the language for
professional business. To not use English with me, it seemed, would be an
insult to his own intelligence and role as the head of the household. I
reach this conclusion based on the dynamics of our relationship, which was
quite paternal as he would usually be the one to take me aside and explain
the intricacies of Vietnamese life. Social roles in Vietnam can be quite
pronounced at times, especially in the realm of gender, family and class.
One dynamic of conversation, three different reasons.

My second anecdote comes from my grandfather who is a native speaker of
Hungarian. We traveled to his home country this summer and I was able to
pick up a beginner's level of conversational fluency. However, each time we
talk he still uses English while I respond in Hungarian. Here and there he
will throw in some Magyar phrases but it is by and large 'asymmetric
bilingualism.' In this example, I feel our contours of communication are
shaped by the fact that he has used English with me throughout my entire
life. Only a very small percentage of our relationship has been bonded by
the Hungarian language. If anything, he is just being consistent.

Another interesting note on this relationship is that when we speak on the
phone he will often respond to my inquiries in Hungarian with "si" - Spanish
for yes - a language he has a general familiarity with. Could this be
attributed to the fact he knows I am using an L2 and subconsciously shifts
to
mode of thinking when he hears me speak? Or could it be he is just an old
guy who gets confused sometimes?

In any event, a fascinating subject and one I am glad people are discussing.
In the end we can be sure that, like most things linguistic, there is never
a one-to-one correspondence between communication and the reason people
speak the way they do. Just another reason why people in our profession
still have a mountain of work to ahead of them, and why our discipline is so
absolutely intriguing. I hope this finds you all well.

With warm regards,
Dave


-- 
Dave Paulson
PhD Student & University Fellow
Temple University, Department of Anthropology
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
United States