Does it Take Effort for Bilingual Speakers to Switch between Languages? It Depends

[eb134]

Material below summarizes the article, Bilingual Language Switching in the Lab vs. in the Wild: The Spatio-Temporal Dynamics of Adaptive Language Control, published on August 16, 2017, in JNeurosci and authored by Esti Blanco-Elorrieta and Liina Pylkkänen.

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[Jaadeja]

I am bilingua:l French and English. My native language is English spoke as a child French became my adult language as well as my professional language ( Did my graduate work in France) I found it was easier for me to speak French. The expressions in French were very precise and to the point and full of humor and when I tried to translate them into English I was always searching for an equivalent. I translated many times for my family since I was married to a non english speaking Frenchman and his non english speaking family. I would usually get caught up in a conversation and forget to translate until one party seemed to be demanding a translation. The advantage of being bilingual was that I understood all parties with no effort what so ever. . In fact I even translated for conference put on by Nestle ( Guigoz). I did not do simultaneous translations but I translated the recorded transcripts from English into French. I translated the transcript for the Nobel prize winner Torsten Wiesel. Being bilingual has had huge advantages for me. Keep up your interesting work.

[yun.li]

I’m bilingual between Chinese and English. It’s easy to understand both languages by myself during a conversation, but I find it really hard to find actual equivalents for some phrases. Especially when from Chinese to English.

[Gabriella Panuccio]

I am Italian but I’m also very fluent in English, as if it were my second language. I confess at times I have difficulties expressing myself in my native language. And this turns out to sound so weird at times, because I feel as if somehow I have lost the ability of communicating in my own language. I need to think in order to switch back to Italian. Maybe this is due to the fact that I am surrounded by English: at work; when I read; when I listen to music. In a way, I think my brain has undergone some sort of conditioning.