What about drawbacks of being raised bilingual?

There is no question about the benefits of being able to speak more than one language. More and more studies focus on bilingualism, certainly because of the amount of people that speak two or more language these days (it is said that more than half of the world's population is able to speak more that one language, even though there is no data about how good they speak respective language). With all the positive attributes that we link to bilingualism, we asked ourselves: Are there any drawbacks to being raised bilingual?

The internet is full of information when it comes to the topic and we found an interesting article that brings a different insight to the topic. "Cognitive psychologists have been interested in how bilingualism shapes the mind for almost a century. There are those that suggest that in order to speak one language, bilinguals have to suppress the influence of the other." That's an interesting argument and everyone that speaks two languages knows, that it can become confusing at times switching from one language to another or retrieve extensive vocabulary in one language when one hasn't used a language for some time (think of moving to another country and only communicating in the other language from time to time).

There has been a heated debate in the science world, whether bilingualism can actually be associated with cognitive advantages or not. According to this article there wasn't a significant difference between bilinguals or monolinguals when it comes to their cognitive abilities. It is important to note this study was undertaken with adults and not infants or toddlers.

Apart from studies and science, for us being able to learn and speak another language is a great gift. Not only will it open doors for experiences and social connections that would be closed due to language barriers otherwise, but it will also help to understand the world in a different way. We see language not only as a way to extend knowledge and communicate, but also as a passion that will make life greater everyday!

If you would like to read the full article please click here.