Obviously learning a couple of words in another language doesn’t really make you bilingual, or being able to say a few phrases. But there’s also clearly some point before full fluency where you can be considered bilingual, but how is it determined (formally or informally)? Is it purely vibes based, you’ll know when you see it kind of thing?
I’m vaguely familiar with the CEFR levels measuring how much of a language you speak, but if there’s a cutoff point for counting as bilingual in there somewhere I don’t know where.
BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca 4 weeks ago
As someone who never quite reached this level myself, I feel like it’s when you start being able to think in the second language inside your head.
I only got to the point where I had flashes of this happen for specific topics that didn’t translate well. For everything else I kept thinking in English, even if I then needed to convert it back mentally after.
NJSpradlin@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
In the same vein as your response, I’ve heard people say that they start dreaming in the other language, too, and understanding it. Being a monolinguist myself, I can’t speak with any authority, but my understanding is when you stop thinking about what you say and you’re just saying it, combined with the dreaming in it, is a good identifier.
People who say that they speak whatever random number of languages but it’s only memorized sayings…? Yeah, that’s the same thing, you guys.
Psychodelic@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Idk, I’m bilingual and I only ever think in English. It doesn’t really seem to make a difference though, saying things out loud vs in my head.
I’m learning a third language now and can just barely communicate with others (worked with a taxi driver!). That said, I wouldn’t consider myself truly trilingual yet. I could think in that language but it doesn’t really feel like it changes anything - I still only know the same words in my head
Kayday@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
My thoughts aren’t in a language, so this always confused me as a benchmark.