by Sarah Toib
What’s your mother tongue? For Americans living in Eretz Yisrael, it’s
sometimes hard to say. I’ve lived in Eretz Yisrael for almost 20 years, and I often
come across women who grew up here but speak fluent English. So much so that I
am sometimes surprised when I find out that they did not come from an English-speaking
country. Their command of English is complete; they even have just the
right accent, the right nuances, and often even the mentality of their parents’
home country. I wonder, how do they do it? How did their parents raise them to
be so perfectly bilingual?
What a gift! How I wish that all
of my children had the gift of two languages. When I mentioned this to my
oldest daughter, the one of my children who speaks a fairly fluent English, she
emphatically disagreed. She said that growing up in a home of foreigners
(referred to here as “chutznikim” because they come from chutz
la’aretz) “feels like I’m a really skinny person trying to sit on two
chairs; in the end I fall between them.” The cultural part of that statement
needs an article of its own, but the bilingual aspect interested me. And
so I decided to ask around, speak with others in the situation, and find out
for myself: Do chutznikim growing up in Eretz Yisrael in a
strong English-language environment have the best of both worlds? Or are they
straddling the fence and have neither? What are the pros and cons of being
raised in a bilingual setting?
A Slow Start
I have heard from many mothers
of bilingual children that their children have language delays. Several of my
children needed a year or two in gan safa. Gan safa is
part of the Israeli special education system for children aged three to six. It
is a small, self-contained preschool class where the focus is on building
language skills. The children get one-on-one speech therapy once or twice a
week. In addition, the group as a whole does a tremendous amount of work on
building vocabulary, word retrieval skills, fluency skills, and other speech-
and language-related activities. I had noticed when walking into the gan safa classroom that there seemed to
be a disproportionate number of bilingual children there, which led me to
wonder about the effects of bilingualism on language development.
After a bit of research, I have
come to the conclusion that bilingualism does not negatively affect a child’s
linguistic development. Scientists say that this is a misconception. Children
may have difficulty with word retrieval or a limited word bank as they
subconsciously filter the two languages for the word in the language of
the listener, which gives the impression of a limited vocabulary and slow
language processing. In reality, the process is strengthening important skill
paths in their brains.
In fact, according to one 2012
study, bilingual children may have an advantage over their monolingual
contemporaries. Growing up with more than one language helps children develop
memory skills and gives them a cognitive advantage over other children their
age. Switching between multiple languages strengthens multitasking skills in
children and positively affects their academic performance.
So how are we to deal with what
appears to be a functional delay? The journal Contemporary Pediatrics recommends allowing bilingual toddlers more
time to develop their language skills. While they may be building vocabulary at
the same or faster rate than their peers, when it is divided over two
languages, the rate of development per language is naturally a bit slower.
This, they say, is not a cause for concern. By two to three years old, a
bilingual child should have sufficient vocabulary and language skills to freely
communicate, albeit with language mixing.
Language mixing is when the
speaker structures sentences or uses grammar rules from one language while
speaking words from the other language, or mixes words from multiple languages
within the same sentence. My children are big language mixers, often using
nouns and verbs in Hebrew, while using connecting words in English: Mommy, I can be ochel the oogah from the shayis?
(Can I eat the cake from the platter?) Those who know more English vocabulary may say the whole
sentence in English, but structure it in Hebrew, saying things such as “You
want that I should go to the store?”
By the time a child reaches four
years, though, they should no longer be language mixing but should be speaking
each language distinctly. Of course, these children will only separate their
languages in their speech if they are exposed to consistent, distinct
languages. It is important that the people they communicate with do not mix
languages. (I am guilty as charged in all of the above mistakes. Could that be
why my younger children do not speak English?) A child should know that certain
people and certain settings have their own language. If the language
environment is set up properly, a child can learn two languages and gain all of
the social, cognitive, and financial benefits of being bilingual.
Jobs and More
Many bilingual adults who
grew up in Eretz Yisrael are greatly benefiting from their bilingualism. In a
country with relatively low salaries, speaking English provides many more job
opportunities. Numerous outsourcing companies offer better paying jobs to those
who speak English like a native. Even in Hebrew-speaking offices, the English
speakers are appreciated. They are the go-to people for non-Hebrew speaking
clients, customers, contacts, etc. This turns the English speakers into vital,
non-replaceable team members. Shevy,* a coworker of mine who grew up in Eretz
Yisrael speaking English, Yiddish, and Hebrew, feels that it was an advantage
in many areas of her life. “As an adult,” she says, “I appreciate the fact
that, growing up, my parents remained ‘relevant’ to me. I know language is not
the only factor, but in my case, communicating with my parents in their
language played a huge role.” Shevy also feels that it enabled her to maintain
relationships with her grandparents and other relatives.
Let us not forget the fact that
Israel is a small country that relies heavily on many imported products from
English-speaking countries. Many things that we use daily are labeled in
English. When you buy a telephone, you have to pay extra to get one with a
Hebrew menu. (No thank you, I’ll keep the English menu!) The same is true of
large appliances. My washing machine and dryer have English control panels.
Israelis have to either figure it out and deal with it or pay extra for a
Hebrew control panel. So, the benefits of being bilingual, specifically with
English as the second language, are numerous and encompassing.
Left Out
After polling friends and
coworkers, however, it appears that not everyone growing up in a bilingual home
sees it as beneficial. My own daughter, quoted above, feels like she is not a
part of either culture. Rivkie,* a neighbor of mine, who grew up in an
exclusively English-speaking home, agrees. She feels like she is straddling the
fence. “When I go to the playground with my kids, I want to talk to the chutznikim. I
feel I relate to them more than I do to the Israelis,” she says, “but the chutznikim don’t
relate to me. They think I am totally Israeli. I lose out on both accounts.”
Yocheved* expresses a similar
sentiment: “American-Israelis are both
American and Israeli, and neither
American nor Israeli. I grew up here knowing I’m American; when I actually went
to America, I suddenly heard people saying I’m Israeli!”
How one feels about their
bilingual upbringing seems to depend a lot on the community in which he or she
was raised. There are neighborhoods and communities in Eretz Yisrael with a
very high population of English speakers. These are like a mini-chutz
l’aretz in the middle of Yerushalayim. When I spoke with women who had
grown up in neighborhoods like Romema or Har Nof, they felt that they got the
best of both worlds. Among their families, friends, and neighbors, they spoke
English and never missed out on a thing.
On a Humorous Note
I heard a funny story on this
topic: A boy who grew up in an English-speaking home and spoke fluent English
married an Israeli girl. Although the boy spoke English, he had never learned
to read or write the language. His wife, however, having gone through the
typical Bais Yaakov system, had learned to read and write English but did not really
understand the language. One day, their washing machine started to act up. They
called the company and were instructed to go through the back of the manual where
there were instructions for common problems and how to fix them. And so, Mrs.
Israeli wife painstakingly read the English manual to her husband, and he
translated sentence by sentence. Together they managed to correct the problem
with their machine!
In conclusion, while children
may need some extra support in their initial language developing years, there
are definite benefits to being bilingual. Even those who needed help to fill
some gaps in their second language said that they appreciate it as adults.
But the bottom line is that, no matter what language you speak and no matter
how it affects you socially, nothing can compare to the tremendous zechus of
living in Eretz Yisrael!
*All names have been changed
