My Bilingual Narrative

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It was a quiet afternoon in the spring of 2005, and my grandmother had come to visit. She silently observed as I read a book out loud to my younger brother, Luc. I wasn’t reading particularly quickly or fluidly, so my grandmother assumed I just couldn’t read very well yet. However, upon closer inspection, she realized I was translating the book from English to French so Luc, who did not yet speak English, would understand. French is my first language. I never gave my bilingualism much thought until I went to elementary school and made friends. When I went over to my friends’ houses, I noticed their monolingualism: none of them spoke French or any other language at home. Additionally, when they came over to my house, they noticed how alienated …show more content…

They simply thought it was strange. However, it was enough to make my young mind self-aware and self-conscious. I became deeply embarrassed of my French culture and my family. We were “different,” and that was not something I wanted to be. I desired nothing more than to be the same as everybody else. Try as I might, I could never quite fit in with everyone else. I grew up with a different culture and lifestyle, and it was impossible to hide. My family didn’t go to church, we ate different food, and we spoke a different language. While my friends were out eating dinner at the snack bar, I was at home, eating my mom’s homemade vegetable soup. While my friends were reading The Cat in the Hat, I was reading Le Gruffalo. And while they were going to the movies, I was going on walks with my family.
It wasn’t until eighth grade, when I befriended a boy named Josh, that I realized I had nothing to be ashamed of. He took French in school, and dreamed of making a career out of it. When I admitted to Josh that I was bilingual, he reacted in a way that made me rethink my perspective: he was ecstatic. He kept repeating how amazing he thought it was and was happy he now had someone to help him with his French homework. Speaking another language was one of his lifelong dreams, as his dad spoke French, but never taught

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