I have a confession to make. I have multiple personalities. It is the fate of many people like me who grow up bilingual or multilingual. But you know what? I like being French one day, Dutch the next and American the rest of the time. I find myself being able to put on many different attires.Even though I am not native French, I moved to Paris when I was four years old and that almost makes me a native speaker of this beautiful language. It makes me able to watch French movies without subtitles, read the best literature in the world in it’s original form and dooms me to speak all other languages with a French accent, which people sometimes find ‘charming’ and other times ‘annoying’.
Since all one’s memories are closely intertwined with the language one speaks, when I put on my French attire I immediately am transported to the world of my childhood, when I used to walk home from the bakery with a still warm baguette under my arm, and the unique smell of the Parisian streets in my nose. I like to put on my French attire, my French personality. I feel sophisticated, romantic and exotic.
Now let’s see.. what else is in my wardrobe? Oh yes. My Dutch attire. I learnt Dutch in my teens, when my mother remarried a Dutchman. When I put on my Dutch personality, my Dutch attire, it makes me feel clean and sturdy. Holland, even though it is one of the smallest countries in the world, is terrifyingly clean, and the Dutch are a sturdy, no nonsense kind of people. Quite a personality switch from the romantic and exotic 11 year old Parisian I had become.
You see, the act of speaking goes way beyond expressing words. Speaking a certain language not only gives voice to your thoughts, it also expresses the nuances of those thoughts through the filter of the society that that language belongs to. And there is something uniquely extraordinary about people who grow up with different languages, they can step out of the mold of a particular culture and see it in a much more objective light. That gives someone a very special perspective.
Many parents who wish to teach their children their own native language, see it as a way to pass on their ‘cutlure’, a piece of themselves. Who doesn’t want their child to reflect some part of themselves?
But let me continue with my wardrobe metaphor and present to you my PIECE DE RESISTANCE, my American attire. If there is a favorite in my wardrobe it is definitely this one.
I learnt English as an adult, and as you might guess, I speak it with a French accent which I blissfully cannot hear myself. For me, putting on this attire represents American know-how, American pragmatism, American friendliness. But above all it represent American freedom, the freedom to be whoever you want to be, including French, Dutch or Papuhan. My personalities are dear to me, they make up who I am, and I am glad I can switch back and forth.
If you find that you get bored with yourself, why not learn a new language? It sure makes life more interesting.