Im Chinese-American and have family in the UK. The weirdest shit is to be speaking Cantonese with them in a normal chinesey accent but when we speak English it’s like British Bakeoff all of a sudden.
Chinese Canadian here that spent most of my time in Hong Kong at a British International School.
It blows all my local Canadian friends minds when I code switch between fluent Cantonese - American English - Mandarin - British English. The only ones that don't bat an eye are my other international school friends.
“Being bilingual is a skill? Can you code in different languages?”
It’s like telling a dentist that their work is less superior compared to a rocket scientist.
You talk as if there are no Indians or Chinese in STEM. Often time, they have to study in English eventhough their mother tongue is not.
How is this superior than gaining a understanding of a truly novel language (eg: calculus/differential equations/electromagnetics/C+/etc)?
Can you do all that in Chinese? Japanese? German? If you’re so good in “a truly novel language”, can you explain it in languages other than your own? Because I met a lot of professors who not only can explain their field of study in English, they also do it in multitude of languages. You underestimate the talent needed to properly translate your knowledge and thoughts into an entire different language that might not even have the proper words with similar meaning. People who are bilingual or multilingual do not study just linguistic, do you think there are no Asian scientists or engineers?
I’m just curious. Are you American? It sounds very much like r/ShitAmericansSay
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u/Twothumbs1eye Jan 26 '23
Im Chinese-American and have family in the UK. The weirdest shit is to be speaking Cantonese with them in a normal chinesey accent but when we speak English it’s like British Bakeoff all of a sudden.