ChicagoJohn123 t1_j9fpjqk wrote on February 21, 2023 at 4:23 PM

Reply to comment by KatieCashew in [OC] % of American students taking a foreign language class by state by ASoloTrip90000

I'd love to see how 30 year olds feel about that.

I can imagine that you feel more awkward in school where you're literally doing grammar exercises. But I feel like most the people I know who grew up bilingual speak English extremely well (just like the people who played two varsity sports tended to be better at both than they would have been just playing one)

KatieCashew t1_j9g3k7j wrote on February 21, 2023 at 5:53 PM

Both the people I mentioned were in their late 20s at the time.

For the one that didn't consider herself fluent in either language, I would have never guessed. In talking with her, (we knew each other a couple years before this conversation) I thought she was fluent in English. She certainly didn't seem to struggle with speaking or understanding to me. But she felt that she struggled with both languages.