B for "Bilingualism"

I think I can call myself somewhat bilingual. There's no clear certification for claiming "bilingual," so I would say if you can communicate in two languages and many people admit that you are fluent in both, you are bilingual. I read the article about brain on the Internet, and the study showed being multilingual makes you good at prioritizing things and multitasking. I don't completely believe this result, but I was happy to know that using two languages helps my brain to stay young longer :)

Speaking of language, the first reason why I liked English was the sound. I even wrote a thesis on English phonetics. But the charm of English, or any other languages might be the same if I had learned seriously, is not only how it sounds but also its characteristics that have been established in the Western culture. By using this language, I can be another person, just like you are wearing a mask and acting slightly differently than usual you. I'm not saying that I'm hiding behind this language "mask," but the foreign tongue allows me to be less shy and reserved. This helps me greatly to gain my self-esteem.

I mentioned on my journal before, but my friend told me that I look more confident when I'm speaking English. This is probably because I am feeling good about myself for using another language, and English makes me talk in a way that is a bit Westernized, not vocabulary-wise but my state of mind. When I was in Vancouver, a part of the cause of my happiness and satisfaction was probably because I was living in English-speaking environment. Of course, speaking a non-mother tongue all day long makes me tired, but I realized that there are some things that I could express only in English. If I tried to say them in Japanese, I would feel so embarrassed. This blog is the same thing. I wouldn't write these things in Japanese, hell NO!

According to my experience, I prefer being in a relationship in English and doing business in Japanese. This is how I think about the two languages that I can use :)