Who is truly bilingual Anyways?
According to the book “bilingual edge” balanced biliguals are the ones who
1. Read a newspaper article in both languages equally quickly and with equal understanding?
2. Tell a joke or give a toast that was equally funny in both languages?
3. Explain to their child in both languages why it is not okay to, say, bop their friend Theodora on the head?
Though we tend to think
a “true” bilingual is someone who can pass as a native monolingual speaker in a wide range of contexts in each of the two different languages. In other words, in most people’s minds, a bilingual is much like two monolinguals in one body.
pg. 201.
true bilingualism is being able to fully and fluently speak, read, write and listen to two languages and being capable of understanding each very well. To be that level one must be exposed quite a lot preferably from a young age but not necessarily. I have absolute fluency in English and Spanish. other than an intermediate almost to expert level would be simply knowing an extra language in my opinion. no you don’t need to pass as a native, just be independent of translations in a slightly uncontrolled environment in both languages.