Are there any disadvantages to being bilingual? While speaking more than one language can open a lot of doors for you, there are some downsides to it. Let’s look into it!
Being fluent in two or more languages comes with a ton of advantages. It keeps your brain young, can help your career and allows you to meet with and understand people from all across the globe. But, as with anything, being bilingual also has its cons.
Especially when living in a country where you have to speak your second language, things can get a bit tricky.
Personally, my first language is Dutch and I have lived in the UK since 2014. I didn’t learn English until I started high school. And while my English has drastically improved since moving to England, there are some things I struggle with when it comes to speaking two languages.
In this article, I’m sharing some of the negatives of being bilingual. These are from my own experience along with the research I’ve done and input from other bilinguals. You can find the sources at the bottom of the article.
Cons Of Being Bilingual
Here are some of the negative effects of being bilingual:
1. Not Being Able To Fully Master Either Language
Speaking more than one language takes a lot of effort. Keeping up with new vocabulary in one language is hard enough as it is, so imagine how tough it can be doing this for two (or more). If you haven’t grown up with your second language or aren’t submerged in the culture associated with it, there may be some huge gaps in your language skills you’re unaware of.
When I asked my Instagram followers if they had any issues speaking more than one language, Eva (@eva.exalted) said “My biggest issue is having difficulty understanding nuances of cultural sayings in my second language“. It’s something I struggled with massively when first moving to the UK.
Bilinguals often have a decreased vocabulary in both languages due to this. Especially if you aren’t in constant contact with your first (or second) language, your vocabulary can suffer. This brings us to the second disadvantage…
2. Dealing With Language Dominance
No matter how many languages you speak, you will always be dominant in at least one of them. It’s tough to keep your language skills in both languages at its absolute best.
Personally, my English (second language) has become much better than my Dutch (first language). This is because I live in England, work as an English writer and almost exclusively speak English with friends. Forgetting parts of a language can be tough. This is especially true when it’s your mother language.
Professional settings can be tough in your weaker language. I find it almost impossible to speak with my Dutch friends about adult issues like taxes, jobs and buying houses. Speaking with professionals in Dutch is another thing I struggle with.
My vocabulary simply isn’t up to scratch. I never had to learn these words and phrases as a teenager, and only came into contact with them when I was already living abroad.
Instagram user Martgsan also highlighted this point, “I don’t use the same expressions as my peers and therefore I feel a bit alone sometimes“.
3. Mixing Languages By Accident
Even though one language may be more dominant, it’s not uncommon to accidentally mix up your languages. Certain idioms or phrases that only work in one language may slip through the cracks when speaking the other. I have done this countless times. And often, I don’t even realise it until one of my friends or family members corrects me.
You can even forget what idioms and phrases belong to what language. Some can be directly translated, but some are exclusively tied to a language. They just don’t work in the other. Because you’re fluent in both, you may not even realise it doesn’t sound right. Been there, done that.
Numbers and telling the time is a tricky one for me personally. That’s because they work very differently in English and Dutch. For example, 2:30 PM is “half two” in English, while it’s “half three” in Dutch. Similarly, numbers are pronounced in a different way. 51 is “fifty-one” in English, while it’s “one and fifty” in Dutch.
Steph from A Nomad’s Passport agrees, “Mixing up words between similar languages (French/Spanish/Italian) is tough. I learned all three and it’s seriously messing with my brain. If I don’t pay attention, I use the wrong accent/pronunciation/word.”
Annemarie Jansen (@annemariejansen_ on Instagram) also highlighted this. “It’s easy to mix them up and accidentally speak English, Spanish, French and Dutch in one sentence!”
4. Facing Prejudice
This disadvantage of being bilingual could have more to do with accents than with actually being able to speak two languages. That is, from my experience at least.
It can happen that native speakers look down on you if you have a foreign accent. People have definitely treated me differently because of my accent.
It’s frustrating when they assume you’re not intelligent because of it (hello, I literally speak multiple languages? How many do you speak?). Sadly, there isn’t anything you can do to stop this. Some people simply are going to judge, but that says more about them.
5. Having Different Personalities
If you are bilingual, you may have noticed a (slight) personality change when switching languages. I notice it, and I’m not the only one.
There have been many studies done on this phenomenon. I’ve listed some of them in the sources at the end of this article. Since language influences the way we see the world, it seems only natural to behave differently when speaking another language.
From personal experience, I feel like I have been able to rebuild myself when speaking English. My “English” personality is much more in line with who I see myself as, which is probably why I prefer speaking it over my mother tongue.
I’m not sure whether it is because of the available vocabulary (in my opinion, the variety of English vocabulary makes it much easier to pinpoint my thoughts and feelings) or whether it’s because I was 18 when I moved abroad and it allowed me to reinvent myself while speaking English constantly.
Either way, it’s very interesting to see. When I speak Dutch, I often feel like my way of speaking and behaviour is very much in line with my 18-year-old self. This was the age I moved abroad and switched to primarily speaking English. My “Dutch” personality seems stuck here as it’s not been able to grow as much as my “English” personality.
Maybe it’s all in my head, but I surely feel the difference. And reading about it online, whether that’s through studies or forums, and speaking with other bilinguals I am not the only one who feels like this.
6. Losing Your Cultural Identity
Similarly to “losing” an identity tied to a language, it’s possible to lose your cultural identity. This surely is a big disadvantage if you speak both languages on regular bases.
Language and culture are strongly tied together. If you are less engaged in one language, it’s only natural that you’re also less engaged in the culture associated with it.
Even though I grew up in the Netherlands and have lived there for the first 18 years of my life, I find it hard to fully identify as Dutch. No matter what my passport says. However, I also don’t feel English. It’s a weird state between cultures and countries. Like I don’t fit anywhere fully.
7. Switching Can Be Complicated/Tiring
Another downside of being bilingual is that switching between languages can be complicated. Even if you’re fully fluent in both languages, it’s way more than simply translating words. It’s translating the meaning. It can be especially when translating idioms, specific phrases or vocabulary you don’t often use in the other language.
Sometimes, words can’t even be fully translated. Not all languages have the same range of vocabulary for the same things, which makes it even more complicated.
8. Learning Can Be Costly/Time-Consuming
You have to put a lot of time and effort into becoming bilingual. Language courses can be pricey. Even if you purely learn it by finding free resources online (or in school), it’s very time-consuming.
And after you master the language, there is constant upkeep. If you don’t engage in the language, you’ll quickly forget large parts of it. Whether it’s reading, speaking or listening to your first/second language, being bilingual requires practice.
9. Having To Translate Things/Teach People
While this is definitely one of the least “annoying” cons of being bilingual, it does get old. When people realise you speak more than one language, you’re often met with “Say something in [insert other language here]” or “Translate this!”.
I understand that a lot of it comes from a genuine place and it’s nice that people show interest, it can get annoying. There’s more to me than my ability to speak two languages.
10. Facing Difficulty Bringing Points Across
I’ve briefly mentioned this in some of the previous points, but switching between languages can make it tough to bring your point across. Many jokes don’t work in both languages. This can be because the vocabulary doesn’t quite match or because there are cultural differences.
It’s also not uncommon that one of your languages is lacking the specific vocabulary to describe a feeling or thought. Especially when there is a perfect way to describe it in the other language, this can be frustrating.
Final Thoughts On Disadvantages Of Being Bilingual
Okay, okay, okay. I hope you understand that this article shouldn’t discourage you from learning a second language. However, it is good to be aware of some of these points.
Yes, these cons can be a bit annoying. But overall, being bilingual comes with a ton of advantages. For me, speaking more than one language has opened so many doors to me and I wouldn’t be where I am today without it. The pros heavily out way the cons.
It has even encouraged me to take on other languages. Currently, I’m studying Japanese in my spare time. While this is a lot different from English and Dutch (the two languages I currently speak), it’s a great challenge.
In my opinion, being bilingual has way more pros than cons. It takes some effort but it will pay off!
Sources:
hello nele,
my name is ching. i know inform instagram. my name there is leecklee. i wrote u sometimes 🙂
about this topic i want to give a reply:) i truly understand your feeling. i can speak 4 languages. dutch, chinese, english and german. and some broken other languages too.
1. in the first years at school i often mixed up dutch atnd german. my teacher says always stop making new words in my texts, but if i read it i can understand. my brother was in the same school but higher class. so i show him and he began to laugh because inward written some words in dutch 🙂
that makes me to topic 2 my brother and i we speaks in a mix languages that nobody can follow our conversations. of course some words we don’t know or remember we just say it in the next language what to word we know. but i made mistakes often in japan holiday. i speak with friends in english and with my girlfriend (now ex) in german but sometimes i turn my head to her and speak english and to other friends german hahahaha so embarrassing.
but i starting to forget chinese and dutch more and more. i didn’t have so many chance to speak in those 2 . i’m always happy if i heard dutch customers. i said to my colleagues these are mine customers and start with hoi kan ik u helpen?
i
it’s funny that you have quite similar stories like me 🙂
Haha I recognize myself so much in these stories! My boyfriend is learning a little bit of Dutch and we speak in a mixture of Dutch and English that nobody can understand here in England, but it’s so funny! If you ever need to practice your Dutch just send me a message on instagram ^_^ Always happy to help!
ah that’s so kind of you. i will try to do it 🙂
yeah we do it too to talk in mix. the other friends always complaining that we should speak german. hehehe
I can relate so much to this! I’m trilingual and I speak French and English on an everyday basis, and my biggest worry is the fact that I might forget French. People don’t understand when I say this because it’s my mother tongue (and I still have an accent hehe) but when I talk to my family and friends back home, the switch doesn’t happen instantly – sometimes it takes time for me to think about certain specific words! I know them in English but I can’t remember them in French lol! I’m so glad I found another blogger who is bilingual like me haha x
New Lune | new-lune.com
Great post. I’m a Dutchie too. Haven’t thought about the issues in terms of cons, but hey, they make for good fun most of the time. My latest blooper was the next sentence, with the first two words in English, the last two in Dutch (‘begin’ is both English and Dutch for those not in the know, but pronounced very differently).
Oh, don’t even BEGIN EROVER!
I master both Chinese (simplified & tradictional) and English. I believe no Chinese-English bilinguals would fail to tell whether a word is in Chinese or English, because Chinese and English are very different in writing and prononciation. And numbers of 99% Chinese characters used in daily life is only 3k. Since I and read Chinese characters (a.k.a. kanji) and when reading Japanese texts, I can also understand the main idea. Some characters in Japanese are a little bit different, but it is easy to learn for Chinese speakers. However, when talking with others in Chinese, being such a bilingual made me constantly fail to remember how to speak a certain word in Chinese. But it is ok to mix English into Chinese when having a conversation with well-educated Chinese, they think it is fine. Instead, mixing English into Chinese could be used to show that you are professional (e.g. speaking tech/business terms in Eng) or you’re well educated. Sometimes used to show off to others. However, when talking with others in English and fail to remember how to speak a certain word in English, I have to say sorry and immedinately take out my phone to look up in dictionary, which is embarrassing.😂 I think what causes the difference betweens these two situations is that English is truly a lingua franca, though Chinese (incl. Cantonese, etc.)has the most speakers in the world, anyway I am glad to have mastered these two most widely used languages in the world so that I can communicate with more than 2.5B people in the world.
I can relate, too! Thank you, Nele, for describing so articulately the challenges we face as bilinguals! In fact, it’s these reasons that have – ironically- made me reluctant to learn a third language!
Thank you for your article. all bilinguals talk about the advantages and claim that there are no disadvantages.
I was very interested in your idea of loss of cultural identity. I thought it was only a problem for people who speak 2 languages from birth. That they are not able to feel a sense of belonging to a specific nation because during their childhood cultures were intertwined. I had no idea that it was possible to lose the sense of belonging to one’s native nationality in adulthood. I feel regret.