I’m 21 and I wish I could be bilingual because it would save me a lot of work. If I could be a bilingual I wouldn’t have to work so hard learning the other language.

I grew up in Israel and my father davka [actually] speaks French, but he never spoke to us [in] French, and I’m very angry about it because I could know French. I understand French, but I could speak it more fluently, but I wasn’t exposed enough. If we used this language at home, when I go to France it would be much easier for me to speak the language fluently and not only to understand.

He made a mistake when he didn’t speak French to me because I think that anyway I would learn the Hebrew language. My Hebrew is not from the home as it is from the school, and just being in Israel is enough for me to learn the language. Hebrew did not have to be learned at home.

All parents who have an additional language should teach their children that language. Definitely, mamash [absolutely], it’s a big advantage that people know more languages, because it opens more doors for them when they go around the world. They can speak to more people. They can communicate with others. They can also find more jobs, because some jobs require more languages. And I think I had a hard time learning English, not a hard time in the learning, but it is not as easy as it comes to bilinguals. For example, if I translate, then I can only translate into Hebrew, but I don’t feel confident enough translating into English. Also, if I want to teach I don’t feel confident enough teaching in English, although I know English very well, it’s not my mother tongue and I don’t feel confident enough.

I’m not a bilingual at all. I think that my English is good enough for translating from English to Hebrew. It’s good enough for teaching the language, but it’s not as good as it should be. It doesn’t compare to the English of my friends, for example, who are bilingual, and one of my plans, if you’re already asking, is to go to spend a year in the States, maybe next year, I don’t know, I’m just thinking about it now, but I really want to spend a year or two in an English-speaking country, to make my language more fluent, not only to know the academic language, but to also know the phrases that are used in everyday life, when you go to the bank, and when you go to different places that you simply can’t be exposed to here, because it’s not the right environment for me.

I could go to a French-speaking country, but it’s not my dream to know the language, because French is less useful for me than English, because English I already know. I have this strong background of English that it’s only like perfecting my English. It’s not on the level of learning the whole language.

When I was younger my parents should have spoken to me in their second language, I mean French, or if they were English-speaking they should have spoken to me in English, and now I should do something. It’s not enough, although I speak a lot to English speakers. I think I should be in an English speaking environment. It does not necessarily have to be in an English speaking country, although it’s the best way, but still if I work, and if I’m all day in an English speaking environment, it would make my English much better, compared to the level of a bilingual person.

I would like to raise my future family in a bilingual environment, but as long as the people whose mother tongue is the other language. I don’t want to teach my kids, for example, English, although my English is good, because it’s not natural for me, and I don’t want to teach them a language that is not my mother tongue, because then they will miss this and that. They won’t have any perfect language.

I think that people should speak the language that is the most natural for them, and their mother tongue and bilingualism comes from being exposed to first mother tongue and then another language that is not their mother tongue, but is another environment that they’re exposed to, as well as the same way they’re exposed to the mother tongue.

When I want some things I want to express my idea in English and then I need the Hebrew expression and I don’t have it and it gives me a hard time trying to express what I want to say, because I need something stronger than what I have in English, and I feel that I simplify my language and I’m not happy with the way I say it in English.