First of all, I have to make a distinction between the terms to make it clear for those who read our comments outside the area of linguistics. A bilingual is a person who has the ability to use two different languages in his daily life. While, the bicultural is a person who can navigate within two cultures and get adapted with both of them. The question is: can a person who is bilingual be bicultural. As I know if I am not mistaken that two-thirds of the world’s population are bilinguals. The focal question that I have to ask at this point, do all bilinguals on the planet are biculturals. According to my experience, I see that not all bilinguals are necessarily biculturals. We can find types of bilinguals who are only monoculturals and biculturals who are monolinguals. As an example of this, most of African countries speak two or more languages (including the language of the colonizer) such as Algerians but they possess only one culture within the same country. In contrast, there are many people around the world who can be biculturals, even though they possess and use only one language. As an example, there are some tourists who travelled all over the world using only one language and they navigate within different cultures with the help of the tourist guide. To make my last point clear, there are millions of tourists heading to Egypt to visit some historical and cultural spots (Pyramids and Shram Al-Shaykh); that three-thirds of the Egyptian people can see them only on TV. Now, we discuss the third type, which reflects to some bilinguals who are biculturals. This type of speakers can use two or more languages and enjoy different cultures. As an example for that, the immigrant parents in the host country, who bring up their kids bilingually and expose them to different cultures.
In the context of relations between the cultures of deafness and non deafness, people find the word biculturalism less controversial because the distinction commonly seems like a genuine binary distinction transcending the distinctions between various spoken languages. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for sharing your wonderful articles. Thanks for sharing.
Great blog post.
Culture is more global than only language. I think language give you some understanding how people live, but still you must live in some country long time to feel their culture.
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