Bilingual: Life and reality (review)

Between Grosjean's first book on bilingualism, Life with two languages (1982), and his new book, Bilingual: Life and reality, the professional study of bilinguals by linguists and psychologists has grown exponentially. There are now several journals devoted to bilingualism research and a more than five-fold increase in the number of articles in general domain journals (Bialystok 2007). As Kroll states, the performance of bilinguals is now 'taken as primary evidence for the purpose of adjudicating the classic debates about representation of language in the mind and brain' (2009:i). However, while scientists have picked up on bilingualism as a unique lens with which to view general questions about language, there has not been a comparable recognition by the general public of bilingualism as a mainstream phenomenon. That is the issue that G's new book addresses.

G has himself contributed significantly to the growth of the scientific study of bilinguals as an author of five books and over 100 articles on bilingual language processing, perception, sign language, and aphasia; and as a founding coeditor of the Cambridge University Press journal Bilingualism: Language and Cognition. This new book is directed not to his fellow psycholinguists, but to his fellow bilinguals and those who live and work with bilinguals. G wants bilinguals to be able to discuss their experiences and to find stories and descriptions where they can see themselves represented. He maintains that 'bilingual children and adolescents … must be allowed to talk about what it means to be bilingual and bicultural' (245), so that they can get the encouragement and assistance they might need to embrace their bilingualism and be accepted for who they are. This book works on both goals: (i) to help bilinguals recognize and respect their own achievement, and (ii) to help those who are not bilingual to understand the many typical ways to be a bilingual, and to accept and respect bilinguals, too.

We learn in the introduction that the first audience for this book was G himself as a teenager. The many changes in his own language history were not always easy transitions. In Ch. 8, 'Languages across the lifespan' (85–96), G reports how he became aware of his own bilingualism and biculturalism. After his first six years in a French environment and then ten years of education in the medium of English, he asked, 'Was I English? Was I French?' Could he be both? At the time, he could find no materials to help him sort it out.

The book is both personal and general. The tone is conversational. Chapters are intentionally short so readers can pick up the book and easily begin where they left off. There are many statements from a range of bilingual individuals, from novelists to athletes. Still, twenty-two pages of notes show that G did not completely leave aside his careful scientific style.

It should be emphasized that the book is not a chronicle of G's own life and times. Although it is written in the first person, G injects his own experience and opinions only when they are relevant. More than anything, the 'reality' in the title is achieved by being named and discussed. The book differs from its 1982 predecessor in its focus. As G relates in the introduction, this book has almost none of the political or neurological discussions of the former book.

The current book has two subdivisions: 'Bilingual adults' and 'Bilingual children', with thirteen and six chapters, respectively. Adult chapters cover descriptions of bilinguals as well as the functions and processes of multiple languages in use and over time. There are three chapters on attitudes and personality. I particularly appreciated the two chapters on bilingual writers, whom Anna Wierzbicka (2005) calls our best sources of information on the bilingual mind. G takes from academics—a university course on polyglot writers by Elizabeth Beaujour (2011)—and from historical figures like Erasmus and contemporary novelists such as the explosive Junot Diaz. One chapter singles out 'professional bilinguals'—language teachers...