DIFFERENCES BETWEEN BEING BILINGUAL AND BEING BICULTURAL

 

 

·      -  Being bilingual implies knowing two languages that serve to establish a communication process but not to understand the culture. On the contrary, to be bicultural is to be able to understand the culture and through it to approach and reason about the language.

 

·        -  Being bilingual implies having a broad linguistic knowledge, that is, being proficient in the use of the language. While being bicultural only implies knowing a little bit of the language to interpret the culture, regardless of the systems or register of the language. 

 

·         - Being bilingual requires the use of inflection when communicating in order to be clearer when conveying a message, and therefore achieve a better interpretation. While being bicultural is more important to be proficient in speaking no matter how well you do it.

 

·         - Being bicultural implies interacting as well as possible in a foreign language in order to learn the culture and develop within it. Being bilingual, on the other hand, does not require the appropriation of the culture.

 

- To be bilingual you need to study the target language, while to be bicultural you only need to interact or be immersed in one culture.