I'm considered bilingual. I lived in Canada until the age of 6. Many times people have told me it's cool to be bilingual, but it's not that simple. In Canada, I was too small to know there are different languages. I never distinguished Japanese from English. Sometimes I answered a Japanese question in English and an English question in Japanese.

Back in Japan, I remember being confused about how to answer yes-no questions. I remember feeling down and stupid. I still struggle with Japanese, but that doesn't mean I'm good at English. Sometimes I feel that I don't have a mother tongue.

chinami suzuki
nagoya

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