On our recent boondoggle at IKEA, I was standing in line behind a pair of women, one of whom had two little boys. She also happened to be English, and the other woman, who was American, commented on how the children had just a trace of an English accent.
“Oh yes,” said the mother, “They’re bilingual. They speak English AND American.”
The second woman laughed and added, “Three or more languages makes you multilingual. Two languages makes you bilingual. One language makes you American.”
And now the pretty picture:
(I wouldn’t swear to the authority of this graphic, but it does have a ring of truthiness to it.)
