A personal essay reported by the Boston Globe about life and study in a second language highlights the mental and emotional strain many bilingual learners carry in English-medium settings. The author, who moved to Boston in 2021 for postgraduate study, describes how fluency opens opportunities but also produces constant effort, exhaustion and occasional isolation when language fails to convey feeling precisely.
Everyday fluency can mask ongoing effort
The writer recounts a moment at home that captures the switch between languages:
“I know what you’re saying now.”The phrase summed up the moment their family’s ‘‘secret language’’ was pierced by acquired English. Yet the essay makes clear that being able to function in English does not remove the continuous cognitive labour required to maintain that appearance of fluency.
Arriving in Boston for a master’s degree, the author found routine tasks — following announcements on the metro, keeping up in lectures, telling jokes in social settings — more draining than expected. Even small slips, such as pronouncing a brand name differently, became moments of embarrassment and a reminder of the extra attention required to perform in a second language.
Workplace language is another barrier
Moving into an office environment introduced a new dialect of English — full of idioms and corporate phrases — that demanded further adaptation. Phrases like “circle back”, “touch base” and “put a pin in it” required decoding in real time. The author alternated between amusement and a sense of not quite belonging, despite outward competence.
Interactions intended as compliments also carried unintended weight. Being told,
“Wow, your English is so good.”was experienced as recognition but also as a reminder of the effort behind that perception.
Emotional expression is affected
The essay notes the particular difficulty of expressing physical pain or intense emotion in a second language; at a doctor’s appointment the author cried because words failed to capture the sensation. The piece cites research — without naming specific studies — that shows emotional phrases often trigger stronger responses in a first language and that bilingual people may exhibit different personalities depending on which language they are using. As the essay summarises, in one’s native language and culture a person can be “on autopilot.”
Implications for South African classrooms
South Africa’s education system is multilingual by law and practice. The experiences described in the Boston Globe piece underline several points school leaders, teachers and parents should consider:
- Hidden cognitive load: Learners who appear fluent may still expend significant mental energy to follow lessons, participate and express nuanced ideas.
- Emotional safety: Asking learners to discuss personal or emotional topics in an additional language may limit their ability to engage fully.
- Context-specific language: Subject- and workplace-specific vocabulary (including idioms) can create new barriers even for generally fluent learners.
Those points suggest practical classroom responses: allow learners to draft answers in a home language before presenting in English, provide glossaries for subject terminology, and create low-stakes speaking opportunities so learners practise disciplinary and social language in supportive contexts.
| Situation | Impact on learner |
|---|---|
| Commuting and announcements | Mental strain, risk of missing instructions |
| Lectures and classroom participation | Lagging behind peers, needing extra processing time |
| Workplace idioms and jargon | Decoding unfamiliar phrases, reduced confidence |
| Expressing pain or emotion | Inability to convey nuance, emotional distress |
Supporting bilingual learners without lowering standards
The Boston Globe account emphasises that English proficiency is a real advantage, but also that proficiency should not be treated as a binary state. Teachers and parents can keep high expectations while recognising the extra work bilingual learners perform. Small adjustments — scaffolding language in subject lessons, permitting code-switching in planning stages, and explicitly teaching idiomatic language used in workplaces — help sustain learners’ academic progress and wellbeing.
Framing these changes as pedagogical supports rather than concessions preserves academic standards and centres the learner’s experience. For learners, being understood and given time to process reduces exhaustion and allows deeper participation; for teachers, it builds more accurate assessments of a learner’s knowledge beyond surface fluency.
As the essay makes clear, bilingualism can be both an opening and a burden. Education systems that acknowledge the hidden costs of operating in an additional language will be better placed to help learners transform linguistic advantage into sustained classroom success.
