I could have grown up “naturally” bilingual. However, my toddler self covered his ears whenever he heard non-English words (I suppose they were frightening?). By the time I was older, of course, foreign language was just another form of school and I wasn’t interested. I did take another foreign language in high school, but my first choice wasn’t available, so I took my second choice, Russian. By the time I could change again, I figured I’d just stick with what I was taking rather than start over. So I never did learn the language of my forefathers.
You grew up in a bilingual household? Or it was only bilingual after you were toddler-ish age? I ask because I’ve seen lots of my friends’ kids grow up in bilingual situations and the kids grow up learning both languages without many problems.
I wish I’d had the chance to learn other languages while young, they’re harder to pick up as you age (newsflash - tape at 11.00).
Back to the OP. I don’t think I have any regrets about things that were out of my control to prevent. I have regrets, sure, but they’re all about things I could have prevented but didn’t.
Let it slide, your toddler self was just a toddler trying to work out what’s happening around him. Maybe he really didn’t need the extra distraction right then. Or maybe his dream guide already warned him of the evil foreign tongue. Who knows?
My father is a direct immigrant. My mother is fluent, but was born and raised in the States. So it wasn’t really technically a bilingual household, really.
We moved away from my home-town when I was 3, and never moved back. I adored my grandmother, but after we moved I only saw her every 2-3 years. All my cousins stayed around and had long, close, loving relationships with her. I knew she loved me, but I never got to spend time with her. She’s gone, now, so I never will. I don’t know if ‘regret’ is the right word, but I’ve always been sad about it.
I have never been able to prevent a corporate layoff of employees, but there have been times when I knew one was coming and I knew who would be affected. Having to deal with those people, some of whom were absolutely devastated by the layoff, before it actually happened was almost painful for me. In at least one case, I really regret not saying something to one such person, even though it would have put my own job in jeopardy. The thing is, if someone is telling you “Hey, I’m buying a house, making this major purchase, etc.” and you know they are going to be laid off in a week, how do you prevent that without giving away that you know?
Another one is a regret for something I did say, rather than something I didn’t. My friend was in the hospital for leukemia, had major chemo, and then started to recover. He hadn’t held his young kids for nearly a month, so naturally he interacted with them quite a bit as he started to recover. Then he suddenly had respiratory failure and ended up on a ventilator coming very close to death at one point. The doctors never could figure out what happened, but I suggested to his wife that his kids probably gave him a cold they picked up at day care and with his highly weakened immune system, it could easily turn into a pneumonia and wipe you out. Yeah, telling his wife her kids were probably killing her husband…definitely not a good idea.
