[ABS]

"spoke only their asian language until they hit preschool where they learned english"

in that case they are not considered bilingual

EDIT: not sure about the downvotes, it's a fact that if you learn a second language at 4 or 5 you are not considered bilingual. Nothing wrong with it, its just the definition

[jordigh]

Of course they are. You learn a language as a first language (L1) until the critical age (well, according to the critical age hypothesis, anyways: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Age_Hypothesis ).

I was raised in such an environment. Spanish at home, English at school. I did learn Spanish before English, and I remember a time when I couldn't understand English, around age five or six. Now, however, I am bilingual, fully bicultural, I code switch, and it feels like a superpower I only share with relatively few other people (at least for the specific dialects of English and Spanish that I speak). I can adapt to either language and be idiomatic in each, but my most "natural" mode of speech is the one I grew up with: quickly code switching between two very specific dialects of American English and Mexican Spanish, and there are very few people I can do that with.

Actually, multilingualism is far more common than some Angloamericans are usually aware of. The "norm" worldwide, roughly, is for there to be many intertwined languages within a small geographic region, such as in Europe and Asia. America (the whole continent, not just the US) is the odd one out to be such a large expanse with relatively little linguistic variety besides differing dialects, and that's because the only way to impose languages over such vast geographic expanses is by force and conquest. This is what happened in America.

[Yoms]

I'm in the same boat as you. The code-switching is kind of freaky.... It just happens, and the appropriate language is used for the apporpriate part of the conversation, with the appropriate people who would understand. And I feel the ideas/emotions are transferred more efficiently than when using just one language. Which is why it works so well when angry and venting :).

The challenge I'm having now is doing the same with my kids. My older child has had no problem, and spoke only Spanish until preschool, but my younger one speaks in English to her sister and is having a more difficult time with Spanish...

[sigkill]

I've noticed, the language that you can comfortably (i.e. without breaks) swear and be angry and abusive is the one you "think" in.