I have always loved language.
When I moved to California, I made the conscious decision that I would speak American while I was there - recognising it as a different (if similar) language from my native British English. This allowed me to fully embrace taking the elevator up to my apartment to see my roommate. When I came back to the UK after a year, it felt strangely twee to call a car’s hood a bonnet.
Having never progressed further than school-girl French, I thought at the time that this was the closest I had ever come to being bilingual. But I have come to realise that, in a way, most of us are bilingual without even realising it. And we may often be using the wrong language when we communicate with our audiences.
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