This monograph is an edited transcript of a Roundtable discussion which took place at the 1997 JALT conference in which panelists discussed their experiences of being brought up bilingually. The five people were:
Marc Sheffner, an Associate Professor at Tezukayama University in Nara, who was brought up as an English-French bilingual and is now raising his four children as English-Japanese bilinguals.
Aya Watanabe, a 13 year old school girl, whose Japanese parents are raising her in English and Japanese.
Carla Fantini, an AET working in Hiroshima prefecture, who was raised as an English-Spanish bilingual in the US.
Alexa Ratzlaff, a high school student, who has grown up with three languages: her mother's French, her father's English and the Japanese of her environment.
Tom Merner, an English teacher and conversation school owner, who was raised bilingually by his Japanese mother and American father and is now raising a daughter bilingually.
They answer questions about their upbringing, their bilingualism, their identity, and offer advice for parents contemplating a bilingual upbringing for their own children.
