‘today’s stance seems to be that ‘‘multilingualism is a good thing, but . . . ’’ ’ (81). She also reminds us of obvious advantages multilinguals have, but which are never even mentioned in research, such as the ‘ability to gather knowledge from sources in different languages, or the linguistic and cultural competitive edge in the global workforce’ (82). Cruz-Ferreira closes her endeavor by concluding that ‘multilinguals are about as special as monolinguals’ and that ‘multilingualism must be studied on its own terms’, without comparisons to monolinguals and without judgments of value (86). In this book Cruz-Ferreira makes us think about multilinguals and multilingualism, deconstructing some myths very successfully. She also provides us with sometimes very clear answers to some of the intriguing questions about multilinguals. However, sometimes the good answers are a bit hidden in the middle of the chapters. The book presents an often personal view from inside the multilingual community. It describes many personal experiences and is rich in emotional impressions, some of which I cited in this review. The book might be fun to read and amusing if you are within the multilingual circle, preferably a linguist (although this book is not ‘targeted at academia’ [3]), but not so much in case you’re eloquent in only one language. Then, you would need a thick skin to bear the attacks and the ability to follow through terminological confusion. Also you would need some explanation of the images in the text. Sometimes there are no direct connections between the text and the illustration. Some of them are very unclear; they seem to be taken out of the context and just don’t speak for themselves (62, 63, 67, 73). The apparent clash of multilinguals and monolinguals in general is made very clear. They differ in their concerns, worries, doubts and experiences, and in particular their unequal knowledge about multilingualism. For multilinguals multilingualism is normal, and for those of them who live in officially multilingual countries there might not be much to think about multilingualism at all. By playing around with the book title ‘What are multilinguals? Multilinguals are . . . ’ Cruz-Ferreira replaced the blank space with adjectives such as SPECIAL, GIFTED, etc., and explains all that they are not in the course of the book. At the end she closes with the words: ‘The question in the book title remains, then. We have no idea what multilinguals are. I’ll go on looking for answers to that question. I hope you will too.’ For me, this ending was disappointing, after 86 pages of possible answers.
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