I used to be a runner, I ran everyday, I love the challenge of breaking my own record. Running kept me on track in every sense of the word. But something changed six months after I gave birth to my third child at the age of 42, I stopped training, I stopped running.

It was mid March when Vietnam imposed the first national lockdown, determined to contain the spread of the unknown and life threatening virus namely, COVID-19. It was the first time for both my 13 years old son and I heard of the word, ‘lockdown’. I knew the word ‘curfew’ well because I am the mother of my two now adult children. But I am still too young or too fortunate in my grandparents’ eyes to experience any form of curfews. 

It is a reasonable but of the unsubstantiated claim that people, and most especially children, are somehow the beneficiaries of multiple positives associated with being bilingual. We all nod sagely at the premise, on the basis that it must be self-evident that there is nothing but upside associated with the skill of effortlessly switching between two languages.