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Guess I'm a little late to add anything to this but I've always wondered what it would be like to be properly bi-lingual. I'm a Welsh man but only speak English fluently (debatable I know), though some Welsh expressions have always been in my vocabulary and I always thought some Welsh expressions were English words until I found out otherwise (like twp = stupid). Speaking to friends who are bi-lingual or have spoken other languages to a competent degree. it seems you have to need to speak a language to pick it up easily.
One friend went to China for 6 months as a teacher and he thought it only takes 6 weeks or so to pick up basic chinese from scratch if you're in the country. Another friend hardly spoke a word of English when she came from Spain but a few years later spoke fluently. Also had an ex g/f who's mother was Portugese and father was Italian yet because they lived in England they only taught her English, so that's all she can speak and understand.
So it depends on the situation I guess as to whether you teach your child your mother tongue or other languages. I think I might make up my own language and teach it to my kids, based on a system of grunts and whines. Poor bastards.
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