I grew up in Singapore learning both english and chinese at the same time. I don’t really find it all that confusing, instead I think that my understanding of 2 so very different languages made it that much easier for my to pick up japanese, which is sort of a weld of both an english phonetics alphabet and a chinese hieroglyphics system.
I’ve read before of a scientific report mentioning that those who grew up learning chinese as their main language, because their brain is wired to recognise words as both sound and meaning (as compared to just sounds in english), are able to think more analytically. Their brain develops in a different pattern from those who grew up with a phonetic language. I don’t know how true it is, but it was rather interesting.