Are you able to speak more than one language? If you answered yes, then you belong to the world's bilingual and multilingual majority. Knowing two or more languages not only makes traveling easier and watching movies without subtitles more enjoyable, but it also means that your brain may look and work differently than those of your monolingual friends.
Having a family member who suffers from Alzheimer and seeing how stressful it is being one make me realize how important it is to be bilingual. Hopefully by the end of this article, you will realize the importance and the benefits of having this skill.
Language ability is typically measured in four parts: speaking, writing, listening, and reading. A balanced bilingual has near equal abilities across the board in two languages, but most bilinguals around the world know and use their languages in varying proportions. Depending on their situation and how they acquired each language, bilinguals can be classified into three general types.
For example, a compound bilingual develops two linguistic codes simultaneously with a single set of concepts, while a coordinate bilingual works with two sets of concepts, learning one language at school and continuing to speak another at home and with friends. A subordinate bilingual learns a secondary language by filtering it through their primary language.
Recent advances in brain imaging technology have given neurolinguists a glimpse into how specific aspects of language learning affect the bilingual brain. The left hemisphere of the brain is more dominant and analytical in logical processes, while the right hemisphere is more active in emotional and social ones. The fact that language involves both types of functions while lateralization develops gradually with age has led to the critical period hypothesis.
According to this theory, children learn languages more easily because the plasticity of their developing brains lets them use both hemispheres in language acquisition, while in most adults, language is lateralized to one hemisphere, usually the left. However, recent research has shown that people who learned a second language in adulthood exhibit less emotional bias and a more rational approach when confronting problems in the second language than in their native one.
Being multilingual gives your brain some remarkable advantages, such as a higher density of grey matter that contains most of your brain's neurons and synapses, and more activity in certain regions when engaging a second language. The heightened workout a bilingual brain receives throughout its life can also help delay the onset of diseases, like Alzheimer's and dementia, by as much as five years.
Before the 1960s, bilingualism was considered a handicap that slowed a child's development by forcing them to spend too much energy distinguishing between languages. This view was based largely on flawed studies. While a more recent study did show that reaction times and errors increase for some bilingual students in cross-language tests, it also showed that the effort and attention needed to switch between languages triggered more activity in, and potentially strengthened, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.
In summary, bilingualism may not necessarily make you smarter, but it does make your brain more healthy, complex, and actively engaged. It's never too late to learn a second language, and when it comes to our brains, a little exercise can go a long way. So, take the linguistic leap from "Hello" to "Hola," "Bonjour," or "," and reap the cognitive benefits that come with being multilingual.
