Contents
What is better – to know several languages, but badly, or one, but perfectly? It turns out that the first option is more profitable for the development of our brain.
We learn foreign languages to succeed in our careers, to move to another country, or simply because we like this language and the culture of its speakers. Meanwhile, the study of languages is of great benefit for our psyche and for the development of the brain. Curiously, from this point of view, it is better to master several languages not perfectly than to learn one foreign language thoroughly.
1. Learning Languages Makes Your Brain Bigger
If you learn foreign languages, your brain grows, and literally. More precisely, its separate areas grow – the hippocampus and some parts of the cerebral cortex.
The researchers who published the results of studying the brains of professional translators noted an increase in gray matter volume in those who had been engaged in in-depth language learning for at least three months. Moreover, the more effort a particular participant in the study made, the more noticeable was the increase in the volume of gray matter.
2. Foreign languages save from Alzheimer’s syndrome
Bilinguals (native speakers of two or more languages) are entitled to an average five-year respite from dementia caused by Alzheimer’s syndrome. A team of neuropsychologists came up with such an amazing result, comparing the course of the disease in people who have mastered foreign languages and, conversely, who do not speak them.
Of the 211 participants in the study, 102 patients spoke at least two languages, and the remaining 109 did not bother to learn any language other than their mother tongue. Having studied the course of the disease in representatives of these two categories, the scientists came to the conclusion that in the first category, the first signs of the syndrome were diagnosed on average 4,3 years later, and the state of dementia, to which its development led, was 5,1 years later than in the second category.
Those who speak multiple languages adapt faster and more easily to unexpected changes in circumstances.
Previously, doctors expressed the opinion that increased brain development slows down the development of Alzheimer’s syndrome. It is not necessarily about learning languages, math classes, regular solving of complex puzzles, logic games are also suitable. This study was one of the first confirmations of this hypothesis. Note that the preventive effect that the study of languages has is much stronger than any medicinal methods of treating this disease.
3. Bilinguals are better at music
Learning a foreign language forces the brain to discover an abundance of sounds that it previously did not bother to isolate and delineate.
A European student of Chinese is surprised to find that what he thought was the sound “s” actually turns out to be three completely different sounds. A Chinese master of Russian discovers that, in terms of the richness of intonation changes within sentences, this language can give odds to the tonal diversity of the Chinese syllable.
A person who masters a foreign language learns to recognize sounds much better – and in the future makes more noticeable progress in mastering musical instruments. However, one should not thank one’s ears for improving one’s ability to music – the main job of recognizing sounds is performed by the brain, and not by the organs of hearing.
4. Language Experts Are Good at Multitasking
Those who speak several languages are able to switch between tasks more easily and simultaneously solve several different problems in their minds. In addition, they quickly and easily adapt to unexpected changes in circumstances.
The authors of the study, who established this fact, conducted two experiments. In the first, bilinguals and people who knew only their native language were offered a series of tests, as a result of which it turned out that bilinguals cope better with the simultaneous performance of several tasks and the transition from tasks of one type to tasks of a completely different, new one.
The second experiment was more difficult: in it, tests were offered to monolinguals and bilinguals of different age groups. The result was quite expected, that young people solved logical problems better than people 45-50 years old and older.
However, for bilinguals, the difference between young, mature, and elderly was not so pronounced: as it turned out, bilinguals better retain the ability to simultaneously solve complex problems with age. True, in order to achieve such abilities, it is desirable to learn languages from childhood, the researchers note.
5. Languages improve memory
Children who grew up in a multilingual environment have a much better memory than those who have heard only their native language since childhood. Moreover, as the researchers found, this usually means that they are better at counting in their minds, have better reading abilities and other similar skills.
Bilinguals grasp on the fly the essence of interaction between people in a new team they have just entered.
Bilingual children are also better at remembering the sequence of any objects and events – which allows them, for example, to navigate much more confidently in unfamiliar areas, as well as to keep a list of things to do in their head more firmly. The difference appears as early as 5-7 years old, and apparently persists for life.
6. Bilinguals have better concentration abilities
Society often presents experts in foreign languages as some kind of absent-minded “nerds”, but this stereotype seems to be far from the truth. On the contrary, it is bilinguals who are distinguished by a stronger attention both to the main essence of any important phenomenon and to its details. For example, they capture on the fly the essence of the interaction between people in a new team that they have just entered.
Another stereotype – people who learn several languages know their mother tongue worse – is partly true: it turns out that the vocabulary of their native language is, on average, narrower than that of those who do not know any other speech than their native one. At least, if we are talking about people without higher education, who have learned a foreign language simply because of the multicultural environment. However, bilinguals in any case have a more developed understanding of the logic of their native language – in particular, grammar and word-formation methods.