Bilinguals are equally proficient in both languages. Good – i.e. impeccable. How does this affect their thinking and perception of the world?
Bilinguals are those who are fluent in two languages. And not just owns; bilinguals often consider both languages to be their mother tongues. Such people do not even know what it is like to live with one language. “I am often told that when I switch to French, I seem to start acting differently and look different,” says Anna. Her mother is Russian and her father is French, so Anna speaks both languages from birth. “Sometimes it seems to me that I simply cannot express some idea in Russian. But in French, it sounds easy and natural, ”she is surprised. Two languages, two ways of thinking. What Anna and her loved ones understood intuitively was confirmed by psychologists*. “When a child grows up learning two languages at the same time, it’s like two different processing modes are formed in the speech center of his brain for each of them,” says psychologist Kalim Gonzales about the results of his study. – Switching from one language to another, he does not look for the right words and phrases, but simply changes the very type of thinking. This allows him not to get confused in words and speak without an accent.
Special features. The need to constantly “juggle” languages trains the brain of bilinguals, making it more flexible. That is why it is easier for them than other people to learn new languages, they are better able to cope with work that requires the ability to quickly navigate the situation and change activities. Even Alzheimer’s disease comes on average a few years later if the person is bilingual. Italian neuropsychologist Agnes Kovacs observed babies and found that even at the age of seven months, children from bilingual families respond faster to changes and adapt better to new conditions**.
More than language. There is another reason to believe that bilinguals are very lucky. Each language contains unique concepts, shades of meaning, ways of perception that are difficult for the uninitiated to understand. Anthropologist Sergei Arutyunov suggests talking not just about two languages, but first of all about different cultures that a child learns***. Bilinguals are like living bridges that connect countries and continents. Their example shows that even the most distant traditions and national traits can coexist in a person. And not just get along, but give birth to something new. However, it is important that both languages are “alive”. Otherwise, the language of the social environment may displace the first language spoken in the family: this often happens in the second generation of emigrants who, in essence, have forgotten how to speak the language that was originally their mother tongue.
Read more:
- I’m embarrassed to speak a foreign language
Not only language. But if bilingualism is so good, can it be achieved simply by teaching a child different languages? More likely no than yes. It’s not just about grammar and vocabulary. It is important that, together with the language, the child perceives subtle, subtle shades of meaning, special intonations, facial expressions, which are fully accessible only to the bearer of this culture.
* Psychological Science, 2013. Published online at pss.sagepub.com
** PNAS, 2009, vol 106.
*** S. Arutyunov “Peoples, cultures, their development and interaction” (Edwin Mellen Press, 2002).