Bilingualism – The Benefits of Learning a Foreign Language

According to different physiological studies, speaking two or more than two languages is one of the greatest assets to the cognitive procedure. It has been seen that the brains of people who are bilingual operate in a different manner if compared to that of the single language speakers and such differences offer different mental health benefits.

There are many cognitive benefits of learning a new language. Like for example you wish to learn Danish, you will begin to develop different attributes which are only visible among the people who speak more than one language. Nevertheless, people who start off with their language study during their adult life; they can still successfully achieve the best levels of fluency and also reap the same mental health benefits. Here are few to consider.

  • You tend to become a lot smarter

Since foreign language speaking enhances the brain’s functionality by giving it constant challenges of negotiating, recognising and communicating in various language systems, you tend to become smarter. This functional improvement of your brand boosts your capability of negotiating different meanings in several sorts of problem solving tasks. The students who study various types of foreign language like French, German or Danish usually score better in the standard tests.

  • Building multitasking skills is also easier

As per a study from the Pennsylvania State University, the multilingual people are usually more skilled and experts in switching between 2 different systems of writing, speech and structure. Due to this special ability of juggling between speeches, they also tend to become great multitaskers. As per another research, people who spoke more foreign languages made few errors while they drove.

  • You protect yourself from dementia and Alzheimer’s

There have been several studies on this and the results have all been similar. For the adults who are monolingual, the minimum age at which they may get the first symptoms of dementia is 72 but for the adults who spoke more than 2 languages, the minimum age for the first signs of dementia would be 75.5. There are several factors like income level, level of education and physical health which are also taken into account but the results are consistent.

  • A sharp improvement in memory

Educators and teachers often make the brain equivalent to a muscle since it functions in a better manner when it is exercised often. When you learn a new language, you learn and memorise the vocabulary and rules and this strengthens the brain muscles. This in turn improves your memory and hence it can be safely said that the multilingual people are good at remembering sequences and other lists. They are even better at remembering names, shopping lists and directions.

When you learn a new language, you get closer to the direct mechanics, the grammar, the structuring of sentences and conjugations of the language. When you already inculcate these skills, you tend to become a better communicator and writer of English as well. You also develop a great ear for listening.