Bilinguals Are On The Fast Track for A Healthier, Longer and More Successful Life

My nephew always tells his mother to keep up her Italian as she is already bilingual (French and English) and knowing a third language will help her even more. Why?

If you know another foreign language or you are bilingual, you are on the fast track for a longer and healthier life. This additional skill will also help prevent dementia occurring in your senior years.

If you get the chance to learn a foreign language, go for it. You do not even have to be perfectly bilingual either. Just learning and speaking it will give you that extra edge.

In the job market, listing a foreign language on your resume will definitely give you a big advantage over other candidates. Many companies are expanding overseas so it makes sense to have that extra plus, according to Forbes.

56% of Europeans are bilingual. The British and Americans are trailing behind in that only about 20% can claim the bilingual label.

American schools should be doing much more to promote the learning of foreign languages and bilingualism.

“We seem to be on a constant quest to keep America a country of citizens who can only talk to one another.” — Kari Martindale

Bill Gates regrets that he only knows English and he feels “pretty stupid” for having not learned another language.

What does the research tell us?

Did you know that Samuel Beckett, the renowned Irish playwright always wrote his rough drafts of his plays in French (his second language.) He then translated them back into English, his native language. He explained that using French forced him to think to be more self-critical and also become more aware of his writing style.

Researchers at The University of Chicago wanted to establish if the Beckett case was the exception rather than the rule. They found that bilinguals like Beckett were more objective and were sharper in selecting vocabulary and managing style.

Bilinguals have a more efficient memory

Some studies show that older bilingual folk were scoring better at retaining memory and was a great defense barrier against memory loss associated with old age.

Bilinguals also have better attention when multi-tasking and also paying attention in general when talking or listening, regardless of the type of task they were performing.

Bilinguals have more gray matter

We talk a lot about the gray matter in the brain because it is essential for a lot of mental processes such as sensory perception, controlling emotions and also for processing all the information fired at us on a daily basis.

At the Georgetown University Medical Center, scholars set out to establish if the bilinguals had more gray matter than monolinguals. They found that this was indeed the case with Spanish/English bilinguals when compared to those who were using English and ASL (American Sign Language.) Another goal for bilinguals.

“Unlike the findings for the Spanish-English bilinguals, we found no evidence for greater gray matter in the ASL-English bilinguals.” — Dr. Olumide Olulade, lead author of the above study.

Having to manage two languages encourages the growth of gray matter and that can only be good.

An interesting note on this research is that the scholars here found that London cab drivers have more gray matter. Not because they speak in any and every language of their clients but because their brains have to manage navigation skills. This also generates more gray matter.

Are you prepared to start learning another language?

• First, think about why. Maybe it is for travel, culture, work or you want to host foreign guests.
• Then you have to set realistic goals in order to stay motivated and help you with the baby steps.
• Next, you plan on how to reward your efforts by taking a weekend trip (if you can) to the country where they speak the language and judge your progress. You can also do tests/quizzes online which are much cheaper!
• Surround yourself with the language you are learning. Make sure you are having a lot of fun while you are doing so. The AnkiApp is a great way to learn new vocabulary.
• Books, videos, films, YouTube, Skype, news broadcasts, recipes. Make videos and films easier by using subtitles.
• Try games, puzzles, comics, and kids’ books.
• Make friends on The Mixxer (free virtual language exchange site, not an affiliate link) and chat with them on Skype.

This is a sort of DIY full immersion. There is such a wealth of material for learning languages online now that you have no excuse!

Most of the research studies indicate that you do not have to be bilingual from childhood. Even learning a second language in later life can give you many of the advantages cited above.

It is time to start talking to the world.

“The conquest of learning is achieved through the knowledge of languages.” ― Roger Bacon, The Opus Majus of Roger Bacon

Read more about these great hacks to help you learn a foreign language.