These days, learning a second language can be incredibly beneficial. Bilingualism is an asset that can help your brain, body, and mind and gives a person lifelong skills that they can carry with them no matter what they do. There are so many benefits to learning a second language, including being able to communicate with more people and increased brain health. Learning a second language can improve many aspects of a person’s life, such as their health, career, and critical thinking skills. Read on for my list of 8 benefits of learning a second language.
Learning a Second Language Helps Your Health
By learning a second language, studies have shown that people can delay the onset of diseases such as Alzheimers and Dementia. A study from over 700 people shows that knowing a second language delays the onset of Alzheimers by 5 years. For the monolingual person, the average age for the appearance of dementia is 70 and for someone who is multilingual that age is pushed back to 75.
According to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy in Science, “those who spoke more than one language had better functional connectivity in frontal brain regions, which allowed them to maintain better thinking despite their disease” (Vita-Salute San Raffaele University). While it doesn’t completely prevent these brain diseases, those who speak multiple languages are far better at creating pathways around the diseased tissue. Bilingual brains are simply more resilient.
Deepens Understanding of Cultures Outside Your Own
Using and understanding another language fosters inclusivity and diversity. By learning another language you are, in turn, learning about a culture other than your own. This fosters an open mind and will make you a better, more culturally aware person.
Increases Critical Thinking Skills
Knowing multiple languages increases executive function, or the ability to control, direct, and manage your attention. It helps to ignore irrelevant information and to focus on what is most important. This drives a higher ability to think critically and to make connections between aspects of what you’re working on. Also, knowing a second language helps you make well thought out, logical decisions.
It Allows You to Connect with People
Bit of a no-brainer. Learning another language allows you to connect with people. It allows you to communicate on another level. There are countless times where I have been able to communicate with someone in their first language that I never would have been able to if I wasn’t fluent in Spanish. You can hear first hand the stories of many people around the world, and find connections within your own community.
Stimulates Creativity
Those who are studying a second language often need to think around certain words or phrases that they don’t know how to say yet. This ability to produce alternatives to their original thought aids in creative sentence structure and translation. Speaking a language that is not your mother tongue forces you to get imaginative.
Helps Understand Your Native Language
Studying another language’s grammar structure and vocabulary helps to better understand the language you grew up speaking. Many of us don’t know why we structure our sentences the way we do, or where certain words come from. By studying the vocabulary and grammar of another language, we can apply that same understanding to a native language and gain a deeper understanding of it.
Increased Brain Matter & Health
Knowing multiple languages grows the amount of both gray and white matter in the brain. Gray matter is made up of neurons and is responsible for a healthy brain; those who know a second language are shown to have denser gray matter in the brain. White matter is also shown to be stronger in individuals who know a second language. This fatty matter is responsible for the fast and efficient travel of messages across the brain.
Helps with Multitasking
The history of bilingualism’s effect on the brain has long since been debated. In the past, it was thought that learning a second language can confuse children and make them develop their language skills at a slower rate. It was assumed to be the same for adults, with other languages only burdening the power of the brain and making function slower.
However, today researchers have realized that rapidly switching between languages and knowing exactly when to use them has allowed the brain to exercise its power and make it function at a much higher level than those who do not use multiple languages in their daily lives.
Juliet Penrod 