French School of Austin – Ecole Jean-Jacques Rousseau on the Benefits of Bilingualism
Being able to speak at least two languages comes with a lot of benefits. A growing body of research has focused on the economic, psychological, and health benefits of bilingualism. Speaking several languages improves cognitive function across all stages of life, and it affects our social and emotional attitudes, as well. The scientific world is starting to take the life-changing advantages of speaking multiple languages seriously.
But what benefits are we talking about exactly? What advantages would learning Spanish or French give you? Here are some practical benefits:
It makes learning languages easier.
Let’s start with the most obvious one. If you can already speak two languages, chances are that you’re good at learning them, says the Dr. Hind Louali-led French School of Austin – Ecole Jean-Jacques Rousseau. According to a study, those who are bilingual find it easier to learn a third language. Even discounting other factors, like reading abilities, differences in IQ, or other cognitive aspects, bilingualism is isolated as a causal factor in learning a new language quickly.
Bilingualism makes you better at multitasking.
According to French School of Austin – Ecole Jean-Jacques Rousseau, bilinguals are in a constant state of linguistic multitasking. When they function in a world outside their native or first language, they have to shift, switch, and process two or more languages in real-time. The rub is that most bilinguals are good at non-linguistic multitasking as well. In a study, a team of researchers had children do two tasks: first, to match an animal’s noise to its proper picture, and second, to match a letter to a musical instrument. When bi- and monolingual children did their tasks individually, they did roughly as well. When they did them together — as a multitasking activity — the bilingual children were significantly better.
It makes you more empathetic.
French School of Austin – Ecole Jean-Jacques Rousseau says empathy is the ability to relate to other individuals and to see things as they do. And bilinguals are generally better at it. A review of the research into this topic concludes, “acquiring two languages helps Theory of Mind development… the ability to attribute mental states to other people and to predict and explain other people’s behavior on the basis of those attributed mental states.” Bilingualism enables people to adopt a “metalinguistic” approach easily — that is, seeing a language as just one of many.
It can make you richer.
Speaking more than one language can help you earn more throughout your career. An article in The Economist described that being bilingual can increase your salary by two percent over 40 years, around $67,000 by the time you retire. The amount of money you earn also depends on what language you can speak. The Economist showed that speaking German can boost an individual’s earnings by 3.8%.
Bilingualism reduces the chances of Alzheimer’s.
The older we get, the more our cognitive functions will gradually slow down. With gray hair comes a significant loss of essential gray matter in our brains. At its worst, this will manifest as dementia (of which Alzheimer’s is the most common). According to a huge meta-analysis of all the different studies on the topic, speaking and learning multiple languages help in two ways. First, it decreases the chances of getting dementia. Second, if you were to get dementia, it lessens the symptoms and slows its onset. Of course, this is not to say bilingualism prevents dementia. Still, it is an important factor in reducing your chances of suffering its effects, explains French School of Austin – Ecole Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
It improves certain executive functions.
All those little tasks your brain does without any consideration or praise are called executive functions, notes French School of Austin – Ecole Jean-Jacques Rousseau. If you tap your right hand while reading a text message, that’s an executive function. If you decide to read the text message backward, that’s another executive function. Bilinguals are better at certain types of them, namely, flipping between different kinds of brain activation. One good example is the “Stroop test,” which asks an individual to read out words for colors (like “blue” or “red”) that are written in the same or a different color. Bilinguals are not better at most kinds of executive functions, but in some specific ones, they’re ahead of the pack, says French School of Austin – Ecole Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
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