Being bilingual makes you live longer?

March 04th 2007

I recently came across a blog entry from Spain that gives the details on some recent research showing that speaking at least two languages impedes “brain degeneration”. It certainly is an interesting concept. Speaking two languages keeps your brain working more, and I can definitely confirm this. I’m currently reading an IT book written in French (my first “technical” book in French) and although I can read almost as fast as I can in English, I must concentrate a lot more. Just the slightest hint of day-dreaming and I have to go back and reread the paragraph. This is especially hard when reading functional specifications from our customers! Speaking both French & English just seems natural but deep inside the brain is working overtime.

I’ve also tried learning Mandarin Chinese but that was way too difficult. I think it’s impossible with access to a native speaker on a regular basis, and a single 1.5 hour session per week wasn’t enough for me. It wasn’t hard to learn, the grammar is actually easy. But the pronunciation was incredibly difficult. So now I’m thinking about going back to Spanish. I have a very basic level and I’d love to be fluent. Although it’s almost useless in France, it’d be very useful if we move to the US.

So if adding a few years of life to your brain is not a good reason to learn a foreign language, let me know and I’ll have to come up with some more. In the meantime, check out the details of the article: Speaking at Least Two Tongues Impedes Brain Degeneration.

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