When it comes to learning, there is a valuable Spanish proverb that says: “A la cama no te irás sin saber una cosa más”.
This phrase, which has been translated worldwide, might be interpreted in English as “You won’t go to sleep without learning a new thing every day”. Or at least, you shouldn’t.
Indeed, according to an Oxford Study conducted by Dr. Heidi Johansen-Berg of the Department of Clinical Neurology and contrary to common belief, our brain does not begin to degenerate once we reach adulthood on the condition that we learn new tasks or skills every day.
It is claimed that in order to ensure a consistent and permanent learning process that activates changes on the white matter – the bundles of long nerve fibers that generate electrical signals between nerve cells and connect different parts of the brain together- why shouldn’t you choose to learn a new language?
Given the study of a new language is a daily process that can last forever and involves many intellectual abilities and brain functions, the benefits of second language acquisition are copious and disparate.
From the social point of view, living in the multilingual world where we live, connections are more important than ever and sometimes using a lingua franca is not enough to establish deep relations between two people who don’t share a common language. In fact there are emotions and words of the heart that lose value when translated in another language and do not get straight to the heart of the speaker as they would if they were spoken in their original language.
The Accrediting Council for Teaching Foreign Languages (ACTFL) takes a more cognitive approach by asserting that language learning has been shown to improve the following:
- Enhance problem solving skills
- Improve verbal and spatial abilities
- Improve memory function
- Enhance creative thinking capacity
- Improve attitude toward the target language and culture
Next comes the pressing question of “When is the best time to start learning a new language?”
Even though the benefits of acquiring a new language as a kid are undeniable – suffice it to know that around the age of 20 a person loses the possibility to acquire the perfect pronunciation of a native- the advantages of studying a new language as an adult are not negligible.
Instead, it seems that bilingualism has very positive effects on the prevention of mental diseases such as Alzheimer. Even though a study co-authored by John Grundy, assistant professor of psychology at Iowa State University, unfortunately was not able to show that bilingualism fully deters the incident rates of Alzehiemer’s disease, it did show how the study of a foreign language helps delay its symptoms up to five years: “Bilinguals and monolinguals eventually show the same number of Alzheimer’s disease cases, but bilinguals tend to be able to delay those symptoms for longer” Grundy said.
Now that we have clarified the importance of bilingualism, we may ask: “How can I learn a new language?”.
To begin with, the good news is that there are options galore when it comes to learning a new language including varied methods of instruction and resources for learning. Some options include enrolling in a course with a native instructor, buying a book and becoming the self-teacher, traveling to a country for full immersion while making new friends, watching movies in the target language and, last but not least, reading about current events or watching programming in the target language.
While reading in a foreign language can be a complex exercise if we wait until we reach adulthood, it seems that it is one of the most efficient ways to teach a second language to young kids and a precious opportunity to develop the flexibility of their mind, as Professor Janice M. Bland from the Nord University (UK) asserts: “Young learners who read literature in foreign languages develop greater mental flexibility”.
Next time you read a story to young kids in a language that they do not know yet, just keep in mind that the choice of which book to read must be guided by how easy and age-appropriate the written content appears to be, that there is a sufficient amount of repetition – yes, kids are able to listen to the same story a hundred times and enjoy it every time! – and that kids learn from and like routine. This is why it might be a good idea to dedicate some time to become a storyteller at night, right before your children go to sleep.
In summary, while the language acquisition process may not seem so easy, and can even be discouraging in its interruption and restarts, it is still a worthwhile endeavor and a lifelong journey that is worth the investment. As once so well said by Charlmane: “To have another language is to possess a second soul”. As such, the magnificence of the reward far outweighs the effort.
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