Apart from being able to express yourself with and communicate with others, acquiring a foreign language to add in your language repertoire has numerous benefits. Whilst it is undoubtedly one of the hardest skills to pick up, many still ploughed through the challenges to gain the proficiency and fluency level they’d like to reach.
Now that more of the world’s population is gearing towards bilingualism or multilingualism, it may be time to pick up a foreign language or two. Discover the multiple cognitive and neurological benefits you can reap when you learn another language.
Cognitive Consequences
Research has shown that when a bilingual person expresses themselves in one language, their other language remains active at the same time. You may have seen fun brain teasers on the Internet whereby a text full of misspelt words is presented, but you are still able to make sense of the content.
The reason behind this is how the brain registers sound, that is by sequential order. Before the word is read from start to the end, the brain already begins to make a guess what the word might be by activating words that match the signal. So when you read or hear the word,”can,” other words such as “candles” and “candy” are also activated. For bilingual individuals, they’d be activating more corresponding words as they have a larger vocabulary bank than monolinguals, even if they tend to be of different languages.
Since bilingual individuals have persistent linguistic competition, this will undoubtedly result in a few difficulties. For instance, tip-of-the-tongue states (wherein you’re unable to form a particular word even if you knew of the meaning or can remember the letter it starts with) are common, and understanding context in one language will be harder if another language continually interferes.
To maintain the balance between the two or more languages, executive functions of the brain becomes more important. Since there is continual activation and competing, bilinguals are constantly strengthening their executive function. This means they have a greater ability to dismiss perceptual information to focus on something else (otherwise known as inhibitory control) and switch in between tasks.
Changes In Your Neurological Structure
When one adopts a new language, the benefits extend from mere language activation. Researches have found that apart from the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (the region associated with cognitive skills), other brain regions such as the left inferior frontal gyrus (language production centre) and subcortical areas traditionally associated with sensory processing. For instance, bilingual individuals are found to have better sound encoding abilities (a feature closely related to pitch perception) due to greater blood flow in the brain stem, thus proving them to have greater auditory attention.
Apart from the neuronal activation, those who have acquired a second language have a higher grey matter, particularly in the left inferior frontal gyrus.
Other Tangible Results
Beyond cognitive and neurological benefits, bilingualism also has tangible positive results. One’s ability to better focus and process information will naturally bleed into improvements in learning, attention to detail and even conflict management. Bilingual individuals were seen to also possess better memory, creativity and visual-spatial skills. Furthermore, language acquisition transcends language itself, as you’d also absorb its cultural nuances and history, amongst many other things. This exposure will allow you to deal with different situations and challenges as you’re more sensitive to nuances and the like.
Conclusion
Whether it’d be cognitive and nuerological or social, these benefits are bound to stay for a lifetime. On top of these benefits, with the way that the world is moving towards bilingualism and multilingualism, you may want to consider to equip yourself with another language to further develop your competitive advantage.
With Japan becoming a global technological icon, a vacation haven and cultural influencers, you may want to consider learning Japanese as your second language. Our Japanese classes are equipped with a structured curriculum taught by native Japanese teachers, so that you can enjoy a smooth learning journey whilst reaping the most results.
Due to COVID-19, we have moved our classes online so as to not jeopardise the health of our staff and our teachers. Learn Japanese online with us today and start revelling in the benefits!
