People who speak more than one language have improved memory, problem-solving and critical thinking skills, increased concentration, the ability to multitask, and better listening skills. They switch between competing tasks and monitor changes in their environment more easily than monolingual ones, showing signs of more creativity and flexibility. If that wasn’t enough, as we age, being bilingual or multilingual also helps prevent mental aging and cognitive decline. In addition, despite attempts to control or match as many factors as possible when comparing groups of people, such as to study the effects of bilingual or multilingual language experiences alongside the overall life experience, it is difficult to do so perfectly. Some individuals acquire a second or third language voluntarily and others as a result of immigration lawsuits.

It’s an opinion that lasted until recently and discouraged many immigrant parents from using their own native language to talk to their children, for example. This was despite a 1962 experiment ignored for decades that showed that bilingual children performed better than monolingual intelligence tests. Another study showed that high school graduates with two or more years of foreign language study performed significantly better on English proficiency tests than non-foreign language шведски език софия learners. In addition, people who speak more than one language have improved memory, problem solving, critical thinking and listening, and increased concentration. Many tests have shown that bilingual people outperform monolinguals on a variety of tests that show how well they read to other people. Bilingual people are considered more empathetic because their brain blocks their second language and focuses on the language needed to communicate with the person in front of them.

This gives multilingual babies an advantage in the language learning process. The more exposure children receive in multiple languages, the more linguistic recognition will take place. For more information, see Michelle D. Milliman’s article Bilingual Babies Have More Flexible Brains.

The more you learn about new cultures, the more you will look at the world around you from different perspectives. Changing points of view will make you more original, elaborate and flexible, all the qualities of being a creative person. Multilingualism has been shown to have many social, psychological and lifestyle benefits. In addition, researchers are finding a number of health benefits from speaking more than one language, including faster recovery from stroke and a late onset of dementia.

A study by Pennsylvania State University found that multilingual people who know how to slip from one language to another are practiced multitasking. Those who have developed the ability to think in different languages and move from one to the other will multitask much better compared to monolingual people, thus reducing stress levels. First understanding several grammar rules and vocabulary and then remembering them strengthens the memory muscle.

Bak has conducted a small pilot study with older people learning Gaelic in Scotland and has found significant benefits after just one week. Bialystok agrees, adding that it’s impossible to investigate whether bilingualism improves a child’s school test scores because there are so many confounding factors. Being bilingual did not prevent people from developing dementia, but it delayed its effects, so in two people whose brains showed similar levels of disease progression, bilingualism would show symptoms on average five years after monolingualism. There were warnings that bilingual children would be confused with two languages, have lower intelligence and low self-esteem, behave differently, develop a split personality, and even become schizophrenic.