9 Surprising Health Benefits Of Learning A Foreign Language - 0 views
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You already know that learning a foreign language can put you ahead in your career.But there’s a growing body of evidence that the health benefits of learning a foreign language may be significant as well.
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A heightened appreciation of the complexities of a situation can lead to more rational decision-making in many areas of life. Monolingual people, on the other hand, tend to base their decisions more on emotions.
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(Working memory deals with the storage and processing of information over a short period of time.)
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A bilingual person is accustomed to switching between different languages, deciding which is the appropriate language to use in a given situation
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Speaking two languages, and switching between them, makes you better at multi-tasking in other tasks, too.
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What this perceptual sensitivity could mean, is that babies raised with two languages will find it easier to learn other languages later in life, as a result of the ability to easily distinguish between different sounds.
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Interestingly, this is regardless of what age the person learns the foreign language, so even a person who learns a foreign language as an adult will benefit from these improved skills.
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By learning another language, your mother tongue can improve as a result. As you learn a second language, your knowledge of grammar improves.
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In fact, as crazy as it may sound, learning a foreign language can actually increase the size of your brain.
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In this study, two groups of subjects underwent brain scans. One group did an intensive language course for three months while the other, the control group, did intensive courses in a subject that was not a language. What the scientists found was that specific parts of the language learners’ brains became bigger than those of the non-language learners.
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Given all the benefits outlined in this article, it’s hardly surprising that learning a foreign language keeps your brain healthy for longer
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Speaking more than one language provides constant exercise for your brain, and keeping your brain active is one way in which to delay the onset of dementia.
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Whatever your age, the health benefits of learning a foreign language make it a surefire way to upgrade your life, and future-proof your brain for old age.