essay about speaking more than one language

• Search   Keywords Search
• Ways to Support
• Board of Directors
• Advisory Council
• Our Partners
• Financial Information
• Programs & Initiatives
• Advocacy Resources
• ACTFL & LCF Awards Program
• Classroom Microgrants Program
• National Teacher of the Year Program
• Student Ambassadors Program
• Teacher Scholarship Program
• Student Resources

The Benefits of Learning Languages

• Language & Careers
• Choose Your Language
• Language Programs & Funding
• Heritage Learners
• LCF Blog & News
• Refer a Professional
• Refer a Student
• Refer a Language Educator
• Add to the Virtual Inspiration Wall
• Keywords Search

Knowing more than one language is fast becoming a requirement for anyone who wants to compete and thrive in a world where boundaries and barriers are becoming less relevant. In addition to the language itself, multilingual learners can take advantage of the full scope of accompanying cognitive and social skills—making them great employees, leaders in their communities, and true global citizens.

The U.S. Lags Behind in Language Education

Most students in the U.S. graduate high school knowing only one language—making it the only developed country in the world for which language learning is not a recognized priority.

In the United States, only one in five K-12 students 1 (and about one in 12 university students 2 ) is enrolled in a world language class. This is a woefully small number of students, especially when compared to other countries:

92% of students in Europe learn another language in school.

Nearly 1 in 4 Canadians can hold a conversation in both English and French.

Across Africa, more schools are teaching in both the student’s first language and English, French, Dutch, or Portuguese.

While precise measurements are difficult, many sources estimate that one out of every two people on the planet knows at least two languages.

There may have been a time in the U.S. when becoming multilingual was a luxury. But to thrive in an interconnected world—with its expanding population, evolving technologies, and growing emphasis on competing globally—it’s a requirement. And remember, three out of four humans don’t speak English.

Top 10 Benefits of Learning More Than One Language

1. improve your career & business.

When employers list the skills they most seek in a candidate, “knowing more than one language” is listed among the top eight—regardless of the job title, the economic sector, or the candidate’s experience. In other words, whether you’re an engineer, a restaurant server, a salesperson, or a small business owner—any role in any sector—multilingualism will serve your professional goals well.

And while knowing more than one language is a powerful way to distinguish yourself from your peers and colleagues, it’s becoming less of a nice-to-have and more of a job requirement. A full 90% of U.S. employers report relying on employees who speak more than one language—with one in three of these businesses reporting a significant “language skills gap.”

2. Build Deeper Connections With More People

When you can communicate with someone in her language, you open up infinite ways to connect. The entire experience of interacting with your fellow humans—getting to know them, working alongside them—is enriched by sharing their language. You will be shaped by communities. You will be humbled by the kindness of strangers. You will build lifelong friendships.

When you can communicate with someone in her language, you open up infinite ways to connect.

3. Sharpen Your Decision-Making

Decisions made in a second language are more reason-driven than decisions made in your first language. 3 When tackling a challenge in a second (or third or fourth) language, you gain the objectivity and emotional distance you need to properly assess the situation. The result? Clear-eyed choices made through sound, systematic thinking.

4. Feed Your Brain

Research indicates that people who speak more than one language develop a better memory, talent for problem-solving, ability to concentrate, and tendency to be creative than people who speak only one language. Knowing at least a second language also reduces the chances of cognitive decline as you age.

5. Treasure Other Cultures

Culture is the collection of a group’s traditions, arts, customs, social institutions, and achievements, passed from generation to generation. But the surest way to understand a culture—to know it, empathize with it, and come to adore it—is to know its language. In studies, children who have studied an additional language like and respect the culture associated with that language, as well as demonstrate higher levels of empathy and tolerance. Language learning deepens and expands the way we move through the world.

Language learning deepens and expands the way we move through the world.

6. See the World (More Fully)

When you travel somewhere and know the language, the entire experience transforms. Traveling becomes more dynamic—more full of nuance and opportunities. Knowing the language lets you escape the “tourist bubble” and to interact with people and places nobody else could. You can read the street signs to find amazing locales, engage in more meaningful conversation, and immerse yourself in local culture, food, and art.

7. Boost Your Confidence

As you’re learning a language, you’ll make plenty of mistakes—often in front of the audience of your teacher and classmates. But these “mistakes” are actually steps toward becoming a more proficient speaker and more resilient learner. Studying a language allows you to take risks and step into something new and slightly uncomfortable, offering a fantastic chance to grow and mature. And when you eventually find yourself conversing with someone in their language, your sense of accomplishment will be unparalleled.

Studying a language allows you to take risks and step into something new and slightly uncomfortable, offering a fantastic chance to grow and mature.

8. Expand Your Perspective

Learning another language means learning another culture. And learning another culture means drawing comparisons between it and your own culture. You naturally discover places—places both positive and negative—where the cultures diverge. Your understanding of the awesomeness of humanity’s diversity and ingenuity grows in a thousand new directions.

9. Experience Art in Its Original Form

Most of the world’s history and art—its books, news, films, music, essays, stories, and online experiences—are in a language you don’t (yet) know. With more than 7,000 spoken languages on Earth, you could spend countless lifetimes exploring the many source materials if only you knew the language . Reading a love poem by Neruda in its original Spanish, reciting Homer’s epics in their original Greek, or watching “Rashomon” in Kurosawa’s original Japanese—these are all profound experiences that only language learning can offer.

10. Become a Polyglot

When you learn a second language, two amazing things happen. First, you come to know and speak your first language better. Second, learning a third language is much easier than the second (especially for children). 4 Take a bold step toward communicating in as many languages as you choose!

• Essay Samples
• College Essay
• Writing Tools
• Writing guide

Creative samples from the experts

↑ Return to Essay Samples

Argumentative Essay: Why is it so Important to Know More than One Language

We live in a multilingual world that is becoming increasingly globalized and it is therefore very important to know more than one language. There are three main reasons for this: an additional language can help you progress in your career, you gain an awareness of other cultures, and it helps increase our understanding and knowledge of our own language.

More and more job advertisements are now specifying that they want second, third, and even fourth languages in some cases, and knowing more than one language opens up your prospects in a highly important way. Furthermore, as more and more companies begin to trade internationally, people are frequently beginning jobs for which they need no language skills, but then being asked to relocate abroad, or offered a promotion that requires language skills. Therefore, it helps with career enhancement. Some people refute this claim by saying that there are plenty of other jobs available, but this is simply not the case anymore with the global recession and more countries being international.

The second reason that it is important to know more than one language is that it increases cultural awareness and allows you to communicate with different people. All good methods of learning languages also entail learning about another culture, especially when your language skills get to a higher level. This awareness allows people from different nationalities and religions to get along with each other better, which is very important given the high levels of immigration. Many countries with high immigration levels have trouble with a lack of integration, and this is often because of the language barrier, so people end up being segregated, staying in communities where their own language is spoken. Even those that say they don’t care about meeting people of other cultures will have noticed these problems, and should accept the importance of learning other languages.

Finally, people should learn additional languages because it helps with their mastery of their own language and it is proven to be good for the brain. Some people believe that learning more languages leads to confusion, but besides the odd word being misused, this is simply not the case. If you learn a new language, you have to study the grammar from scratch, and therefore end up with a much more in-depth knowledge of grammar as a whole than people who only speak one language. Furthermore, if you learn languages with similar roots learning one can help you learn the others (take French, Spanish and Italian, for example).

Overall there can be no denying that learning languages is wholly positive for individuals and society and that it is highly important to know more than one language. If more people were multilingual, the world would ultimately be a happier and more prosperous place.

Follow Us on Social Media

Get more free essays

Send via email

Most useful resources for students:.

• Free Essays Download
• Writing Tools List
• Proofreading Services
• Universities Rating

Contributors Bio

Find more useful services for students

Free plagiarism check, professional editing, online tutoring, free grammar check.

ENGLISH SCHOOL

WhatsApp at +1 (305) 417 3615

Call us at +1 (703) 527 7888

IELTS CONTACT

+1 (703) 294-6012     [email protected]

Why Learning Multiple Languages Is Important

It has long been established that learning a second language is beneficial. So beneficial, in fact, that many schools are incorporating bilingual education. This is because multiple studies suggest that bilingual education has cognitive, social, and health benefits . However, learning multiple languages does not simply benefit students in the classroom. As you will see, studying a second (or third) language is an investment in your future, no matter your age.

Increases Creativity

While the two are not often paired, language learning can also increase one’s creativity. Learning how to string new words together to communicate effectively requires you to use your brain in an analogous way as when you form creative thoughts. For instance, language learning requires discovering new ways of expressing ideas and feelings.

One study  found that bilinguals were more creative than monolinguals according to the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT), which assesses fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration. Plus, language learning is fun. When you have fun while learning, it is natural to be more creative.

Improves Your Analytical Skills

Along these same lines, mastering a new language will also improve your analytical skills. Those who speak more than one language have the ability to process information in a more logical fashion. For instance, rather than making decisions based on emotion, those who had to consider decisions in a foreign language made wiser decisions based on analytical reasoning. This may also explain why bilingual students tend to score better than their peers on academic tests.

Strengthens Your Brain Muscles

When you work to learn another language, you are essentially exercising your brain muscles. For example, it is proven to improve one’s cognitive skills. Working hard to learn a new language will strengthen your ability to focus, memorize, and comprehend material.

As Dan Roitman  explains, “Learning a second language can beef up your brain’s executive control center — the hub that helps manage your cognitive processes. A second language offers a strong exercise regimen for the executive control center, ultimately making it more efficient.”

Additionally, senior citizens are encouraged to learn another language because studies have shown multilingualism directly correlates to a decrease in dementia. This is because of the way language learning works as a type of brain fitness.

Develops Your Native Vocabulary

In addition to learning a new foreign vocabulary , you will develop your native vocabulary. For instance, if you speak English and are studying French, your English skills will improve as you work to learn the rules of the French language. This applies to all languages. For instance, students attending language schools in DC are surrounded by native English speakers as well as those attempting to master a foreign language. In this setting, it is common for the student to develop both languages while studying.

Brings School Success

As we mentioned earlier, bilingual education has many benefits. Primarily, students who are bilingual or who study multiple languages, perform better in school than their peers. This even applies to standardized academic exams that students take for college entrance. In addition to these student’s large vocabulary skills, these same students have better literacy skills.

However, this does not stop at the high school level. Students serious about language learning should take foreign language classes at a dedicated language school in DC, such as inlingua. These schools are focused on language learning rather than making it secondary to their education. Students who take these types of English courses in Washington DC until they are fluent will have a return on their investment when it comes to academic success and employment opportunities .

Creates Job Security

In addition to academic success, learning multiple languages creates job security. As the workplace becomes global, it is imperative that employees do what it takes to hold on to their jobs. Those individuals who can speak other languages are already well ahead of their competitors in the workplace. Not only does being bilingual create job security, it potentially could lead to career advancement  and raises.

Plus, there are certain desirable career fields that depend on those who are multilingual, such as interpreters or translators. In fact, there are even required foreign language tests for individuals who are seeking career advancement opportunities in government fields. For example, the Washington language institute, inlingua, offers private tutoring for those taking the Foreign Service Officer Language Test .

Simplifies Foreign Communication

Whether you are traveling abroad or doing business with someone abroad over the phone, the ability to communicate is essential. When you learn to speak another language, communication becomes easier. As you travel, you will be able to find out information yourself rather than rely on translators. This will help you make wise decisions and lead you to places where you may not have gone before .

Fosters Cultural Awareness

Studies  have shown that learning another language fosters culture awareness and acceptance. Students who study another language are more understanding of other cultures. When you learn another language, you are not merely learning unfamiliar words. You learn about the people, the customs, traditions, and values where the language is spoken. It involves stepping out of your comfort zone and learning about the vastness of the world around you.

Students who attend language schools in Washington DC have the unique opportunity to study in a global city surrounded by diversity. For example, students at inlingua learn through immersion; therefore, they are immersed in the culture  while taking an English class in DC. They do not just learn English – they also learn American culture.

Develops Global Relationships

Finally, one of the most important reasons to learn multiple languages is to develop global relationships. Rather than living in a bubble where everyone lives in the same place and speaks the same language, those who are multilingual can form relationships with people across the globe. Language barriers are broken, and friendships are made. Plus, global relationships are imperative for global awareness and global thinking. When you learn another language, your worldview changes for the better.

Ready to learn a foreign language in Washington DC?

Related posts.

All programs and courses provided by inlingua Washington DC are avocational in nature and not designed to prepare students for employment.

Our IELTS Test Center offers both the Paper Based IELTS and the Computer Delivered IELTS.

Instruction for the English Unlimited program is provided by inlingua Washington DC, which is accredited by CEA and owned by Titanium, LLC. All other instruction and services, including IELTS testing, is provided by inlingua Language Center DC, which is not accredited by CEA and is owned by Capital Languages, LLC.

British Council

Does being bilingual make you smarter, by miguel angel muñoz, 23 june 2014 - 10:46.

Quinn Dombrowski, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 and adapted from the original .

Language teacher and researcher Miguel Angel Muñoz explains the latest research on how being bilingual affects your brain, ahead of a British Council seminar in Cardiff on whether learning a foreign language makes you smarter. You can  watch the live-streamed seminar  on Tuesday, 3 June.

More than half the world's population uses two or more languages every day

It is hard to estimate the exact number of bilingual people in the world, as there is a  lack of reliable statistics . But in 2012, a  Eurobarometer survey  established that 'just over half of Europeans (54%)' are bilingual, and  other studies  hypothesise that more than half of the world’s population is bilingual.

So what about you? Are you bilingual? Or rather - how bilingual are you?

Being bilingual isn't black-and-white

To answer that question, first we need to establish what being bilingual means. Contrary to what one might expect, a recent study shows that  bilingualism is not a categorical variable  (i.e., 'you are either bilingual or not'), but a multidimensional construct composed of two linked parts. The first of these is language proficiency, and the second is language use.

I, for example, am -- or used to be -- proficient in German, but I have not used my German regularly for a very long time. Point number one: the more proficient you are in a second language, and the more you use it in your daily life, the more bilingual you will be.

Now that you know the extent to which you are bilingual, the next question is what the advantages and disadvantages of being bilingual are. In this post, I will talk about the cognitive benefits and costs that have been identified by scientific research. It turns out that being bilingual has some costs, but many benefits.

What are the costs of being bilingual?

When I speak in English, my Spanish is also activated. Both languages are active in the brain of a bilingual person when he or she speaks, and this incurs a processing cost, as the brain needs to do two things at once. According to  one study , this can mean that 'the verbal skills of bilinguals in each language are generally weaker than those for monolingual speakers of each language'.

Bilingual people tend to have weaker verbal skills

Bilingual people tend to produce fewer words of any given semantic category than people who only speak one language fluently. In other words, their individual vocabularies in each language tend to be smaller than that of people who only speak one of those languages.

Another study has shown that bilingual people also experience 'nearly twice as many' tip-of-the-tongue moments (when you can't find the exact word you want to describe something) than their monolingual peers. These cognitive costs don't just affect the lexical level (i.e., vocabulary) but  also the syntactic one  (i.e., grammar).

What are the benefits of being bilingual?

Don’t worry. There are also benefits to being bilingual, and they far outweigh the costs mentioned above. There are three main cognitive benefits.

1. Bilingualism  affects the development and efficiency  of the brain's multifactorial 'executive control system'.

The bilingual brain is used to handling two languages at the same time. This develops skills for functions such as inhibition (a cognitive mechanism that discards irrelevant stimuli), switching attention, and working memory.

These skills make up the brain's executive control system, which looks after high-level thought, multi-tasking, and sustained attention. Because bilingual people are used to switching between their two languages, they are also better at switching between tasks, even if these tasks are nothing to do with language.

People who speak two languages have also been shown to have more efficient monitoring systems. A  2009 study  showed that monolinguals and bilinguals respond similarly when the brain's monitoring system is not taxed, but in conditions requiring high monitoring demands, bilinguals were faster. Bilingual people also outperform monolingual people in spatial working memory tasks.

2. Bilingualism has  widespread effects  on the functional and structural properties of various cortical and subcortical structures in the brain.

Our brains change and adapt as a result of experience. Studies have shown that people who are multilingual have  higher density of grey matter , and that older people who are bilingual tend to have  better-maintained white matter  in their brains.

So, does this make you smarter if you are bilingual? I’m afraid not. I don't know any study that shows a link between bilingualism and such concepts as executive intelligence, emotional intelligence or intelligence quotient.

3. Bilingualism promotes cognitive reserve in elderly people

Taking part in  stimulating physical or mental activity  can help maintain cognitive function, and delay the onset of symptoms in people suffering from dementia. The onset of dementia symptoms is significantly delayed -  by as much as five years  - in patients who are bilingual. The brains of bilingual patients with Alzheimer’s disease function cognitively  at the same level  of monolingual patients who have suffered less brain degeneration.

What are the limitations to research into bilingualism?

There are some limitations to the research presented above. For example, the bilingual advantage is not always found in young bilingual adults. Some people argue that this is due to the fact that young adults are at the peak of their cognitive development, so the positive effects of bilingualism aren't as noticeable. Scientists also  agree  there's not enough research yet into how and why the bilingual experience affects the brain's processes in the way it does.

But we can certainly dispel some myths about being bilingual - such as the outdated and disproven idea that growing up bilingual confuses and hinders cognitive development.

On the contrary, being bilingual is a beneficial condition that one is never too old nor too proficient to experience and develop.

Find more  seminars for English language professionals  live-streamed from the UK.

You might also be interested in:

• Why I decided to learn languages (14 and counting)
• How should Africa teach its multilingual children?

View the discussion thread.

British Council Worldwide

• Afghanistan
• Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Czech Republic
• Hong Kong, SAR of China
• Korea, Republic of
• Myanmar (Burma)
• Netherlands
• New Zealand
• North Macedonia
• Northern Ireland
• Occupied Palestinian Territories
• Philippines
• Saudi Arabia
• Sierra Leone
• South Africa
• South Sudan
• Switzerland
• United Arab Emirates
• United States of America

How learning a new language improves tolerance

Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics, University of South Florida

Disclosure statement

Amy Thompson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

View all partners

There are many benefits to knowing more than one language. For example, it has been shown that aging adults who speak more than one language have less likelihood of developing dementia.

Additionally, the bilingual brain becomes better at filtering out distractions, and learning multiple languages improves creativity . Evidence also shows that learning subsequent languages is easier than learning the first foreign language.

Unfortunately, not all American universities consider learning foreign languages a worthwhile investment.

Why is foreign language study important at the university level?

As an applied linguist , I study how learning multiple languages can have cognitive and emotional benefits. One of these benefits that’s not obvious is that language learning improves tolerance.

This happens in two important ways.

The first is that it opens people’s eyes to a way of doing things in a way that’s different from their own, which is called “cultural competence.”

The second is related to the comfort level of a person when dealing with unfamiliar situations, or “tolerance of ambiguity.”

Gaining cross-cultural understanding

Cultural competence is key to thriving in our increasingly globalized world. How specifically does language learning improve cultural competence? The answer can be illuminated by examining different types of intelligence.

Psychologist Robert Sternberg’s research on intelligence describes different types of intelligence and how they are related to adult language learning. What he refers to as “practical intelligence” is similar to social intelligence in that it helps individuals learn nonexplicit information from their environments, including meaningful gestures or other social cues.

Language learning inevitably involves learning about different cultures. Students pick up clues about the culture both in language classes and through meaningful immersion experiences.

Researchers Hanh Thi Nguyen and Guy Kellogg have shown that when students learn another language, they develop new ways of understanding culture through analyzing cultural stereotypes . They explain that “learning a second language involves the acquisition not only of linguistic forms but also ways of thinking and behaving.”

With the help of an instructor, students can critically think about stereotypes of different cultures related to food, appearance and conversation styles.

Dealing with the unknown

The second way that adult language learning increases tolerance is related to the comfort level of a person when dealing with “tolerance of ambiguity.”

Someone with a high tolerance of ambiguity finds unfamiliar situations exciting, rather than frightening. My research on motivation , anxiety and beliefs indicates that language learning improves people’s tolerance of ambiguity, especially when more than one foreign language is involved.

It’s not difficult to see why this may be so. Conversations in a foreign language will inevitably involve unknown words. It wouldn’t be a successful conversation if one of the speakers constantly stopped to say, “Hang on – I don’t know that word. Let me look it up in the dictionary.” Those with a high tolerance of ambiguity would feel comfortable maintaining the conversation despite the unfamiliar words involved.

Applied linguists Jean-Marc Dewaele and Li Wei also study tolerance of ambiguity and have indicated that those with experience learning more than one foreign language in an instructed setting have more tolerance of ambiguity .

What changes with this understanding

A high tolerance of ambiguity brings many advantages. It helps students become less anxious in social interactions and in subsequent language learning experiences. Not surprisingly, the more experience a person has with language learning , the more comfortable the person gets with this ambiguity.

And that’s not all.

Individuals with higher levels of tolerance of ambiguity have also been found to be more entrepreneurial (i.e., are more optimistic, innovative and don’t mind taking risks).

In the current climate, universities are frequently being judged by the salaries of their graduates . Taking it one step further, based on the relationship of tolerance of ambiguity and entrepreneurial intention, increased tolerance of ambiguity could lead to higher salaries for graduates, which in turn, I believe, could help increase funding for those universities that require foreign language study.

Those who have devoted their lives to theorizing about and the teaching of languages would say, “ It’s not about the money .” But perhaps it is.

Language learning in higher ed

Most American universities have a minimal language requirement that often varies depending on the student’s major. However, students can typically opt out of the requirement by taking a placement test or providing some other proof of competency.

In contrast to this trend, Princeton recently announced that all students, regardless of their competency when entering the university, would be required to study an additional language.

I’d argue that more universities should follow Princeton’s lead, as language study at the university level could lead to an increased tolerance of the different cultural norms represented in American society, which is desperately needed in the current political climate with the wave of hate crimes sweeping university campuses nationwide.

Knowledge of different languages is crucial to becoming global citizens. As former Secretary of Education Arne Duncan noted ,

“Our country needs to create a future in which all Americans understand that by speaking more than one language, they are enabling our country to compete successfully and work collaboratively with partners across the globe.”

Considering the evidence that studying languages as adults increases tolerance in two important ways, the question shouldn’t be “Why should universities require foreign language study?” but rather “Why in the world wouldn’t they?”

• Higher education
• Language learning
• Cultural stereotypes
• Foreign Language
• Cultural competency
• English language learning

Project Offier - Diversity & Inclusion

Senior Lecturer - Earth System Science

Sydney Horizon Educators (Identified)

Deputy Social Media Producer

Associate Professor, Occupational Therapy

The advantages of speaking two languages

.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo{-webkit-transition:all 0.15s ease-out;transition:all 0.15s ease-out;cursor:pointer;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;outline:none;color:inherit;}.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo:hover,.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo[data-hover]{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;}.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo:focus,.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo[data-focus]{box-shadow:0 0 0 3px rgba(168,203,251,0.5);} Rebecca Callahan

.chakra .wef-9dduvl{margin-top:16px;margin-bottom:16px;line-height:1.388;font-size:1.25rem;}@media screen and (min-width:56.5rem){.chakra .wef-9dduvl{font-size:1.125rem;}} Explore and monitor how .chakra .wef-15eoq1r{margin-top:16px;margin-bottom:16px;line-height:1.388;font-size:1.25rem;color:#F7DB5E;}@media screen and (min-width:56.5rem){.chakra .wef-15eoq1r{font-size:1.125rem;}} Neuroscience is affecting economies, industries and global issues

.chakra .wef-1nk5u5d{margin-top:16px;margin-bottom:16px;line-height:1.388;color:#2846F8;font-size:1.25rem;}@media screen and (min-width:56.5rem){.chakra .wef-1nk5u5d{font-size:1.125rem;}} Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale

Stay up to date:, neuroscience.

Speaking more than one language may confer significant benefits on the developing brain . Research has now shown that bilingual young adults not only fare better in the job market , but are also more likely to demonstrate empathy and problem-solving skills .

The fact is that American adults are largely monolingual English speakers, even those who began life speaking more than one language . Based on the latest research, it might be time to rethink the emphasis on monolingualism in the US.

Speaking two languages has advantages

Over the past decade, my research has focused on the academic, social, and civic development of immigrant youth, specifically the ways in which schools shape how these students experience learning , friendships , and their communities .

As a former elementary bilingual teacher, I saw how full proficiency in both languages offered students significant academic and social advantages.

What was missing, however, was the link between my students’ early social and academic edge, and their entry into the job market as young adults.

For all the research that supports childhood bilingualism , it is only recently that scholars have begun to understand bilingualism in adults’ professional lives.

Bilinguals show higher test scores , better problem solving skills , sharper mental perceptions , and access to richer social networks .

In addition, young bilinguals are able to draw support from mentors in their home language communities, and from the dominant culture.

These young people benefit from the wisdom of the adage: the more adults who invest in a child, the stronger she will be. The bilingual child benefits from being raised by two or more villages!

Bilinguals more likely to get a job

Not only are bilingual young adults more likely to graduate high school and go to college , they are also more likely to get the job when they interview .Even when being bilingual is not a requirement, an interview study of California employers shows that employers prefer to both hire and retain bilinguals. Today, high-powered Fortune 500 companies hire bilingual and biliterate employees to serve as client liaisons.

Research links bilingualism to greater intellectual focus , as well as a delay in the onset of dementia symptoms . Frequent use of multiple languages is also linked to development of greater empathy .

Yet, despite research evidence, 4 out of 5 American adults speak only English.

English-only movement discourages another language

This is true for even those adults who began life exposed to more than one language . In the process of growing up American, many potentially bilingual children of immigrant parents lose their home language to become English monolinguals .

The powerful social and political forces behind the English-Only movement testify to the perceived threat of bilingualism . Every day, schools and districts across the nation succumb to external pressures and cut bilingual instruction .

Historically, research investigating bilingualism and the labor market has employed US Census measures that do not distinguish proficiency levels in the non-English language.

Most national data-sets define bilingualism with very broad strokes that do not distinguish between: a respondent who speaks only Spanish, one who speaks Spanish and a little English, and a third who is fully bilingual and biliterate. Failure to capture this heterogeneity obscures any clear relationship between bilingualism and the labor market.

Only recently have NCES data begun to include measures of self-reported proficiency in the home language, while other, more immigrant-specific data-sets have begun to ask these questions.

Bilingualism related to higher earning

Of late, newer data and sharper analytical methods provide a far richer measure of bilingualism and individuals’ ability to read and write in non-English languages.

The ability to distinguish between oral proficiency in one or more languages and actual literacy skills in two or more has allowed researchers to identify an economic advantage to bilingualism – in terms of both higher occupational status and higher earnings in young adulthood.

The new data-sets measure bilingualism in younger generations who enter a labor market defined not by geographic boundaries, but by instant access to information.

Relationship between bilingualism and intelligence

Beginning in the 1960s, linguists began to find a positive relationship between bilingualism and intelligence .

Building on this work, researchers found that elementary aged bilingual children outperform their monolingual peers on non-verbal problem solving tasks.

Then, in the late 1990s, research emerged showing that even when controlling on working memory, bilingual children display significantly greater attentional control to problem solving tasks than monolingual children.

Currently, researchers have begun to use data-sets that include more sensitive measures of language proficiency to find that among children of immigrant parents, bilingual-biliterate young adults land in higher status jobs and earn more than their peers who have lost their home language.

Not only have these now-monolingual young adults lost the cognitive resources bilingualism provides, but they are less likely to be employed full-time, and earn less than their peers.

Americans are beginning to grasp the cognitive, social and psychological benefits of knowing two languages.

Only 1 in 4 Americans can talk in another language

Historically notorious for their English monolingualism , a recent Gallup poll reports that in this nation of immigrants, only one in four American adults now reports being conversationally proficient in another language.

However, much more needs to be done if our nation is to remain a global leader in the next century.

Schools’ role in the maintenance and development of potential bilinguals’ linguistic repertoires will be critical to this process. Whether through bilingual instruction or encouraging parents to develop their children’s home language skills, what schools do will matter.

Today’s potential bilinguals will contribute more as adults if they successfully maintain their home language.

Educational research leaves little doubt that children of immigrant parents will learn English.

Where we fail these children is in maintaining their greatest resource: their home language. It’s something we should cherish, not eradicate.

This article is published in collaboration with The Conversation . Publication does not imply endorsement of views by the World Economic Forum.

To keep up with the Agenda subscribe to our weekly newsletter.

Author: Rebecca Callahan is an Associate Professor Bilingual/Bicultural Education, Cultural Studies in Education at University of Texas at Austin.

Image: Plaster phrenological models of heads, showing different parts of the brain. REUTERS/Chris Helgren.

Share this:

• Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)

Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

The Agenda .chakra .wef-n7bacu{margin-top:16px;margin-bottom:16px;line-height:1.388;font-weight:400;} Weekly

A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda

.chakra .wef-1dtnjt5{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;-webkit-flex-wrap:wrap;-ms-flex-wrap:wrap;flex-wrap:wrap;} More on Jobs and the Future of Work .chakra .wef-17xejub{-webkit-flex:1;-ms-flex:1;flex:1;justify-self:stretch;-webkit-align-self:stretch;-ms-flex-item-align:stretch;align-self:stretch;} .chakra .wef-nr1rr4{display:-webkit-inline-box;display:-webkit-inline-flex;display:-ms-inline-flexbox;display:inline-flex;white-space:normal;vertical-align:middle;text-transform:uppercase;font-size:0.75rem;border-radius:0.25rem;font-weight:700;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;line-height:1.2;-webkit-letter-spacing:1.25px;-moz-letter-spacing:1.25px;-ms-letter-spacing:1.25px;letter-spacing:1.25px;background:none;padding:0px;color:#B3B3B3;-webkit-box-decoration-break:clone;box-decoration-break:clone;-webkit-box-decoration-break:clone;}@media screen and (min-width:37.5rem){.chakra .wef-nr1rr4{font-size:0.875rem;}}@media screen and (min-width:56.5rem){.chakra .wef-nr1rr4{font-size:1rem;}} See all

How the ‘NO, NO’ Matrix can help professionals plan for success

April 19, 2024

The State of Social Enterprise: A Review of Global Data 2013–2023

From 'Quit-Tok' to proximity bias, here are 11 buzzwords from the world of hybrid work

Kate Whiting

April 17, 2024

How to build the skills needed for the age of AI

Juliana Guaqueta Ospina

April 11, 2024

Explainer: What is a living wage and how is it different from the minimum wage?

Victoria Masterson

April 9, 2024

The six drivers of employee health every employer should know

Jacqueline Brassey, Lars Hartenstein, Patrick Simon and Barbara Jeffery

April 3, 2024

An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

• Publications
• Account settings

Preview improvements coming to the PMC website in October 2024. Learn More or Try it out now .

• Advanced Search
• Journal List
• v.2012; Sep-Oct 2012

The Cognitive Benefits of Being Bilingual

Editor’s note:.

Today, more of the world’s population is bilingual or multilingual than monolingual. In addition to facilitating cross-cultural communication, this trend also positively affects cognitive abilities. Researchers have shown that the bilingual brain can have better attention and task-switching capacities than the monolingual brain, thanks to its developed ability to inhibit one language while using another. In addition, bilingualism has positive effects at both ends of the age spectrum: Bilingual children as young as seven months can better adjust to environmental changes, while bilingual seniors can experience less cognitive decline .

We are surrounded by language during nearly every waking moment of our lives. We use language to communicate our thoughts and feelings, to connect with others and identify with our culture, and to understand the world around us. And for many people, this rich linguistic environment involves not just one language but two or more. In fact, the majority of the world’s population is bilingual or multilingual. In a survey conducted by the European Commission in 2006, 56 percent of respondents reported being able to speak in a language other than their mother tongue. In many countries that percentage is even higher—for instance, 99 percent of Luxembourgers and 95 percent of Latvians speak more than one language. 1 Even in the United States, which is widely considered to be monolingual, one-fifth of those over the age of five reported speaking a language other than English at home in 2007, an increase of 140 percent since 1980. 2 Millions of Americans use a language other than English in their everyday lives outside of the home, when they are at work or in the classroom. Europe and the United States are not alone, either. The Associated Press reports that up to 66 percent of the world’s children are raised bilingual. 3 Over the past few decades, technological advances have allowed researchers to peer deeper into the brain to investigate how bilingualism interacts with and changes the cognitive and neurological systems.

Cognitive Consequences of Bilingualism

Research has overwhelmingly shown that when a bilingual person uses one language, the other is active at the same time. When a person hears a word, he or she doesn’t hear the entire word all at once: the sounds arrive in sequential order. Long before the word is finished, the brain’s language system begins to guess what that word might be by activating lots of words that match the signal. If you hear “can,” you will likely activate words like “candy” and “candle” as well, at least during the earlier stages of word recognition. For bilingual people, this activation is not limited to a single language; auditory input activates corresponding words regardless of the language to which they belong. 4

Some of the most compelling evidence for language co-activation comes from studying eye movements. We tend to look at things that we are thinking, talking, or hearing about. 5 A Russian-English bilingual person asked to “pick up a marker” from a set of objects would look more at a stamp than someone who doesn’t know Russian, because the Russian word for “stamp,” “ marka ,” sounds like the English word he or she heard, “marker.” 4 In cases like this, language co-activation occurs because what the listener hears could map onto words in either language. Furthermore, language co-activation is so automatic that people consider words in both languages even without overt similarity. For example, when Chinese-English bilingual people judge how alike two English words are in meaning, their brain responses are affected by whether or not the Chinese translations of those words are written similarly. 6 Even though the task does not require the bilingual people to engage their Chinese, they do so anyway.

Having to deal with this persistent linguistic competition can result in language difficulties. For instance, knowing more than one language can cause speakers to name pictures more slowly 7 and can increase tip-of-the-tongue states (where you’re unable to fully conjure a word, but can remember specific details about it, like what letter it starts with). 8 As a result, the constant juggling of two languages creates a need to control how much a person accesses a language at any given time. From a communicative standpoint, this is an important skill—understanding a message in one language can be difficult if your other language always interferes. Likewise, if a bilingual person frequently switches between languages when speaking, it can confuse the listener, especially if that listener knows only one of the speaker’s languages.

To maintain the relative balance between two languages, the bilingual brain relies on executive functions, a regulatory system of general cognitive abilities that includes processes such as attention and inhibition. Because both of a bilingual person’s language systems are always active and competing, that person uses these control mechanisms every time she or he speaks or listens. This constant practice strengthens the control mechanisms and changes the associated brain regions. 9 – 12

Bilingual people often perform better on tasks that require conflict management. In the classic Stroop task , people see a word and are asked to name the color of the word’s font. When the color and the word match (i.e., the word “red” printed in red), people correctly name the color more quickly than when the color and the word don’t match (i.e., the word “red” printed in blue). This occurs because the word itself (“red”) and its font color (blue) conflict. The cognitive system must employ additional resources to ignore the irrelevant word and focus on the relevant color. The ability to ignore competing perceptual information and focus on the relevant aspects of the input is called inhibitory control. Bilingual people often perform better than monolingual people at tasks that tap into inhibitory control ability. Bilingual people are also better than monolingual people at switching between two tasks; for example, when bilinguals have to switch from categorizing objects by color (red or green) to categorizing them by shape (circle or triangle), they do so more rapidly than monolingual people, 13 reflecting better cognitive control when changing strategies on the fly.

Changes in Neurological Processing and Structure

Studies suggest that bilingual advantages in executive function are not limited to the brain’s language networks. 9 Researchers have used brain imaging techniques like functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate which brain regions are active when bilingual people perform tasks in which they are forced to alternate between their two languages. For instance, when bilingual people have to switch between naming pictures in Spanish and naming them in English, they show increased activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), a brain region associated with cognitive skills like attention and inhibition. 14 Along with the DLPFC, language switching has been found to involve such structures as the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), bilateral supermarginal gyri, and left inferior frontal gyrus (left-IFG), regions that are also involved in cognitive control. 9 The left-IFG in particular, often considered the language production center of the brain, appears to be involved in both linguistic 15 and non-linguistic cognitive control. 16

The neurological roots of the bilingual advantage extend to subcortical brain areas more traditionally associated with sensory processing. When monolingual and bilingual adolescents listen to simple speech sounds (e.g., the syllable “da”) without any intervening background noise, they show highly similar brain stem responses to the auditory information. When researchers play the same sound to both groups in the presence of background noise, the bilingual listeners’ neural response is considerably larger, reflecting better encoding of the sound’s fundamental frequency, 17 a feature of sound closely related to pitch perception. To put it another way, in bilingual people, blood flow (a marker for neuronal activity) is greater in the brain stem in response to the sound. Intriguingly, this boost in sound encoding appears to be related to advantages in auditory attention. The cognitive control required to manage multiple languages appears to have broad effects on neurological function, fine-tuning both cognitive control mechanisms and sensory processes.

Beyond differences in neuronal activation, bilingualism seems to affect the brain’s structure as well. Higher proficiency in a second language, as well as earlier acquisition of that language, correlates with higher gray matter volume in the left inferior parietal cortex. 18 Researchers have associated damage to this area with uncontrolled language switching, 19 suggesting that it may play an important role in managing the balance between two languages. Likewise, researchers have found white matter volume changes in bilingual children 20 and older adults. 21 It appears that bilingual experience not only changes the way neurological structures process information, but also may alter the neurological structures themselves.

Improvements in Learning

Being bilingual can have tangible practical benefits. The improvements in cognitive and sensory processing driven by bilingual experience may help a bilingual person to better process information in the environment, leading to a clearer signal for learning. This kind of improved attention to detail may help explain why bilingual adults learn a third language better than monolingual adults learn a second language. 22 The bilingual language-learning advantage may be rooted in the ability to focus on information about the new language while reducing interference from the languages they already know. 23 This ability would allow bilingual people to more easily access newly learned words, leading to larger gains in vocabulary than those experienced by monolingual people who aren’t as skilled at inhibiting competing information.

Furthermore, the benefits associated with bilingual experience seem to start quite early—researchers have shown bilingualism to positively influence attention and conflict management in infants as young as seven months. In one study, researchers taught babies growing up in monolingual or bilingual homes that when they heard a tinkling sound, a puppet appeared on one side of a screen. Halfway through the study, the puppet began appearing on the opposite side of the screen. In order to get a reward, the infants had to adjust the rule they’d learned; only the bilingual babies were able to successfully learn the new rule. 24 This suggests that even for very young children, navigating a multilingual environment imparts advantages that transfer beyond language.

Protecting Against Age-Related Decline

The cognitive and neurological benefits of bilingualism also extend into older adulthood. Bilingualism appears to provide a means of fending off a natural decline of cognitive function and maintaining what is called “cognitive reserve.” 9 , 25 Cognitive reserve refers to the efficient utilization of brain networks to enhance brain function during aging. Bilingual experience may contribute to this reserve by keeping the cognitive mechanisms sharp and helping to recruit alternate brain networks to compensate for those that become damaged during aging. Older bilingual people enjoy improved memory 26 and executive control 9 relative to older monolingual people, which can lead to real-world health benefits.

In addition to staving off the decline that often comes with aging, bilingualism can also protect against illnesses that hasten this decline, like Alzheimer’s disease. In a study of more than 200 bilingual and monolingual patients with Alzheimer’s disease, bilingual patients reported showing initial symptoms of the disease at about 77.7 years of age—5.1 years later than the monolingual average of 72.6. Likewise, bilingual patients were diagnosed 4.3 years later than the monolingual patients (80.8 years of age and 76.5 years of age, respectively). 25 In a follow-up study, researchers compared the brains of bilingual and monolingual patients matched on the severity of Alzheimer’s symptoms. Surprisingly, the brains of bilingual people showed a significantly higher degree of physical atrophy in regions commonly associated with Alzheimer’s disease. 27 In other words, the bilingual people had more physical signs of disease than their monolingual counterparts, yet performed on par behaviorally, even though their degree of brain atrophy suggested that their symptoms should be much worse. If the brain is an engine, bilingualism may help to improve its mileage, allowing it to go farther on the same amount of fuel.

The cognitive and neurological benefits of bilingualism extend from early childhood to old age as the brain more efficiently processes information and staves off cognitive decline. What’s more, the attention and aging benefits discussed above aren’t exclusive to people who were raised bilingual; they are also seen in people who learn a second language later in life. 25 , 28 The enriched cognitive control that comes along with bilingual experience represents just one of the advantages that bilingual people enjoy. Despite certain linguistic limitations that have been observed in bilinguals (e.g., increased naming difficulty 7 ), bilingualism has been associated with improved metalinguistic awareness (the ability to recognize language as a system that can be manipulated and explored), as well as with better memory, visual-spatial skills, and even creativity. 29 Furthermore, beyond these cognitive and neurological advantages, there are also valuable social benefits that come from being bilingual, among them the ability to explore a culture through its native tongue or talk to someone with whom you might otherwise never be able to communicate. The cognitive, neural, and social advantages observed in bilingual people highlight the need to consider how bilingualism shapes the activity and the architecture of the brain, and ultimately how language is represented in the human mind, especially since the majority of speakers in the world experience life through more than one language.

Article available online at http://www.dana.org/news/cerebrum/detail.aspx?id=39638

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

student opinion

How Useful Is It to Be Multilingual?

Do you speak multiple languages? Are you learning a new one? How has that knowledge expanded your world?

By Nicole Daniels

Do you speak, read or write in more than one language? Has knowing multiple languages helped you understand words better — their meanings, associations, pronunciations or spellings?

Have you ever relied on your multilingualism to help you solve word games? The article you’re about to read refers to a New York Times game called Spelling Bee . The object of that game is to form as many words as you can using only a specific set of seven letters. Have you ever played? If you haven’t, give it a try. Do you think knowing multiple languages might benefit a player in this game?

In “ How My Multilingual Upbringing Helps Me Solve Spelling Bee ,” Lam Thuy Vo writes that her knowledge of Vietnamese, German, English and French gives her an edge in word games:

As a child born to Vietnamese immigrants in Germany, I was sometimes asked to translate documents into German, some of which were much more important than I had realized. Growing up in this kind of household also meant being somewhat linguistically agile. From an early age, I made acrobatic leaps between grammatically and tonally disparate languages without thinking much about it. “Con ơi, con có thể giúp mẹ với Steuerberater được không?” “My child, can you help me with the accounting?” my mother would ask me occasionally when I was in my teens. This type of sentence was not uncommon in my childhood home. If you look closely, one word, the German term for accountant, Steuerberater , is not like the others in this Vietnamese sentence. And yet it made perfect sense to my teenage self. This directly affects how I experience a game of Spelling Bee. When I started playing, I would sometimes find words from different languages. In the United States, one in five people speak a language other than English at home, according to the Census Bureau. That’s roughly 60 million people who seesaw between at least two languages. Experiencing the world in multiple languages has made me experiment with how I approach finding words in puzzles that were constructed by people who do not know the languages I do. (However, I’d love to one day solve a Spelling Bee written by a native speaker of Vietnamese, German and English who also dabbles in French.) Sometimes that means I’ll type a word in one of my languages that is familiar to me but that I’m not sure others know. For instance, the German words schadenfreude (pleasure derived from someone else’s troubles) and gesundheit (a response to a full-bodied achoo!) may have spread throughout English enough that they’d represent an acceptable answer for Spelling Bee. But dankeschön (a way to say thank you very much) is a word that I’ve heard some friends here use but that others may not be familiar with.

Students, read the entire article , then tell us:

What is your reaction to the article? Can you relate to any of the ways that multilingualism has helped the writer? Can you think of benefits that she didn’t mention?

How important do you think it is for young people to learn a language other than English? How can language-learning be beneficial beyond playing word games?

Do you think there are disadvantages or challenges to being multilingual? Have you experienced any?

What languages can you speak, read or otherwise understand? How did you learn those languages? Was it at home, at school or from friends? How did it feel learning a new language? Did you struggle or resist? If so, how or why?

If you speak only one language, have you ever wanted to learn a second one? Why or why not?

In her final paragraph, Ms. Vo writes, “In an increasingly connected world, it shows that even if we lead individual lives, the cultures and words within them do mingle with our own.” Do you agree with this statement? Why or why not?

Want more writing prompts? You can find all of our questions in our Student Opinion column . Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate them into your classroom.

Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.

Nicole Daniels joined The Learning Network as a staff editor in 2019 after working in museum education, curriculum writing and bilingual education. More about Nicole Daniels

The cognitive benefits of being multilingual

Multilingualism has widely recognized social and career benefits. But did you know you can also reap the huge cognitive benefits of being multilingual?

Recent studies estimate that over half the world’s population is multilingual to some extent, speaking more than just one language. When a person is multilingual, they reap the social benefits of being able to communicate with and blend into a whole new community and culture of people.

But there are other significant benefits to speaking more than one language such as career benefits and, the subject of this article, the cognitive benefits of being multilingual. In fact, these benefits can positively and profoundly impact your cognition until well into old age! So, read on to discover some of the many cognitive benefits of being multilingual!

[And for a complete toolkit for how to teach yourself a language, check out the best ways to learn a language on your own .]

8 Demonstrated cognitive benefits of being multilingual

1. A better, innate understanding of how language works

Because learning a second (or third, or fourth) language brings your attention to the mechanics of the two languages, (including how they differ), multilingual people tend to understand things like grammar, conjugations, and sentence structure better than monolinguals. These people can more quickly pick up on the structure of any language and clearly understand how it can be used.

Multilingual people also tend to be more effective communicators, more exact editors, and more compelling writers, because they better understand how languages function, including in their native language.

Read: ' Why you should practice SPEAKING a second language '

2. Less mental decline in old age

Many studies have shown that the more elderly people "exercise" their brains every day, the less cognitive decline they experience overall. And it turns out that jumping between languages—or acquiring a new one—is a particularly effective way to attain this benefit!

Read: ' Learning a new language when you’re older and how to do it! '

In fact, several studies have demonstrated that bilingualism can delay the onset of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease by an average of five years! Even better, bilingual patients who do develop Alzheimer’s tend to display less decay in cognitive abilities than monolingual patients.

3. More efficient and better developed executive control in the brain

When you are multilingual, you constantly switch between languages without thinking about it. And this is why multilingual people tend to have better developed executive control systems, the part of the brain that controls your ability to switch your attention between things and exercise working memory. A more developed executive control system allows multilingual people to better perform tasks that require high-level thought, multitasking , and sustained attention.

Psssst! Check out Brainscape's flashcards for any foreign language to learn twice as efficiently as any other study method!

4. Greater cognitive flexibility and problem-solving skills

Learning a new language requires the brain to express similar thoughts in different ways and because of this multilingual people develop greater cognitive flexibility . This translates into other areas as improved creativity and problem-solving, as well as the ability to perceive situations in different ways. Multilingual people tend to solve complex problems in more creative ways than their monolingual peers, no matter what kind of problem is being solved.

5. Improvements in learning abilities

As mentioned earlier, multilingual people have more developed executive functions. One important executive function is inhibition, the ability to discard irrelevant or unimportant stimuli and focus on the key stimuli. Inhibition is key to learning new information and skills, as it allows you to focus on what's important while reducing interference from what you already know , as well as similar concepts. Since multilingual people have better-developed inhibition, studies demonstrate that they can not only learn a third or fourth language quicker, but can develop any learned skill faster.

6. Changes in neurological processing

Brain imaging techniques, such as fMRIs, have shown that multilingual brains tend to activate the linguistic portion of their brains even when not engaged in linguistic tasks. This leads researchers to believe that the brain’s ability to connect skills tends to enhance cognitive function over time . Bilingual brains tend to show higher level of activation to auditory stimuli overall, which gives them an advantage in sensory processing. Even the actual structure of the brain is affected.

Studies show that multilingual people have a higher density of grey matter in their brains, and older bilingual people usually have better-maintained white matter, even late in life. The cognitive control required to manage multiple languages seems to broadly impact neurological function and structure, fine-tuning cognitive control mechanisms and sensory processes.

7. More rational decision-making skills

A study done at the University of Chicago demonstrated that bilinguals tend to make more rational decisions. As language contains nuance and subtle implications in its vocabulary that can subconsciously influence your judgment, thinking in your native language tends to be fraught with emotional biases. Interestingly, though, multilingual people tend to be less affected by such biases, especially in their second language. Bilinguals are able to draw from their understanding of a problem using both languages, which allows them to rely more on analytic processes than emotional linguistic cues.

Read: How brain science can help you learn a language faster

8. A more perceptive understanding of the world

Multilingual people tend to be better at observing their environment and spotting misleading information. Perhaps this is because of their enhanced inhibition skills that allow them to focus on relevant information and edit out the rest. Due to this, multilingual people have been shown to be keen observers of the world around them, as well as more skilled at identifying and correctly analyzing the sub-context of a situation and interpreting the social environment. This makes multilingual people highly perceptive , a skill that's also exercised by interacting with the unfamiliar social or cultural context of a second language.

Multilingualism is great for your brain

As you can see, the cognitive benefits of multilingualism can potentially outweigh the concerted effort of learning a new language. This is especially true when you find an effective and simple way to develop your linguistic skills.

[See also: Should you learn a language? Maybe not (and that's ok) ]

If you're seriously thinking about learning a new language, you should check out Brainscape's groundbreaking spaced repetition system for learning a language , which makes learning a new language as efficient as possible for learners of any level.

If you are still monolingual or are simply ready to tackle your next language, check out the many foreign language flashcards we have, and get started today!

Bartolotti, J., & Marian, V. (2012). Language learning and control in monolinguals and bilinguals. Cognitive Science , 36 (6), 1129-1147. https://dx.doi.org/10.1111%2Fj.1551-6709.2012.01243.x

Craik, F. I., Bialystok, E., & Freedman, M. (2010). Delaying the onset of Alzheimer disease: Bilingualism as a form of cognitive reserve. Neurology , 75 (19), 1726-1729. https://doi.org/10.1212/wnl.0b013e3181fc2a1c

Keysar, B., Hayakawa, S. L., & An, S. G. (2012). The foreign-language effect: Thinking in a foreign tongue reduces decision biases. Psychological Science , 23 (6), 661-668. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0956797611432178

Flashcards for serious learners .

Home — Essay Samples — Science — Bilingualism — Advantages of Speaking More Than One Language

Advantages of Speaking More than One Language

• Categories: Bilingualism Second Language

About this sample

Words: 687 |

Published: Sep 1, 2023

Words: 687 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

Cite this Essay

Let us write you an essay from scratch

• 450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
• Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

Get high-quality help

Dr Jacklynne

Verified writer

• Expert in: Science

+ 120 experts online

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

Related Essays

1 pages / 1210 words

4 pages / 1723 words

8 pages / 3815 words

7 pages / 3064 words

Remember! This is just a sample.

You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers.

121 writers online

Still can’t find what you need?

Browse our vast selection of original essay samples, each expertly formatted and styled

Related Essays on Bilingualism

Bilingual education, a system that offers instruction in two languages, has gained recognition and popularity for its numerous advantages in recent years. It provides students with the opportunity to develop proficiency in two [...]

Bilingual education has been a topic of debate in the United States for decades. Richard Rodriguez, in his book "Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez," presents a controversial perspective on bilingual education. [...]

In today's interconnected world, the ability to speak more than one language is becoming increasingly important. With global trade, travel, and communication on the rise, bilingualism has become a valuable asset for individuals [...]

Spanglish, a dynamic fusion of Spanish and English, has become a linguistic and cultural phenomenon in the United States and beyond. While some may view it as a mere linguistic hybrid, Spanglish has found its place in [...]

Studies that involve bilingual acquisition studies highlight the frequency of perception in which language one is stable while language two is compelling because it experiences changes in development. These studies question [...]

Bilingualism offers a unique perspective on language acquisition and cognitive development, challenging conventional notions of language proficiency and highlighting the benefits that come with mastering multiple languages. This [...]

Related Topics

By clicking “Send”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails.

Where do you want us to send this sample?

By clicking “Continue”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy.

Be careful. This essay is not unique

This essay was donated by a student and is likely to have been used and submitted before

Download this Sample

Free samples may contain mistakes and not unique parts

Sorry, we could not paraphrase this essay. Our professional writers can rewrite it and get you a unique paper.

Please check your inbox.

We can write you a custom essay that will follow your exact instructions and meet the deadlines. Let's fix your grades together!

Get Your Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

• Instructions Followed To The Letter
• Deadlines Met At Every Stage
• Unique And Plagiarism Free

• April 8, 2024
• Education Advice

9 Benefits of Learning a Second Language

UOTP Marketing

With the English language being the world’s lingua franca, many English speakers may think it’s not necessary to learn a new one. They aren’t necessarily right. Learning a language never goes to waste. You can use it while in a new country to communicate with the locals so they can help you find your destination or to maybe feel at home after you moved there to teach English to non-English speakers . It can even help you in your job, and your business travels.

Knowing a second language means a whole new literature is in your hands. However, these aren’t the only benefits of learning a second language . There are many more. Here’s our list of nine of them.

FREE RESOURCE

Download Our Free Guide to Online Learning Now!

Learn everything you need about online learning, its benefits, and how to tackle it in order to succeed!

Why Is Learning a Second Language Important?

In today’s increasingly interdependent world, speaking a second language is an essential skill that gives you the ability to communicate and connect with people from all over the world in a quicker and more meaningful way. Connections are now more important than ever, considering the continual globalization of the world’s economy, and knowing a foreign language will always give you a significant advantage.

There are tangible benefits to being bilingual—it can improve your brain and memory functions, boost your creativity and self-esteem,  help in your career opportunities, as well as increase your understanding of the language you already speak. Read on to find out more about the benefits of learning a foreign language.

1. It Stimulates Your Brain

Learning a new language undoubtedly helps your gray matter grow . Acquiring a new language means that you’re going to learn a whole new set of rules of grammar and lexis (whether you find this part amusing or not). While your brain is trying to keep up with the new language’s complexities and take in the new patterns, new developments are happening in the brain. Just like muscles, the brain gets stronger and bigger the more you put it to use.

Nothing challenges the brain like learning a language does. Scientists have established that we use the left side of the brain when speaking our native language. Whereas, second language usage isn’t limited to a specific hemisphere. It uses both of them, increasing the size of the white and grey matter of the brain.

But that is not all; acquiring a new language also helps to stave off cognitive decline and mental aging. Recent research shows that multilingual adults experienced the first signs of Alzheimer’s and dementia at a later age compared to monolinguals. They also researched other variables like health, economic status, educational level, and gender, but none of them contributed as much as the number of languages that person spoke.

2. It Improves Your Attention Span

With the human attention span seemingly narrowing more and more every day, according to many studies, deciding to learn a new language may be the antidote to this situation.  Recent studies show that the average attention span of a person has reduced from twelve to eight seconds. Researchers suggest that learning a new language helps the brain maintain focus and block distractions . This is a result of regularly switching between languages.

When speaking, bilinguals or multilinguals are constantly switching between two or more languages in their head, and this juggling improves the brain’s ability to concentrate on one thing while ignoring other irrelevant information. As one study notes:

“The need to constantly control two languages confers advantages in the executive system, the system that directs cognitive processing. These effects have been demonstrated primarily using visual stimuli and are heightened in children and older adults. Specifically, bilinguals, relative to monolinguals, are better able to monitor conflicting sensory information and tune into a relevant stimulus or stimulus features amid irrelevant information, via a process known as inhibitory control.”

3. More Career Options to Choose From

We are living in a multicultural world; many companies are opening offices overseas to extend their market. So the need for bilingual candidates is greater than ever. By acquiring a foreign language, you will double the number of available jobs for you and climb the career ladder much faster.

In the highly competitive job market , employers are looking to hire someone who stands out from the rest of the candidates. Knowing a foreign language could help you be chosen among many other job applicants. Having a foreign language listed in your CV might be what a potential employer is looking for.

Also, nowadays, people who are proficient in more than one language are high in demand in the job market in all sectors and industries, as the employers consider them to be better communicators and problem solvers. Skills that one master by acquiring a second language.

4. It Boosts Your Creativity

Knowing a foreign language isn’t beneficial only to the brain; it also influences your level of creativity. As a person starts to learn a language, they get familiar with the culture of the place where that language is spoken. The more you learn about new cultures, the more you’ll look at the world around you from different perspectives. The change of views will make you more original, elaborate, and flexible—all qualities of being a creative person.

In addition, learning a new language forces your brain to put words together in creative ways, which stimulates your brain and boosts your creativity. This creativity will spill over into other aspects of your life too. Plus, experts say that being creative improves your well-being , And who are we to argue with experts?

5. It Improves Your First Language

One learns the mother tongue intuitively and without any formal education. Being raised in a society where a particular language is spoken, children start to pick up the language they hear.

However, learning another language is a whole different deal. From the beginning, you’ll get introduced to grammar, vocabulary, idioms, and sentence structure. As you learn more about the second language, you become more conscious of what you know in the first language. While before you couldn’t quite explain the abstract rules and language structure, learning a new language helps you put names to what you learned instinctively in the first language.

Furthermore, you become aware of the differences in structure, vocabulary, grammar, idioms, and sentence structure between the two languages. All of these factors improve comprehension and conversation and can make you better at your first language.

6. You Build Multitasking Skills

Not many people are good at multitasking. However, this often doesn’t apply to bilingual people. They are some of the most experienced when it comes to multitasking. Their brain has been practicing in switching from one language to the other daily. When the brain gets used to this demanding job of switching from one language to another, it isn’t difficult for them to use this skill in other tasks, too.

Interested in pursuing a degree?

Fill out the form and get all admission information you need regarding your chosen program.

This will only take a moment.

Message Received!

Thank you for reaching out to us. we will review your message and get right back to you within 24 hours. if there is an urgent matter and you need to speak to someone immediately you can call at the following phone number:.

By clicking the Send me more information button above, I represent that I am 18+ years of age, that I have read and agreed to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy , and agree to receive email marketing and phone calls from UOTP. I understand that my consent is not required to apply for online degree enrollment. To speak with a representative without providing consent, please call +1 (202) 274-2300

• We value your privacy.

A study done by the National Institutes of Health concluded that bilinguals switch tasks faster than monolinguals. They found that bilingual children in their research responded quite well to their multiple computer tasks in comparison to their monolingual fellows.

Other research also found that bilinguals demonstrate more efficient brain functioning than non-bilinguals, and a bilingual person’s brain maintains better task-switching even as they get older.

7. It Slows Down Cognitive Decline

If you still haven’t started and needed another incentive to start learning a new language, here’s one. Learning a language may reduce your chances of getting early onset of cognitive impairments. More than 16 million people in the United States live with cognitive impairment , be it Alzheimer’s, Dementia, or any other disorder. The latest study on the effect of bilingualism in cognitive aging found that people who spoke more than one language regardless of their gender, ethnicity, and occupation experience the onset of cognitive decline four years and a half later than the ones who spoke only one.

While knowing a second language is not exactly the fountain of youth, it definitely helps keep your brain younger.

8. It Improves Your Memory

The brain is compared to muscles for one reason. Seeing that the more physical exercises you do, the more the muscles strengthen and get larger. This aspect applies to the brain too. The more you challenge it, the more the brain expands, and the better it functions.

You can think of learning a language as an exercise for the brain. Having first to understand and then later recall multiple grammar rules and vocabulary, strengthens the memory muscle. That’s why people who know more than one language are more likely to retain information. They’re way better at remembering lists, names, cell phone numbers, and directions than monolinguals.

Don’t believe that? There is actual evidence that learning vocabulary boosts memory . So, delve into another language and give your brain a good workout to strengthen your memory.

9. It Boosts Your Self-Esteem

No one wants to be put in the spotlight, especially when talking in a foreign language when the chances of making mistakes are quite high. Yet, this is what characterizes language learning. It breaks you out of your shell again and again that eventually, you’ll feel comfortable in every situation regardless of whether you’re making mistakes or not.

Nothing beats the confidence you feel when talking to a native speaker in their language. That’s when your self-esteem will sky-rocket. Becoming proficient in a language is like mastering any other skill. Once you’re there, you’ll feel confident and nice about yourself.

The benefits of learning another language are innumerable. Those that we mentioned in our list are just a part of them. Yet, no matter how many lists are out there, no one can convince you of the benefits as much as your own language learning experience will. With that in mind, choose a language that you find exciting and appealing and open the door to the many benefits that come with language proficiency.

Download Our Free Guide To Pursuing a Successful Accounting Career in 2022!

Uncover the insight you need to get ahead at every stage of your accounting career.

The Bottom Line

Learning a second language is a valuable investment in yourself that can provide numerous benefits, from enhancing cognitive abilities to broadening career opportunities and facilitating cultural exchange. By exploring the world through language, you can gain a deeper understanding and appreciation for different perspectives and cultures. 

If you’re interested in pursuing language learning, the University of Potomac offers a range of courses and programs to help you achieve your goals. Don’t hesitate to explore your options and take the first step towards expanding your horizons.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the benefit of learning a second language.

Learning a second language has numerous benefits, such as improving cognitive abilities, enhancing communication skills, broadening career opportunities, facilitating travel and cultural exchange, and even delaying the onset of age-related mental decline.

How can I learn a second language?

There are several ways to learn a second language, such as taking classes, using language learning software or apps, practicing with native speakers, watching movies or TV shows with subtitles, listening to music or podcasts, and reading books or news articles in the target language.

What is the most useful 2nd language to learn?

The most useful second language to learn depends on your personal goals and interests and the cultural and economic context you are in. However, some of the world’s most widely spoken and influential languages are English, Spanish, Mandarin, French, Arabic, German, Portuguese, Russian, and Japanese.

What are the two hardest languages to learn?

Mandarin Chinese and Arabic are often considered the two hardest languages for English speakers to learn due to their complex writing systems, tonal pronunciation, and grammatical structures that differ significantly from English.

Share it with your friends!

Explore more.

Accounting vs. Finance Degree: Which Major to Choose?

12 Important Bookkeeping Skills You Need for a Successful Career

Recent resources.

What Can You Do With a Hospitality Management Degree? Best Hospitality Careers

What Can You Do with an International Studies Degree [2024]

Associate’s vs. Bachelor’s: Which One To Choose?

INTERESTED IN LEARNING MORE?

Chat with an Admissions Officer Now!

• Associates Degree
• Bachelors Degrees
• Masters Degrees
• Doctoral Degrees
• Faculty & Staff
• Accreditation
• Student Experience

QUICK LINKS

• Admission Requirements
• Military Students
• Financial Aid

Would it be better if we all spoke the same language?

The idea of everybody speaking the same language is not novel, and neither is the notion that this would have significant practical benefits. Indeed, the usefulness of a common language shared by all people is one of the ideas that lie behind the design of languages such as Esperanto , but also behind Star Trek’s universal translator device. A universal language would clearly resolve the huge range of communication problems that are caused by language diversity. So why has this solution not yet been universally implemented?

This issue was at the heart of the Big Question asked in the context of a live-streamed event organised by the outreach initiative Oxplore : Would it be better if we all spoke the same language? The event brought together presenter Miya Madovi, a first-year undergraduate student in Spanish and Linguistics; Katrin Kohl, Professor of German Literature and Lead Researcher of the Creative Multilingualism research project; Marianna Bolognesi, Postdoctoral Researcher within the Creative Multilingualism Metaphor strand ; and Tom Crawford, Tutor in Maths at St Hugh’s College.

Miya kicked off the debate by tackling an even more fundamental question that has been a focus of many discussions, despite appearing simple at first: What is language? One might choose a seemingly straightforward answer – that language is a system of symbols we use to convey meaning. However, the boundaries of language are very fluid. For instance, in the UK there are many Scottish dialects with varying levels of mutual intelligibility that are still all labelled as dialects rather than languages. A different view comes from maths. As language is a way of communicating with symbols, mathematical formulae like Pythagoras’ theorem can also be seen as part of language, since they are universally understood and used to get across information. As Tom Crawford argued, the language of maths can – and should – be considered universal as it is the language of universal concepts describing the universe around us.

However, in terms of natural language (a language that developed naturally as a means of communication between human beings), there is no such thing as one universal language, though one might claim that having one could be useful. Therefore, an interesting question arises: What is the point of speaking more than one language? To answer this question, Katrin Kohl pointed to research which shows that speaking more languages can make us more adaptable. Even English-only speakers in the UK will switch between different varieties of English depending on whom they are talking to (their teacher, friend, grandmother etc.), and this skill will become ever more important in the process of globalisation.

Similarly, a much discussed question is this: Are people who speak more languages smarter than monolinguals? Marianna Bolognesi pointed out that this question is often framed inappropriately – we should be asking whether there are any cognitive benefits in speaking more languages. She continued by explaining that t here are studies showing that bilinguals have more control of the attention system and that bilinguals are on average diagnosed with dementia four to five years later than monolinguals . In addition to this, there are social benefits, and there is some evidence to suggest that bilinguals tend to be more creative .

The debate also had an interactive side with challenging questions from the audience. For instance, one viewer asked if we can really say that maths is a language when it does not convey meaning. Tom Crawford suggested that even though maths differs from spoken languages, it is a universal written language, a system of symbols that convey meaning. Marianna Bolognesi addressed the question of whether speaking only one language would destroy diversity and take away who we are. She pointed out that people who speak different languages have multilingual identities, and that this is a very important part of who we are. It follows that if multilingualism is preserved, we also preserve a richer variety of identities.

To wrap up, the debaters oxplored the Big Question. While it might be claimed that we already all have a universal language – the language of maths – most people would find that a rather restrictive medium of communication. When it comes to natural language, speaking the same language would reduce our creative scope and innovativeness, and it would press us all into the same mould. Knowing different languages allows us to give expression to different cultural identities and it keeps us in touch with our heritage.

Watch the Oxplore discussion on YouTube

Where next?

Poetry workshops: celebrating community languages

Does the image of Germans in the UK press affect whether pupils want to study the language?

“Reader, I went through a wedding ceremony with him”: Translating Jane Eyre

Share this page

• Share with Facebook
• Share with Twitter
• Share with LinkedIn
• Conferences
• Advisory board
• Intelligibility
• Creative Economy
• World Literatures
• Prismatic Translation
• Language Learning
• LinguaMania: The Podcast
• New Perspectives on Modern Languages Research
• We Are Children of the World
• Prismatic Jane Eyre
• Babel: Adventures in Translation
• Multilingual Performance Project
• LinguaMania
• Multilingual poetry in schools
• Language Lives
• Working Languages
• Exploring Multilingualism
• Public Engagement with Research: a toolkit for Modern Languages researchers
• Creativity with Languages in Schools - A Report
• Slanguages in the Creative Economy - A Report
• Creative Multilingualism Goes Digital
• (Re)Creating Modern Languages: Toolkit
• Ask the Teachers! GCSE curriculum and exam content survey (2020)
• Consulting Teachers on the DfE’s Proposal for GCSE Content in Languages (2021)
• OWRI Student Language Ambassador Programme Evaluation Report
• Languages in the UK

Multilingualism Essay

Introduction.

Multilingualism is defined as the ability of a person to speak in more than one language. To many people it is easier to learn a first language than a second language. This is because learning the second language involves learning new things or aspects about the language. Some of the reasons for it being hard could be because old learners may no longer possess the natural ability of acquiring languages like the young children.

There lacks an agreed method of collecting data relating to L1 and L2 learning and this has made most of the data collected unreliable. Mostly, the data related to linguistic is collected informally and this has also contributed to making the data unreliable.

Natural capacity and social experience play a big role in language learning. Naturally, human beings have an innate capability to learn their first language right from birth. This explains why all children start learning their first language at the same age and in the same manner and beyond some age limit, then learning of this language can never be complete.

It is, therefore, clear that part of first language learning in children is genetic. The role of social experience in language acquisition is seen through the fact that children learn to communicate using language that is used by the people around them. Proper social experience and interaction is thus an important factor in language learning.

First and Second Language Learning can be compared using three distinct phases. The first phase involves fundamental knowledge concerning language structures and policies in the mind of the learner during first or second language acquisition.

The second phase entails all stages of language acquisition and development including maturational changes that occur during child grammatical development. The third and last phase is a product of first and second language learning.

During first or second language learning, language input is an essential factor. However, though first language learning in children takes place in the absence of facilitating conditions such as instructions, feedback, and aptitude. Second language learning requires these facilitating conditions for it to be successful.

The question on the possibility of children to attain the last state of first language development with ease and absolute success given the complicated nature of the language and their undeveloped cognitive ability at the learning age poses a logical problem in language acquisition. This problem according to linguists is associated with syntactic phenomena.

Various theoretical frameworks offer the bases for different approaches in learning of Second Language Acquisition (SLA). These include linguistic, psychological, and social frameworks. The Linguistic frameworks focus on the internal and external aspects of language. The internal sets focus on the goals of the study and looks at understanding linguistic proficiency instead of describing it as it was done in earlier structuralism.

The focus done on the external aspect in SLA stresses on language use, and this includes the functions of the language that are learnt in different stages. The Psychological frameworks focus on the languages and the brain. They also focus on the learning processes or the differences on an individual. The final framework is the social framework that focuses on the micro and macro factors that affect the learning process.

Some people are more successful in learning a second language than other people. This could be due to differences in emotional involvement, gender, and age. The above three frameworks complement one another, and there is a need to gain an understanding of the full spectrum of each framework.

• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2023, December 7). Multilingualism. https://ivypanda.com/essays/multilingualism-essay/

"Multilingualism." IvyPanda , 7 Dec. 2023, ivypanda.com/essays/multilingualism-essay/.

IvyPanda . (2023) 'Multilingualism'. 7 December.

IvyPanda . 2023. "Multilingualism." December 7, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/multilingualism-essay/.

1. IvyPanda . "Multilingualism." December 7, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/multilingualism-essay/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Multilingualism." December 7, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/multilingualism-essay/.

• Multilingualism and Identity
• Societal Multilingualism and Linguistic Endangerment
• Bilingualism and Multilingualism
• Foreign Accent as Aspect of Multilingualism
• The Spread of Multilingualism in School
• Effects of Multilingualism on Saudi Arabian Children
• Multilingualism and Children Language Behaviour
• Linguistics: Bilingualism, Multilingualism and Tolerance
• Language Switching in Bilingual Older Adults
• The Use of Spanish Language by Guillermo Gómez-Peña
• Mandarin Chinese
• Real Time and Apparent Time Studies
• The Role of Contact between English and Arabic in Egypt
• Creative Ways of Teaching the Grammar
• Grammatical Paradox in English Language

For Bilinguals, Identity Is Influenced by Language

A new book reviews influences of speaking more than one language..

Posted April 3, 2023 | Reviewed by Devon Frye

• Bilinguals, individuals who are fluent in two languages, may not be aware of how language affects their cognition and behavior.
• The language being spoken at a given moment can influence what someone is reminded of, the decisions they make, and their identity.
• Asking oneself questions in multiple languages could help multilingual people better navigate these effects when making important decisions.

Language plays a significant role in all aspects of human social and cognitive life. People communicate with each other in a language. The language they speak also structures a number of aspects of the way they think. These effects become even more complex when people speak more than one language. Bilingual (or multilingual) individuals are those who have excellent fluency in two (or more) languages.

A great new book by the cognitive scientist Viorica Marian called The Power of Language explores a number of influences of speaking multiple languages on the way people engage, think, and act. One of the more fascinating sections of the book examines how people think about themselves depending on the language they are using to think about themselves.

If you speak more than one language, chances are you use them in different circumstances. For example, you may have one language that you use at home with family and another that you use at work and in your interactions with people around where you live. You might have a language that you spoke growing up, but that you speak more rarely later in life. You might have a language you speak only in professional situations, but another language that you use in your daily interactions.

These differences in context influence what memories you call to mind when you are asked questions (or ask yourself questions) in the different languages you speak. For example, suppose you speak one language at home and another at work. If you are asked to think about something you have done recently that is fun, you might be more likely to think of an event with your family when asked in the language you speak at home, but an enjoyable interaction with colleagues when asked in the language you speak at work.

The language used to answer the question makes it easier to think of memories associated with using that language. The memories you retrieve in a situation affect what you are likely to do and even how you are likely to feel in that situation.

In addition, properties of the language itself can affect your decisions. In the book, Dr. Marian points out that some languages (like English) require you to use a different tense when talking about events in the present versus the future. For example, if you say “I am walking in the park,” you are talking about something happening right now, but you have to say “I will walk in the park,” to talk about a future walk you are going to take. Other languages (like German and Mandarin) do not require a different grammatical tense to talk about present and future events.

The evidence suggests that people who speak languages whose grammar requires a distinction between present and future are less likely to make choices that benefit their future selves (like saving for retirement ) than people who speak languages that do not. Consequently, the actions you take when speaking different languages can have very different implications for your future.

How people think, act, and feel is a significant part of their identity . So, in a very psychologically real way, the language bilinguals are speaking affects their identity in that moment. They are going to be reminded of different experiences. They are going to have different emotional reactions to situations. They may even make very different kinds of decisions.

Interestingly, many of these effects of speaking more than one language can happen without the speaker being aware of them. In the moment, people are engaging with the world in one of the languages they speak. They have no clear way of knowing what they would have done had they been speaking their other language. So, they have no good way to compare their reaction to what they might have done otherwise.

That means that in important situations, bilinguals might want to try asking themselves questions in both of their languages before moving forward. This exercise might lead to insights about ways that their identity is somewhat different depending on the language they’re speaking—and that might lead to different (and hopefully better) outcomes than when they engage using only one language.

Marian, V. (2023). The power of language: How the codes we use to think, speak, and live transform our minds . New York: Dutton Publishers.

Art Markman, Ph.D. , is a cognitive scientist at the University of Texas whose research spans a range of topics in the way people think.

• Find a Therapist
• Find a Treatment Center
• Find a Psychiatrist
• Find a Support Group
• Find Online Therapy
• International
• New Zealand
• South Africa
• Switzerland
• Asperger's
• Bipolar Disorder
• Chronic Pain
• Eating Disorders
• Passive Aggression
• Personality
• Goal Setting
• Positive Psychology
• Stopping Smoking
• Low Sexual Desire
• Relationships
• Child Development
• Therapy Center NEW
• Diagnosis Dictionary
• Types of Therapy

Understanding what emotional intelligence looks like and the steps needed to improve it could light a path to a more emotionally adept world.

• Coronavirus Disease 2019
• Affective Forecasting
• Neuroscience

More From Forbes

3 english-speaking countries to retire to.

• Share to Facebook
• Share to Twitter
• Share to Linkedin

The view of Bacuit archipelago islands from El Nido, Philippines

For many people considering a move overseas one of the biggest barriers they face is the language barrier.

They may not feel able to master a new language… not have time to… or simply not want to… but the fear of not being able to communicate in your adopted homeland can be off-putting.

Happily there are plenty of destinations around the world where English is widely-spoken meaning fluency in a new language doesn’t have to be a requirement for a new adventure overseas.

Here are some of your best options for destinations where you’ll find English-speaking locals and an easy route to expat life…

Paradise beach in Placencia, Belize

Formerly a British colony, Belize’s official language is English. Indeed, it’s the only English-language-official country in Central America.

About 83% of the country speaks English as their first language, while many also speak Creole and Spanish.

Leases and legal contracts are in English… English-speaking staff are available at clinics… Media and the news are delivered in English. The average person you come into contact with, whether it’s a cashier or a government official, speaks English.

Huawei s Pura 70 Ultra Beats iPhone With Pioneering New Feature

Sh gun episode 10 review a powerful finale but not what i was expecting, the trump media stock price djt is about to adjust down by 22 7.

This ease of language is a big reason why many American and Canadian expats choose to move to Belize.

Plus, the people are welcoming, open-minded, and eclectic—and the country has excellent residency programs.

In addition, Belize offers Caribbean living at a much lower cost than elsewhere in the region—around $1,500 a month is a good guide as a start point for your costs here.

When it comes to residency options things are straightforward. There’s the Qualified Retirement Program (QRP) which is open to applicants over 40 who can prove a monthly income from a source outside of the country (such as a pension or Social Security) of $2,000.

Alternatively, you can just go to Belize and stay there for 12 months continually renewing your tourist visa. After that time you can then apply for permanent residency.

For many expats the easy-going lifestyle and live and let live attitude of the locals here is a big selling point.

View of Lady of Mount Carmel church, St.Paul's Cathedral in Valletta city, Malta

Malta, a former British colony, has two official languages: English and Maltese. About 88% of the population is fluent in English, and laws are enacted in both languages so you shouldn’t have any trouble being understood or understanding the locals.

Your residency options here include Citizenship by Investment, a Permanent Residence Scheme, a Family Visa and the Ordinary Residence Scheme.

The Ordinary Residence Scheme is the most popular with the key requirements being able to show a net worth of €14,000 for a single or €23,000 for a couple, that you spend a minimum of 183 days per calendar year in Malta, and evidence of a physical address in the country which can be through a real estate purchase or rental agreement.

Once you’ve been a legal resident in Malta for five years, you can apply for permanent residency.

Malta also offers excellent health care, a beautiful natural landscape, fantastic climate,—the year-round daytime temperature hovers around 73°F—rich history, large expat communities, and friendly locals.

As regards downsides, Malta is both small and popular so beaches can get crowded and traffic congested, particularly in the capital, Valletta.

The Philippines

Puka beach in Boracay Island, Western Visayas, Philippines

Lying about 500 miles off the southeast coast of China and to the northeast of Borneo, the Philippines is a breathtakingly beautiful archipelago of over 7,000 islands.

Colonized by the Spanish in 1521, their influence remains today in architecture, names, food, and more. Indeed, Spanish was the official language of the Philippines for over three centuries and was the lingua franca up until the 21st century. Today, Filipino and English are the official languages.

English has official status because the Philippines was a U.S. colony from 1898 to 1946 and today it’s recognized as one of the world’s largest English-speaking nations. English is the language of business and law, and more than half of the country’s population—which totals around 118 million people—speak it.

The Philippine Retirement Authority offers several options for those looking to move to the country. The most popular and well-known of which is the Special Resident Retiree’s Visa.

To qualify, applicants need to be aged 50 or older, show a pension of $800 per month ($1,000 per month for couples), and deposit a minimum of $10,000 in a Philippine bank account. If you can’t prove a monthly pension, you can opt to make a $20,000 deposit in a local bank account, instead.

The Philippines also offers top-notch health care and is home to the only overseas VA hospital in the world—the Manila Regional Office and Outpatient Clinic. Add to that, world-class beaches, a tropical climate, and a low-cost of living—on $2,000 a month a couple could live very well here—and it adds up to a great option for an overseas retirement.

These are just some of your options for an overseas retirement without having to learn a new language but the fact is in a host of countries you’ll find areas where you can settle in easily and get by in English.

In Europe, consider Greece, Cyprus, Spain, Portugal, Croatia, Germany, Norway, Slovenia, and France where you’ll find either a large number of English-speaking locals, areas with large expat populations and healthy tourism trades, or a combination of both meaning getting by in English poses no problem.

In Mexico, Lake Chapala, Puerto Vallarta, Puerto del Carmen, Cancun, Guadalajara, San Miguel de Allende, and beyond would work for those who only speak English and the same applies in Panama’s expat havens of Boquete and Coronado.

Of course, it’s always a good idea to pick up as much of the local language anywhere you go, the locals will appreciate it and it will broaden your social circle, but it’s by no means essential to be fluent before you pack your bags for pastures new.

• Editorial Standards
• Reprints & Permissions