It’s no surprise in today’s increasingly global world that being bilingual has its advantages. From a practical perspective, proficiency in a second language opens up a wealth of job opportunities. Across virtually ever industry, there is a need for effectively connecting with a multilingual workforce, and of course the importance of connecting with a multilingual customer base – whether domestic or international – cannot be overstated. From a linguistic perspective, once you’ve studied one foreign language, learning another is significantly easier. From a social perspective, learning a language opens up new worlds and facilitate connections between people.
Beyond the practical, linguistic and social advantages is yet another: cognitive. Being bilingual makes you smarter. As if the first three advantages aren’t enough, new bodies of research are highlighting the very real cognitive advantages, as noted in the recent New York Times Article, Why Bilinguals Are Smarter.
The article notes the shifting perspective on second language learning, initially viewing it as an interference that hindered academic development to quite the opposite:
They were not wrong about the interference: there is ample evidence that in a bilingual’s brain both language systems are active even when he is using only one language, thus creating situations in which one system obstructs the other. But this interference, researchers are finding out, isn’t so much a handicap as a blessing in disguise. It forces the brain to resolve internal conflict, giving the mind a workout that strengthens its cognitive muscles.
Bilingualism not only helps the young in the academic success, but it’s been shown to delay the onset of dementia. Add these to the many other benefits of bilingualism, and it seems that learning another language is a no-brainer.
