Interesting article in this month’s edition of the New Scientist (May 2012). Entitled “My Two Minds” it highlights the advantage of being bilingual. Being able to speak two languages is of course a million miles away from learning two languages. I must confess to spending seven useless years learning French at secondary school. Since it was a compulsory subject, in those days, everyone, no matter their aptitude, was required to study it. However, such was my dire ability; I was granted the only exception in a school of five hundred pupils. Following some discussion among staff it was decided that my inability to understand anything in French threatened to unfairly humiliate the teaching staff in the end of term exam and I was granted an exemption. I was relieved beyond measure as I have long suffered from what I call a blackboard memory. I can keep only a certain amount of stuff in my head and once overloaded must remove existing material to make room for new items. So when asked to memorise table, chair and light in French it seemed my brain carefully removed the few French verbs that may have crept slowly and painstakingly onto the board of my limited brain. Strangely, with anything mathematical I was okay. Perhaps mathematical and scientific formula could be squeezed onto my limited blackboard with greater density? Who knows and who cares? This article however, seems to indicate that I should.
It turns out that being bilingual leads to better brain development. Studies have shown that bilinguals out perform monolinguals in 15 verbal and non-verbal tests. This brain development begins early and bilingual babies (babies exposed to two languages from birth) show increased neural development. It is as if being exposed to two languages at even this early stage invigorates learning in a fundamental way. The bilingual brain has two languages competing for attention and as a result our brain appoints a Fat Controller within the brain to decide which word to use and inhibiting the same word in the other language. This process is remarkably similar to those cultivated in commercial brain training programs.
I can remember an example of this vividly in my own home. At a large gathering of Greek and English friends my youngest son discovered a large tick had bitten him on the stomach and while its head was buried deep in his juicy flesh its derriere was happily wriggling in relish in plain sight. In outraged anguish he howled his distress first in English with loads of expletives. Then, a few seconds later, he repeated his howl in fluent Greek with an even richer stream of obscenities and curses. Most would have settled for one or the other but being bilingual he obviously felt duty bound to explode fully in both. The Fat Controller must have been on a tea break.
The ability to curse in Greek is an art form. I remember passing a Greek kicking his broken motorbike and hearing him curse with growing volume, his bike, his boss, his wife, the Virgin Mary, Jesus and finally God. It seemed that not until he had insulted the full house could his anger be fully spent. The New Scientist article seemed to bear out cultural differences such as this. Indeed, it appears that bilingual people act differently depending on what language they speak. They seem to have two mental channels one for each language, like two different minds. For example Japanese-English bilinguals when asked to complete a set of unfinished sentences in two separate sessions – first in one and then in the other language demonstrated very different endings depending on the language. Given the sentence
“Real friends should …..” In Japanese was followed by
“… help each other out”
Whereas in English this became
“…be very frank”
It would appear that each language brings to mind the culture and experience it has sprung from. Once, I over heard my eldest son on the phone to a Greek friend and remonstrated that his use of the F___ word seemed totally uncalled for. Not a bit, he informed me, if you spoke Greek properly, you have to curse! But expletives aside, the article finished by indicating those who are bilingual seem to suffer less from dementia and Alzheimer’s. Even when occupation and education factors were taken into account! It is difficult to learn a new language in latter life but apparently the benefits of doing so add considerably to our cognitive systems even at this late stage. “Learn a language at any age to remain mentally stimulated. That’s a source of cognitive reserve” – exhorts the article.
Speaking as someone who learned French for seven years and failed to speak it, then lived in Greece for almost a decade and failed again, I have a huge Brechers Brook mental hurdle about languages. An image of a limited blackboard appears closer to the truth than I care to admit. By not managing to speak those languages, perhaps, I have served to further reduce the area of brain space/blackboard available to me upstairs. The conclusion appears to be, don’t do as I did, do as I say, learn a language, any language for your brain’s sake.
