105 Journal #10

[Gabrielle Raffio]

After reading Yudhijt Bhattacharjee’s article “Why Bilinguals Are Smarter,” I found myself feeling proud and satisfied for taking SDLC. This article confirmed many beliefs I had about bilinguals and made me want to continue my Hebrew studies. The part of the article that talked about the executive functions reminded me of another course I am taking and how people with more fully developed executive functions are actually more successful academically. I think that in America the way we go about learning languages is disruptive in its nature. Growing up, I took French starting in 6^th grade and was only in my class for 3 hours a week. How could a teacher expect a student to learn a whole new language in such limited time? I think that we should teach children two languages throughout their entire lives, beginning at childhood. Another part of the article I found interesting is that bilinguals are better at creative problem solving. As someone who is applying for jobs, I have found that one of the key skills employers are looking for is analytical thinking skills. I think that bilinguals are much better at analytical thinking and therefore would stand out in an applicant pool. This article was very interesting and should encourage people to want to learn multiple languages.