105 Learning Journal #9

[Jacob Park]

Reading the articles, I was pleasantly surprised. As a bilingual myself, I was surprised to find that they generally perform better in certain tasks. However, through personal experience, I have not experienced this. Growing up with friends that are also bilinguals, it never occurred to me that they were smarter than the rest. I do believe that bilinguals should be respected because of their ability to speak two different languages. I did notice that the bilinguals did perform slightly better in classes such as math or science. Since these classes require more logic and require the use of the more technical side of your brain, I can see what the article was trying to say. However, just growing up with my bilingual friends did not make me think that they were more superior than those who can only speak one language. I believe that it is a good skill to have to be able to speak two languages, but I do not believe that it makes us smarter people. The article also mentioned that this can be seen with the older generation and that it can prevent dementia, but I personally do not know any bilinguals that are in the older ages. I did read somewhere that the more puzzles and the more involved your brain is, the more prevention it can do for dementia. Speaking two different languages will definitely exercise your brain, so I do believe that there is possibility of prevention for dementia.