105 Learning Journal #9

[Noelle Garcia]

I think being bilingual actually does make a person smarter, but not in the way that they’re intellectually more superior than others. It just adds to the person’s skills in being able to process things in more creative ways, because in translating sentences or words from one language to another, you have to think of how one language is structured, and then re-arranging it so that it makes sense in another. Also I feel like being fluent in more than one language exposes you to a whole slew of vocabulary that adds to your language library. But it all depends on how people define intelligence, and maybe it’s not fair to say that bilinguals are smarter. Maybe it would make more sense to say that bilinguals have more enhanced language skills than others, that could possibly extend to other areas in their lives. At the same time, the exposure to different cultures that turns a person bilingual could mean they are more open and aware of other cultures and ways of life, but that still does not necessarily mean they’re smarter. “Smart”or “intelligent” are very subjective words, and if I were monolingual, I would be very offended if people thought bilinguals are smarter. In a way, I agree and disagree with the concept but being bilingual does add cognitive-processing skills.