Journal #9

[Dominique Brown]

I do not particularly agree that being bilingual makes an individual smarter than someone who speaks only one language. However, since the brains of bilinguals are wired to interpret concepts in two languages at all times, bilinguals therefore exercise their brains more than people who speak a single language. Their brains are more readily to readjust the way it understands things by creating new pathways in the brain in a process called neuroplasticity. For example, if a bilingual person had a disease such as Alzheimer’s, it would perhaps take the disease longer to have an effect on the individual since he or she would possess an alternative way to interpret things.