SDLC 105 Journal #10

[Chelsea Prough]

     "Why Bilinguals Are Smarter" made a lot of sense to me. When I've read before about how in the past people tried to get bilingual kids to stop speaking their second language, it always seemed illogical. Because the brain is using its executive function to multitask between languages, it is improving cognitive skills and opening up new pathways of thought. I know some other languages, but I really wish I had been fluently bilingual in something from childhood! In addition to the cognitive benefits of bilingualism for people, exposing children to a second language opens them up to a whole other culture. With this appreciation for differences and greater understanding of the world, children become more culturally intelligent as well. I remember my first experience learning a language other than English--when I was really little I was playing with plastic food items and my mom taught me their names in French (she had taken it in school). Even though I was very young I still remember some of those names and how interested I was in discovering something new. It was definitely easier to learn a second language as a child. When I lived in Italy in elementary school I picked up the language much more rapidly than I did when I went back to study abroad. Nevertheless, I thought it was really interesting in the article when it said that learning a second language has cognitive and health benefits for adults and even for the elderly. It gives me hope to keep striving to become bilingual!