Did you know that language learning has immense and multiple health benefits?
The following list shows you some of the ways that learning a new language at any stage of life can improve your mental and physical health.
Did you know that language learning could do this?
How Language Learning Improves Your Health
1. It increases brain volume
Learning languages helps different areas of the brain increase its volume.
Several scientists discovered in 2012 that practicing a language constantly generates a greater thickness in the hippocampus, a brain structure that deals mainly with memory.
2. It prevents dementia
A study of nearly seven hundred people concluded that bilingual people can delay the development of diseases such as Alzheimer’s by up to five years.
As a result, the average age of onset of dementia for a monolingual adult is seventy years. In these cases the drugs only manage to postpone it for six to twelve months. For bilinguals, the first symptoms are discovered in the seventy-five.
The American Academy of Neurology has stated that “speaking more than one language increases the nerve pathways of the brain, facilitating the processing of information through different channels.”
3. It improves math skills
A 2007 study from the University of Massachusetts confirmed that children studying a foreign language get better results in mathematics than those who don’t.
This was shown by various experiments conducted at the University of Michigan. They examined several students studying ninety minutes a week for a foreign language for one semester. The result was an improvement in his math grades.
4. It improves creativity
When you create new grammar structures in a language other than your own, you are “forced” to be creative. You often have to think of an alternative word that you’re not used to using.
This has been confirmed by several studies that explain that multilingual or bilingual people are more creative than monolingual people.
5. It sharpens your hearing
Being bilingual can improve listening skills because the brain has to work harder to distinguish different types of sounds in two or more languages.
6. It can increase self-confidence and decision-making
Just claiming that you want to learn a new language reinforces your self-confidence.
In addition, you can try having a conversation with a native speaker, no matter your level. That will increase your courage and you increase your confidence towards taking risks in the future.
7. It improves your memory
If you want to improve your memory, there is nothing better than practicing and trying to learn a new language.
Learning requires a variety of mental exercises. Several studies have shown that bilingual people better retain names, addresses, or even shopping lists.
8. Your attention span is boosted
A study by several scientists at York University found that people who handle two or more languages at once show signs of greater control over their attention span. They are able to limit distractions more optimally than the rest.
The Pompeu Fabra University of Barcelona confirmed that multilingual people are better at observing their environment, as they have the ability to focus their attention on the most relevant information.
9. It improves your English
It is known to all that your native tongue is always the most developed of all, but what if we could perfect it even more?
By practicing and internalizing a second language, you better understand the language structures and rules that govern your first language.
