5 Cognitive Benefits of Being Bilingual

The cognitive benefits of being bilingual. We are surrounded by language nearly every waking moment of our lives. We use language to communicate our thoughts and feelings, to connect with others and identify with our culture, and to understand the world around us. And for many people, this rich linguistic environment involves not just one language, but 2 or more. But is there any real benefit to being multilingual? And what are the best techniques and resources for learning a new language? This is exactly what we will be discussing today. Welcome back, Kwik Brains. I am your host and your brain coach, Jim Kwik. Research has shown that the majority of the world's population is multilingual. In a survey conducted by the European Commission in 2006, 56% of of respondents reported being able to speak in one other language besides their mother tongue. In this episode, we'll look at the impact that being multilingual can have on key brain functions like concentration, memory, task switching, creativity, and even cognitive decline. You'll also get practical tips on effective techniques for quickly picking up new languages, and I'll share 2 resources that can support this. Let's open up those neural pathways and become more multilingual. How does being multilingual affect your cognitive skills? Bilingual adults have increased white matter integrity and denser gray matter compared to adults who only speak one language, which means their second language experience boosts the brain's overall reserves. Here are 5 ways learning languages can improve your cognitive skills. Number 1, deepening your concentration skills. It has been found that learning a new language for just 5 hours per week shows a positive impact on students' levels of alertness and focus after just 1 week of practice. Number 2, better memory retention. Who doesn't want that? Studying a language engages memorization skills as well as recall. It improves both short-term and long-term memory. So it's no surprise that people who regularly use a second language have more potentially powerful memory. In fact, research shows that people who speak a second language regularly perform better on memory tests than monolingual people do. Number 3, better attention and task-switching capacities. A bilingual brain has developed the ability to inhibit one language while using another. This means that when a bilingual person uses one language, the other is active at the same time. For example, when you hear a word, you don't actually hear the entire word all at once. The sounds arrive in sequential order, and the brain's language system begins to guess what the word might be by activating lots of words that match the signal, and this happens long before you have ever finished the word. For bilingual people, this activation is not limited to a single language. The auditory input activates corresponding words across all the languages you know. Next, higher creativity levels. Researchers across different studies have found that bilingual children exhibit more creativity in problem-solving, decision-making, and having a more flexible attitude and approach to things than their monolingual peers. The same is also true for learners of a second language. Next, protection against cognitive decline. This is something I'm very passionate about. Many of you know that my grandmother passed of Alzheimer's. You don't have to be a certain age to benefit from being bilingual. For example, bilingual seniors can experience less cognitive decline, and students who are learning a second language later in life can still benefit from some of the neurological changes, no matter what level they are at. As we already know, having new experiences or novelty is a very important factor in forming new connections in the brain. We talk a lot about neuroplasticity. Studying a new language combines novelty with practice, and this combination is one of the reasons that language learning is such an effective brain workout and protects older learners against dementia and other neurological conditions. In order to maintain these links and connections, you have to practice regularly. Remember, consistency compounds. What are some of the learning techniques for languages to learn them fast and remembering them? This is one of the most asked questions when it comes to learning a new language. And I will share with you a few techniques that you could use for this. We go through many of these in our Kwik Recall program. There are whole modules on language and learnings to accelerate your ability to learn another language. I'll highlight some of them here, but if you want more in depth, go to kwikrecall.com. All right, so the first one is word substitution. This is a method that can be used for both memorizing vocabulary and foreign language words. So word substitution is when you take a word that you don't yet know and you want to know, and you come up with an image that is more easily memorable, and then you attach this image or substitution to the new word. So a quick example, if you want to take a word like butterfly in Spanish, mariposa, you would take the word and what does it sound like? For me, it sounds like Mary posing. And who is Mary posing with? A butterfly. Simple image, right? But these are examples of using your creative mind because what you tend to see, you tend to remember. Also, it adds some emotion to it and makes it more playful. So that's something you could do if you want to take a word like in Spanish. If we're talking about learning Spanish as a second language, how do you say eggs in Spanish? Huevos, right? So if you just imagine looking at the water and there are all these waves and there are these O's in the waves, and what are you tossing in the O's? Eggs, right? So that'd be an example, a simple example of word substitution. We go way deeper in our Kwik Recall program with many, many examples in many different languages. So this new word sound, it helps to break it down into syllables, right? You visualize the word in action and you can break it down to the sounds. Would you like to have an owner's manual for your brain that could help you unlock all of its powers and abilities? I want to introduce you to the Limitless Mind course. A transformative journey designed to show you exactly how to operate your brain for greater success in all areas of life. In just 21 days, you'll activate expert level of memory, read faster than you could ever imagine, significantly enhance your focus, and gain a competitive advantage with your productivity. The Limitless Mind course is packed with easy-to-watch video lessons, that cover proven tips, tools, and strategies, plus digital worksheets tailored for your ultimate learning experience. Join thousands who have transformed their cognitive abilities and opened doors to incredible opportunities. Just visit thelimitlessmind.com to start your journey today. Another technique that we teach in Kwik Recall is called spaced repetition. What is that? Spaced repetition follows the approach of repeating a list of words every few hours or days instead of repeating them 100 times at once in one day. And what this technique helps, it helps to transfer information from your short-term memory to your long-term memory. It might take a little more time, but it's really smart repetition. Imagine revisiting your notes or your flashcards an hour later, a day later, a week later, and a month later. It helps you to consolidate that short to long-term memory. There was a team of researchers that studied a group of language learners over a 9-year period and found that increasing both the number of repetitions and the length between study intervals improved retention and memory of that new language. Next, learning words within the context. Students often learn new vocabulary in isolation where they are provided with a list of words and expected to learn them. This usually involves creating a list of 2 columns, one column for the word in foreign language and another column in their mother tongue. Such drill and repetition exercises often only work for a few, but for many, the words just— they really don't stick. One way to improve your recall of words that you learn is to encourage students to place the words in the appropriate context. Remember, there's content. If content is king, then context is the kingdom. So place the words in an appropriate context. What does that mean? This might be a short example sentence that shows the word being used, or it could even be a simple word association. As an additional benefit, this technique also helps students to recall and reiterate the correct use of the word in a sentence, and not just that huevos is the Spanish word for eggs. Another technique is using music. Playing music in the background while you're studying, classical music specifically, the Baroque era, helps to put you in what they call an alpha state. That's a relaxed state of awareness. Imagine you become like a sponge that absorbs information better. It harmonizes with the resting heart rate, 60 beats per minute. So look into classical music, specifically from the Baroque era. Vivaldi, Handel. Here's another technique is immersion. One of the best ways of learning something is to deeply immerse yourself. Now, this might be arguably the most fun way to learn a language when you could visit a place where the native language is the one that you want to learn. And it's a very effective way, obviously, of learning. Being located in a foreign country creates a sense urgency, because of the need to communicate with people around you. And the language also is proven to be easier to take in within the context of the culture that is surrounding it. As a bonus, interacting with natives will teach you the common slang and the specific nuances of a language as opposed to the quote-unquote textbook version. There are clubs in most cities where you could go to dinner And specifically you can't speak your primary language and it forces you to immerse. Or you could watch shows in your favorite language or music in your favorite language. This is a way of immersing yourself if you can't travel. The most important thing is to make learning anything more fun. You want to add joy to it, playfulness. And of course learning is messy just like life, but it's going through that little bit of challenge that creates change. So here are 2, 2 resources that I'm transparently not affiliated with. You could go online and look for a rehearsal app for running lines on your own. I don't have one that I recommend specifically, but there are rehearsal apps that allow you to practice this language learning. There's one called Duolingo for learning a new language from scratch. This is an app that many people in our community use. Individually to get the most out of learning anything from Spanish to Mandarin. The 3rd bonus one I'll give you is join our Kwik Recall program. Kwik Recall really is the flagship memory improvement program. We have students in every country in the world and we go way in depth on how to improve your memory, take care of your brain, how to learn a new language. If you want to find out more information, just go to kwikrecall.com. I really encourage it. This is my favorite program that we have, Kwik Recall, kwikrecall.com. So in conclusion, whether you're a learner or maybe you're a teacher of other languages, you're building skills, exercising your brain, and you're building your cognitive reserves every time you speak a second language. And remember, learning is never not a spectator sport. So practice your new language skills at every opportunity, whether it's you're reading a book, you're listening to music, you're watching a movie in this new language, or if you have the opportunity to be able to travel to this place or this country where that language is spoken. So I hope you enjoyed this quick episode, and which language are you most excited about? Post it on social media. Make sure you tag me @JimKwik. I'll repost some of them at random and some of our favorites always. And make sure you subscribe, especially if you're watching this on YouTube where we put the extended version of our episodes beyond 20 minutes that we do for the audio. Join 1.5 million subscribers there. And how do we become limitless in a limited world? We do it together. I'll see you in our next episode. This is your brain coach, Jim Quick. Be limitless.