Learning second language 'slows brain ageing'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-27634990

by Nux • 12 years ago

18 13 12 years ago

bbc.co.uk

Nux• 12 years ago

Wonder if it applies to "programming languages", too. :-)

lwhalen• 12 years ago

I wonder if it applies to music. I've never met a musician who didn't consider music its own language.

PeterWhittaker3• 12 years ago

I believe it does, see comment above.

Kronopath• 12 years ago

I do question whether they have the arrow of causality pointing the right way. Did these people have better cognitive abilities because they learned another language, or did they find it easier to learn another language because they had better cognitive abilities?

jimrandomh• 12 years ago

Definitely pointing the wrong way, and it's obvious enough that I would call the headline dishonest. Flagged.

PeterWhittaker3• 12 years ago

Disagree, see comment on parent.

Fuxy• 12 years ago

Hard to say I'm fluent in 3 languages and trying to learn another one but i fail to see how it would affect intelligence.

Mostly it's just remembering words how to speak them what they mean and how they should be used correctly.

In that case would learning programming languages have the same effect.

PeterWhittaker3• 12 years ago

Once you get past 2-3 languages you start to think differently. I'm 48, have spoken English since 2-3, French since 5-6, added a little German in uni, then some Turkish, then some Spanish, and more recently some Greek and Arabic. Then some Latin. That might have been the one that tipped the scale, hard to say.

Along the way I noticed a change in how I think. I can only describe it as more visceral, though I know that is both ambiguous and terribly unhelpful.

I used to think in English. Or at least it felt that way. Now I know that I do not - at least not any more. The concepts and notions come first, followed more or less swiftly by the words or phrases in as many languages in which I know them.

I am mentally sharper and more creative now that when I hit my "peak" (late 30s for guys), which, given how fit I was, surprises me.

(No, I don't have formal testing to support that. But I learn faster, can do more IQ-type-things better than I used to be able to, etc.)

NOTE: I also picked up playing music over the last 7 years. That might be the tipper as well.

eob• 12 years ago

I would really like to see a study that compares learning a second language while living in that country versus learning a second language as an academic exercise.

Both involve a lot of work, but the latter --- which probably accounts for most language learning --- involves a lot more intentional effort rather than passive learning.

rdudek• 12 years ago

Learning the language is one thing, but remembering it is quite another. I was born in Poland and now live in the States. We speak Polish at home and English pretty much everywhere else. I've also learned Spanish, but I do have a hard time being proficient at it since I don't use it.

Dewie• 12 years ago

I would really like to see a study that compares learning a second language while living in that country versus learning a second language as an academic exercise.

You say that as if learning it at home necessitates an academic approach, or an academic motivation? I hate the academic approach to language learning (as in; the way I've been forced to learn languages in school). I far prefer immersion and systematically memorizing vocabulary to rigidly memorizing vocabulary (word for word, no context, no mnemoc aids) and painstakingly practice grammar. I want to learn languages for communicating, not for reading "Shakespear".

This approach is probably doable even if you're not living in a relevant country. Immersion is probably definitely harder, though.

I've tried living for 5 months in country where I didn't really know the language (couldn't carry on a conversation for more than 4 sentences). I did just fine, but I didn't really learn that much - surviving on my knowledge was easy enough, just enough to buy stuff and ask directions. In contrast, I bet that people who actually had studied the language beforehand got a lot of immersion and practice; they were over that can't even keep a conversation about the weather going.

Zardoz84• 12 years ago

So when one learns C, C++, D, Java, Python, x86 Assembly, his brain never gets old ?

jacquesm• 12 years ago

I suspect this is a special case of 'learning slows brain ageing'.

Use it or lose it has long ago been noticed wrt to the brain:

http://education.jhu.edu/PD/newhorizons/Neurosciences/articl...

Learning second language 'slows brain ageing'

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