LingosMio Blog In Defense of Language: Helping Your Memory

In Defense of Language: Helping Your Memory Remember how our teachers used to tell us that the only way to expand our memory is to exercise our brain? Well, as it turns out, they are completely correct. From playing brain teasing games like Chess to doing intensive mathematical problems, there are a number of ways to stimulate your brain and expand on your memory, and perhaps one of the best ways to do so is through the learning of an entirely new language. Again and again it has been seen that people who are fluent in more than one language are more aware of their surroundings, have a quicker response time and are better at retaining important information in the long run. Now, it isn't all that surprising that the famous detective of 221B Baker Street, Sherlock Holmes, spoke many tongues, now does it? As the world spins madly on and we, as human beings, are becoming more isolated from each other and are becoming more dependent on technology, the need to communicate through language is becoming more important than ever. And like any new human venture, learning a new language comes with a whole lot of advantages almost in every aspect of our lives. It is absolutely no wonder that the brains of all those people who speak more than one language works differently than the ones who speak just one language. Standardized testing, a number of scientific surveys and a lot of biological evidence has shown that students who know or are learning at least two languages, score better in tests than those who speak just one language. The brain processes more data Suppose your natural tongue is English and currently you are learning Spanish. Now let us take an example of a word, for instance, "Hello". Now whenever you want to greet someone in the morning or when your meet them, your brain has to remember the fact that you know very different words for them. As a result of this, your brain has to go through the stored information. Now imagine this happening for twenty different words at twenty different points during the day. Can you imagine the sheer force and speed with which your brain has to process through all of the information? Isn't that hard to believe that you'll start understanding things and solving problems a lot faster than you used to, isn't it? Also, your brain becomes more dexterous, that is, it has to work with not just one, but two or even more sets of communicative language. You can concentrate on important information and omit the unnecessary One of the important aspects of having a better and improved memory is the brain's ability to retain all of the useful stuff and get rid of the unnecessary information. As you learn a new language, your brain must make space for all of the important data that you need to store in it. Imagine it almost like a canister. As your brain becomes more efficient, it slowly starts to replace all of the useless stuff, like that silly pop song you from the year 2009, with new and important things like sentence construction, grammar and so on, so that all of this information is available at its disposal should the need arise. Of course, the more your push the boundaries of your brain and test your learning skills, the more developed and equipped your cerebrum will be. If Sherlock Holmes shares one amazing trait with HerculePoirot, apart from the fact that both of them have way above average intelligence, then it is that both of them are skilled polyglots. It becomes easier to learn a third language Believe it or not, bilinguals and polyglots find it easier to learn more languages than the ones who are dependent on just one language. This is because more than once your brain has encountered acquisition techniques and it becomes easier, with each new language, to apply those acquisition techniques. In fact, it has been repeatedly that every time you learn a new language, your brain uses a particular system to analyze and retain all of the information, which can be and is repeated not only for another language but for anything and everything else. In scientific terms, this phenomenon is referred to as "metalinguistic awareness". It is almost like muscle memory. Imagine your brain as a system with different compartments. The compartment that stores and understand grammatical syntax will learn how to understand and store the grammar of the first language. Now when you learn the grammatical aspects of the second language, the "compartment" will follow the same procedures and store the grammar there, but it will be more effortless this time because the blueprint of it is already present from having learned the first language. Doesn't it make sense? Your memory is stronger for a longer time Repeated studies have shown than bilinguals and polyglots have considerably reduced chances of suffering from Alzheimer's when compared to the ones who speak only one language. These studies suggest that the ones who due have at least 5 years extra healthy and normal living before the symptoms of dementia set in, no matter how old you are or how many languages you know. This is because when you speak multiple languages, your neurons act more and the average number of neural pathways in the brain is extra, as a result of this. Therefore, no matter what you want to learn, whether French, Esperato or even Parsletongue, you have an added advantage! Suffice to say, the benefits of learning a new language far outweigh the initial effort and the hard work required. So there you have it, the basic ways in which learning a new language can supremely benefit your memory and your cognitive skills. Do you agree, or are you of the opinion that learning a language can impair your ability to concentrate on something else? Let us know in the comments section below and feel free to voice your opinions!