Phase 3- Research explains the benefits of being bilingual!

Imagine if you were in a world where you could speak two languages and if you already do then imagine three or maybe even four; it would feel like a superpower that makes your brain stronger and helps you see the world from different perspectives and cultures. Being bilingual is like discovering special things that make each language unique along with the appreciation, many people benefit from seeing the world through different languages! As different cultures become closer together, speaking more than just one language helps people understand each other better. This ability helps people get along better and opens doors for you as an individual. If you could imagine a world where you were fluent in more than one language, would you choose the advantages of being bilingual or continue to remain monolingual, potentially missing out on the multiple languages present on our planet? Wouldn’t you rather have two tongues?

Being bilingual impacts cognitive thinking for example babies and how they can be influenced by the languages they hear even before they are born. Bilingual babies are responsive to both languages right from the start according to Teresa Quin discusses in her article “Being Bilingual: Learning Two Languages”. In her article, it discusses how being bilingual can help children’s brains develop better, improve their cultural identity, and provide them with advantages in learning and communication. Teresa Quin states “Language is part of our cultural heritage, and people who use their heritage language are more likely to have good family relationships and a stronger cultural identity. These things support other positive outcomes, such as school achievement and increased well-being”. Did you also know that people who know more than one language develop dementia four years later? “BBC Ideas” on YouTube talks about topics that include science, philosophy, psychology, and self-improvement, indicating that many bilingual individuals develop dementia four years later because of cognitive reserve. Cognitive reserve is the idea that people develop reserved thinking abilities and this protects them against losses that can occur through aging and disease. As BBC mentions, learning anything new helps build Cognitive reserve, but what makes language stand out is the fact that language is very complex because it affects your perception, and concepts due to not all languages having the same ideas and concepts of what a word could mean, and different sounds also known as pronunciations. Therefore however more complex the ability is, the more it’s going to have a positive effect on how you learn and think. Experts say learning a language at a young age is the best time to learn a language, even though it could be challenging to learn a language as you get older it has benefits because the benefits could be greater when you get older instead of it clicking easier, you make connections with a language you already know to learn another one! Within saying this it is expressing how not only does it have a positive impact on cognitive thinking but it also has a positive impact on culture because of a family connection to culture due to language being one of the most important aspects that brings you closer to your culture.

In the article “Bilingualism in Young Children: Separating Facts From Fiction” by Lauren Lowry, Lauren talks about the benefits and addresses the common misconceptions that people think about bilingualism affecting their lifestyle. In the text, she quotes “Canadians who speak both official languages have a median income nearly 10% higher than that of those who speak English only, and 40% higher than that of those who speak French only.” This explains that bilingual people are more likely to get a higher income with the same job a person has just by speaking two languages. Knowing two languages helps in jobs because bilingual individuals have greater access to people and resources making it more likely for them to get quicker access to a job than an individual who isn’t bilingual. Adding on to that, the fact that bilingual adults are better at maintaining their brain health as they age they might be better at handling harder tasks and staying focused. Despite the job advantages, Lauren talks about the misconceptions and states “Research has shown that while bilingual children may initially demonstrate a smaller vocabulary in each language compared to monolingual children, their overall vocabulary size remains comparable.” This is a common misconception because people tend to think both languages will clash, but children who speak two languages may have a smaller vocabulary in each language at first, their overall vocabulary is similar to that of children who speak just one language, but within that they are gaining two languages instead of smaller vocabulary in one.

Of course, I can’t mention the positives without there being negatives of being bilingual! Some who are bilingual argue that you can never be completely fluent in both languages. According to “The Disadvantages of Being Bilingual knowing two languages can sometimes work against you” by Ophélie Quillier, as she is a bilingual speaker herself she claims that certain sounds in English don’t have equivalents in French, making them challenging for me to pronounce. Ophélie Quillier states “Also, having gone to University and worked in English, I learned a lot of scientific and industry-specific terms in English and don’t know their French equivalents. That leads me to forget words and I sometimes use anglicisms. It makes it difficult to talk to my parents about my job or the things I do.” Opheile argues that she can’t make a connection between English and French and that the words have a big difference that can’t be associated with each other. Therefore she’s arguing that you can’t fully master either language and language dominance to where one language becomes more superior to another based on the environment you put yourself around. Despite personal experience, researchers according to “The Bilingual Brain: Advantages and Disadvantages” by exploringyourmind.com, researchers have studied that bilingual people are slower at naming simple objects or having words flow casually in a conversation due to thinking in both languages at the same time. They state “Researchers have observed that bilingual people are slower at naming objects, producing words, and having a word “on the tip of their tongue” for longer., generally, bilingual people take longer to think of words. However, this is less marked with common words or sentences like “house” or “How are you?”, for example. The main hypothesis used to explain these disadvantages is that when bilingual people want to say, write, or listen to a word, they can’t stop that word from being activated in their other language.” Although they know two languages, they have trouble processing it due to thinking about both languages and the context of the social situation on what they should say. As mentioned above this tends to be a misconception when it comes to being bilingual, although because there are people like Ophélie Quillier, we can say it’s possible for those who aren’t in the environment of their native language tend to become less efficient in speaking their language native language because of little opportunities to speak their native language which plays a big affect on being bilingual. Based on both articles they overall sum up that environment can play a crucial role leading to forgetting words or mixing up words from both languages.

Overall, we learned a few things. We learned to never learn another language, the end. Kidding! One takeaway from the benefits of being bilingual is that being bilingual is good for your brain. It helps babies develop better, keeps adults’ brains healthy as they get older, and even boosts your chances of earning more money. Plus, it connects you to your culture and opens doors to understanding different people and cultures. Even though there might be some challenges in speaking two languages, like difficulty pronouncing certain words or slower word recall, these can be turned into positives by practicing more and using both languages regularly. Embracing these challenges as opportunities to learn and improve can make being bilingual even more beneficial. In your cognitive brain, it helps you think stronger and more efficiently in school therefore many bilingual people already have a superpower that they don’t need to imagine helping them in their everyday life! If you have two tongues wouldn’t you consider that a superpower?
Works cited page

Scholarly sources:
Quin, Teresa. “Being bilingual: learning two languages”. Brain Wave,
https://brainwave.org.nz/article/being-bilingual-learning-two-languages/, Accessed Autumn 2020.

Lowry, Lauren. “Bilingualism in Young Children: Separating Fact From
Fiction”. BroadBeachss,
https://broadbeachss.eq.edu.au/ourenrolments/Prep/Documents/Bilingualism%20in%20children%20Fact%20vs.%20Fiction.pdf, Accessed by 2015.

Non scholarly sources:
Quillier, Ophélie. “The Disadvantages of Being Bilingual”. Medium, https://medium.com/new-writers-welcome/the-disadvantages-of-being-bilingual-c90a831ce43e, Accessed by Feb 27, 2022.

“The Bilingual Brain: Advantages and Disadvantages”. Exploring your mind,
https://exploringyourmind.com/the-bilingual-brain-advantages-and-disadvantages/, Accessed by 01 March 2021.

Multi-media source:
“Why being bilingual is good for your brain” YouTube, uploaded by BBC Ideas, Oct 12, 2023,
https://youtu.be/nzHY-muy2Mw?si=5U3sCY3jPROwztMV.