Learning Foreign Languages: Benefits For The Brain

Learning foreign languages ​​has become fundamental in recent years. Once a purely professional need, capable of strengthening one’s training, today it is more than anything else a personal and social need.

The globalized society in which we live pushes us to interact daily with people from all over the world. A privilege that a few years ago was reserved for high-level companies, has now become natural, above all thanks to social networks that allow us to interact with the rest of the world.

On the other hand, traveling has become easier and easier in recent years thanks to the drastic reduction in prices, especially by low-cost airlines. Today, going to the other side of the world is no longer exclusive, but accessible to everyone.

More and more people are fluent in at least one second language. Children often start learning a foreign language from kindergarten. This learning process will form the basis of their academic preparation.

Learning differences between children and adults

Thanks to foreign languages, children acquire new skills and accustom their hearing to a new language through play. This increases their creative and problem-solving ability.

As for adults, it is increasingly common to see students over the age of 30 in language schools. The demand for foreign language courses has grown not only because you want to add knowledge of a second language to your curriculum, but also because of the cognitive benefits that come with it.

Nowadays even the elderly often decide to learn foreign languages. Discovering a second language in old age is a perfect way to acquire new skills and keep cognitive functions active.

Seniors can integrate new knowledge with their extensive educational experience. Once you have reached maturity, acquiring new knowledge is not as easy as when you were young; despite this, you are more efficient in studying a second language because you know the learning techniques that are most suitable for you.

So, while children naturally adapt to teaching foreign languages, adults use their life experience to learn them. Learning a new language is no longer difficult with age, it is just different.

Learning foreign languages: 5 benefits for the brain

Promotes concentration

Concentration is the ability to use all of our mental or physical faculties on a specific activity. Being focused means being able to listen, observe and absorb everything you are interested in. To memorize vocabulary, grammar, conjugations, or to learn a language, you need to be receptive and pay attention.

Studying a foreign language ensures high levels of concentration in all who listen, translate and communicate. By exercising these skills, the benefits to our brain increase.

Improve cognitive functions

The brain can stay active longer if we train our cognitive functions. Neurologists agree that by using cognitive abilities frequently, they remain intact over time.

Learning a language is one of the most complete cognitive exercises : memory is activated and new neural connections are created by passing from one language to another. Skills such as language, reasoning, abstraction or calculation skills improve if you study a foreign language.

Learning foreign languages ​​helps maintain mental agility for longer

Recent research shows that those who study foreign languages ​​demonstrate greater mental alertness; this slows down the aging process of some cognitive areas.

In addition to this, people who speak at least two languages ​​have a more flexible brain, able to adapt better to different situations, and are able to switch between activities more quickly.

Promotes cognitive development

Scientists from the University of Lund (Sweden) conducted a study to see if the brain structure changes after studying a foreign language for thirteen months. They compared a group of college students with a group of people who learned to speak a new language fluently.

At the start of the study, the two groups underwent a nuclear magnetic resonance test, a non-invasive technique for obtaining information on brain structure.

After thirteen months, they repeated the MRI; they thus discovered that the brain structure of university students had remained unchanged, conversely some areas of the brain of those who had studied a new language had grown.

The areas that showed changes are the hippocampus, directly related to language learning, an area of ​​the temporal lobe related to spatial orientation, and three areas of the cerebral cortex related to language skills.

Learning foreign languages ​​improves memory

Learning foreign languages ​​improves memory. In order to acquire fluency in the new language, the brain is forced to use areas that are generally not used by those who speak only their own language. Speaking two or more languages ​​favors the creation of new associations  of information, which means new and alternative paths to reach a memory.

As a result, both short-term and long-term memory will be strengthened. Finally, it should be noted that foreign languages ​​not only have enormous professional value, but, above all, they are the keys to access other cultures.