Your high school years will be some of the most incredible years of your lives. Most of you will experience more freedom, as well as more responsibility. You will get to choose more about what you do and how you live. You will get to select your classes and your course of study as well. Many of you will have to complete a foreign language requirement in order to graduate. I had the same complaint as all of you. “Why do I have to study language? I’m never going to use it outside of this classroom.” In the globalized world you now live in, the opportunity to use another language outside the classroom is very real. But instead of just completing a language requirement, what if you became bilingual? The practical reasons exist, such as being an excellent candidate for almost any job as well as a potential to earn more money than your monolingual counterparts. But being bilingual has numerous benefits that many are not aware of. These benefits are related to improved brain function, (That will make your other classes easier) as well as health benefits and disease prevention.

     Speaking another language is a very cool thing to do. Not only does it allow one to have the ability to speak and understand more people, but it also opens doors to culture that are otherwise closed. So much more can be learned about a people or a culture when communicating in the language of that culture. The literature can be read without compromising the true meaning that is often lost in translation and redaction. These are already great reasons, but can being bi-lingual be beneficial to health?

      Learning a second language now may save one from some of the harsh realities of aging. Yudhijit Bhattacharjee of the New York Times states,  “In a recent study of 44 elderly Spanish-English bilinguals, scientists led by the neuropsychologist Tamar Gollan of the University of California, San Diego, found that individuals with a higher degree of bilingualism — measured through a comparative evaluation of proficiency in each language — were more resistant than others to the onset of dementia and other symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease: the higher the degree of bilingualism, the later the age of onset.” (Bhattacharjee) In that sense, bilingualism acts as preventive medicine and there is no cure for Alzheimer’s disease. But some of the other benefits may be realized well before the golden years.

     The ability to speak a second language will make a person smarter. (Bhattacharjee) The University of Strathclyde states, “Our study has found that it can have demonstrable benefits, not only in language but in arithmetic and problem solving.” (http://www.strath.ac.uk) That is correct. Speaking another language will make better math students. The educational benefits don’t stop there. The difference between bilinguals and monolinguals may have to do with code switching. Code switching may help develop other areas of the brain. “The differences were linked to the mental alertness required to switch between languages, which could develop skills useful in other types of thinking.”  A bilingual person receives all of these additional benefits involuntarily.  Acquiring a second language is like acquiring an entire new set of skills.

     Bilingualism is a wonderful thing. The benefits that come with language acquisition are plentiful. Foreign language instruction is included in almost all curriculums for a good reason. If a second language is developed, it is like cultivating the rest of your mind. And a mind is a terrible thing to waste.

Works Cited

Bhattacharjee, Yudhijit. “Why Bilinguals Are Smarter”. New York Times. 10/21/ 12.

             Web.

             http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/opinion/sunday/the-benefits-of-  bilingualism.html? _r=1

University of Strathglyde Glasgow.  “Bilingualism can increase mental agility.”  10/21/12.

             Web.

             http://www.strath.ac.uk/press/newsreleases/headline_643421_en.html