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Journal tuxette's Journal: speaking in tongues is good for the brain... 18

Journal by tuxette

Bilingualism delays onset of dementia

From the article:

People who are fully bilingual and speak both languages every day for most of their lives can delay the onset of dementia by up to four years compared with those who only know one language, Canadian scientists said on Friday.

Researchers said the extra effort involved in using more than one language appeared to boost blood supply to the brain and ensure nerve connections remained healthy -- two factors thought to help fight off dementia.

but...

Bialystok stressed that bilingualism helped delay the start of dementia rather than preventing it altogether.

Anyway... how many of you out there are at a minimum bilingual? How many natural languages do you use on a daily basis?

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speaking in tongues is good for the brain... More

speaking in tongues is good for the brain...

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  • And I'm speaking the 2nd for just about 4 hours a day, 4 days a week.

    ....Bethanie....
    • Silly, talking dirty doesn't count as a separate language.

      I use my secondary language on a daily basis, and use my primary about once a week, though I try to use it some with the kids.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Mantorp ( 142371 ) *
        I got my oldest fully brainwashed and speaking decent Swedish, gonna be interesting to see if I can succeed with number two.

        After 5 years of German and going there about once a year and with the smattering of German media in Sweden I used to have a decent grasp on it, but the last few times I went I just asked people if they speak English, chances were their English is better than my German.

      • You don't give me enough credit! If I were going to count talking dirty, I'd have to add another two languages to the list... 'cause I do THAT bilingually, too! :-D

        ....Bethanie....
  • i've studied two languages (french and greek) other than my first but never really took it to the level where i'd say i was fluent. i've been meaning to get serious about spanish - what i think is now and will continue to be a very useful skill in the u.s.
     
    we had a friend visit on christmas who speaks 7. his brain should be doing pretty well. i'll have to forward this to him.
  • I still "use" Swedish in a sense on a daily basis, even though no one around me here can speak it. I find myself actually still thinking in it sometimes, and reflexively translating things as I go through my day. Hopefully that will keep me from forgetting it altogether as I did with Spanish. Speaking of which, ironically I now live in a heavily hispanic area, but my Spanish remains more or less vestigial. Although when I see written material I always try to read it. Sometimes I succeed, particularly with s
  • And I only use the 0.3 language to speak to myself. I talk to myself a lot, though. Do you think that will delay my onset of dementia? :^)

  • Norwegian and English. I use them daily, so I guess I'll get these extra few years' grace period.

    Even if there are occasional days I don't say anything in one of the languages, I most likely will have written something in both languages. Does writing help, or is it only spoken language?

  • English and Spanish (though my Spanish is pretty rusty). Then again, given my location, I get to read Spanish quite a bit, though I rarely feel that comfortable speaking it. Interestingly I will occasionally dream in Spanish; not sure whats up with that.
    • When I lived in Peru I was fairly conversational in Spanish, minus topics like politics or engineering. Now I only use it when I talk to the in-laws on the phone. I can still sort of follow most of the dialogue on Univision, at least enough to know what is going on. Except the soap operas, hispanic soap opera actors are just as bad as amercian soap actors so I have no clue what is going on. Or any show with someone from Spain speaking, they talk way too damn fast for me even when I was still good at the

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by nizo ( 81281 ) *
        Hehe, why it's koolaid you can eat! Aside from the gelatin they probably have the same ingredients anyway. Heck just leave it in the fridge for comedy value (watching people trying to pour it into a cup would be fun).


        Thankfully most native spanish speaking folks here speak slowly (waaaay slower than someone from Spain). I can read it fairly well, plus I know the all important, "mas despacio, por favor" and "lo siento, no hablo espanol muy bien" phrases :-)

  • English and German. And Confessor-Gloriana-speak, which seems to be distantly related to Martian.

    Cheers,

    Ethelred

  • All those that I know: Dutch, French, German, English and Luxembourgish. One might want to remove English because I do not speak it often, but I read and write a lot of it. Yes, I "think" in all those languages. Odd concept: most people cannot do that for more than one or two languages.

    I simply do not know any language that I don't need: all of these are known out of necessity.

    On a site like this where "Orcish" and "Klingon" count as a languages, we can safely assume that Luxembourgish *is* a languag

  • I use Finnish and English on a daily basis.

    I am also supposed to be fluent in Swedish as well because it's our second official language, but since I have no opportunities to speak or write it daily I really suck at producing it. I can read Swedish well enough to enjoy a book or a newspaper, though, and understanding spoken Swedish is pretty straightforward (excluding the Skåne dialect of the southern Sweden). And since it's related to Norwegian and Danish, I can read those languages to some extent.

    • Spanish? Well, I can order a beer... ;-)

      Being able to order a beer in any language is a very important survival skill. Well, except for in Xhosa. Then you'd be ordering Umqombothi, and that's scary stuff ;-)

  • And speak two on a quasi-daily basis.

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