Bilingual Brain, Rewired Brain…

We know that being bilingual has cognitive benefits: switching between two languages is like a mental gymnastics. Now, research suggests that mastering two languages can fundamentally alter the structure of your brain, rewiring it to work differently than the brains of those who only speak one language. Bilinguals have the ability to both hold two languages in their head and expertly switch between them at the right times. If you speak two languages and have ever found this task to be difficult—choosing the “right” tongue based on the context you are in—it is because both languages are always “on” in the brains of bilinguals. In other words, the brain is continually processing information in both languages. The mental struggle of selecting and switching between two languages actually helps reshape the brain’s networks. One study looked at four-month old, eight-month old, and one-year old infants—60 of whom were bilingual and 60 monolingual—and found that, as they grew older, infants who were exposed to two languages started looking at speakers’ mouths instead of their eyes when listening to someone talk. The monolingual infants, however, only looked at mouths more than eyes when they were listening to someone speak their native tongue. This study is a great example of how being bilingual can improve speakers’ cognitive abilities. Babies who are listening two languages [growing up] become attuned to those two languages right away and it is not confusing them or messing them up developmentally. This rewiring does not happen the same way in every bilingual brain, it is different for each person, just as people have their own language experience.

So…Be calm and become bilingual!