Has Anyone Seen my Glasses?
So what did you forget today? Your keys, your watch, your lunch…Are you going senile??
Forgetfulness or in other words impairments to memory, communication and thinking, is called dementia. Understandably, the likelihood of having dementia increases with age. However, it is not a normal part of aging. A normal part of aging will be poorer short-term memory. This is called age-related cognitive decline and it is not dementia.
In any case, I am not interested in catching any of the above, not anytime soon at least. So let’s see what we can do about this. We see more and more evidence that speaking a second language may protect you against dementia.
There were two studies conducted in Canada that suggested that bilingualism might delay dementia. Interestingly, most bilingual participants were immigrants from different cultural backgrounds rather than members of the monolingual group.
Results showed that bilingual patients developed dementia at least five years later than those who spoke only one language. The effect was consistent across various types of dementia.
It is imperative that you bring your children up bilingual if you can. Bilingual children have cognitive advantages and they do better at school. However, not everyone can afford a better education. This is not an issue, as long as your children speak two or more languages.
Switching between languages is a good brain exercise. The constant need in a bilingual person to selectively activate one language and suppress the other is thought to lead to a better development of executive functions and of intentional tasks. Bilingual individuals are constantly switching between two languages in order to express clearly and more creatively.
So pick a language, any language and exercise your brain. Now where did I leave my glasses…?