>learning another language doesn't increase your intelig-

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>learning another language doesn't increase your intelig-

>By learning a language, you permanently change structures in your brain. Bilingual brains are measurably different than monolingual brains—certain brain regions are more developed—and recent studies show that you don’t need to be bilingual from birth to show these telltale signs of bilingualism. You just need to learn a language and maintain it; the better you learn it and the longer you maintain it, the more your brain will change.
How does this affect you in your daily life? When you learn a language, you permanently improve your memory—you’ll be able to memorize faster and easier. You’ll multitask better. Bilingual people are better at focusing on tasks and ignoring distractions. They’re more creative. They’re better problem solvers. Bilingual students beat monolinguals in standardized tests of English, math, and science.
All of these advantages—collectively known as the bilingual effect—aren’t the result of natural, inborn intelligence. Most bilinguals never choose to be bilingual; they just happen to grow up in bilingual families. The bilingual effect is a kind of learned intelligence, and by picking up a new language, you get it too.
Why does the bilingual effect exist? There’s a lot of research left to do, but current results point to a particularly peculiar cause: learning a language makes it harder to think.
>When you learn French, you effectively implant a little Frenchman in your head who never shuts up. Even when you’re trying to think in English, he sits in the background, mumbling away in French. There’s no off switch. Tip-of-the-tongue moments: bilinguals get them more frequently than monolinguals, because they have twice as many words to search through. Bilinguals even have a harder time naming simple objects—that’s a table, that’s a cat. While they usually find the words they’re looking for, they take longer to find them, because they’re always wrestling with that mumbling Frenchman.
On the surface, this sounds terrible, like a kind of learned schizophrenia. But your brain adapts. In the process of learning to speak a new language, you necessarily learn to muffle and ignore your native language. You learn to focus in the face of constant linguistic distraction, and as a result, your brain gets better at focusing in general. It’s like walking around with weights attached to your ankles; after a while, your body adapts—you get stronger—and you forget all about them. Language learning is a form of strength training for your brain.
Not only does your brain get stronger, it gets healthier, too. Bilingual brains are more resistant to the wear and tear of age. Studies show a marked delay in the onset of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease for bilinguals. On average, elderly bilinguals will show symptoms of dementia five years later than monolinguals, and if they’ve learned more than two languages, then the effects are even stronger.