Psychology Archipelago

Why you should still learn another language

Many of us learn a foreign language in school, whether that be French, Spanish, German, or some other language. These skills can be vital in an ever globalizing world. However, more than a quarter of people forget their foreign language skills within a year of schooling. Most people, if they have any foreign language skill, can only understand basic phrases. 

It is well known that Americans are extremely monolinguistic when compared to European countries. The European average for percentage of primary and secondary students learning a second language is 92% while America is at a measly 20%. This can be attributed to several factors. 

Foreign language is not mandatory in the US, and education is quite short compared to many European countries where kids start learning foreign languages from elementary school. Furthermore, unlike Europe, travel to places that speak different languages is not as readily available in the US. Finally, English is considered as the global language, and there is not as much incentive for Americans to learn a new language. 

Bilingualism is not without its drawbacks either. When speaking, bilinguals often process things in both languages, incurring a processing cost. According to research, bilinguals often have lower verbal skills than monolingual speakers of each language. They also suffer more from tip-of-the-tongue failures than monolinguals. This is the sensation when you know the word, but the words just won't come out. Bilinguals also are less able to understand speech in noise. This effect was particularly large for rarer words, suggesting a lack of enough exposure to these words.
As someone who is relatively fluent in Japanese, I know in my personal experience, when I am in Japan, I get a lot more of tip-of-the-tongue moments in English than I usually would. I also experience the inability to understand in noise, especially when I am in a crowded area. This is quite frustrating when surrounded by monolingual speakers who seem to have no trouble understanding what's being said. I often joke that my language ability is limited, and it has to balance out somehow. 

However, this is certainly not the case. Speaking two languages at a fluent level requires the ability to recognize far more words and grammatical structures than most monolinguals are required to. Many people even speak 3 or more languages at a fluent level. 

In addition, there are many advantages to learning another language that far outweigh the negatives. For example, bilinguals seem to be better multitaskers than monolinguals. This can be attributed to a constant use of the executive function system when using multiple languages. The executive function system is what we use to plan, focus, and control impulses. It is made up of three types of brain function.

Learning another language might help you type up your final report, drink coffee to stay up, and become the next Picasso, all at the same time. Why wouldn't you do it then?

Working Memory: the ability to retain and use small pieces of information over a short period of time. 
Mental Flexibility: the ability to sustain or shift attention quickly and easily. 
Self-control: the ability to prioritize and control impulses.

These can be developed over time and our abilities in each get better through repeated use. It seems that speaking multiple languages uses the executive function system, improving its function compared to monolinguals. In particular, it seems that mental flexibility and self-control are improved by bilingualism. While working memory seems to not have the same level of benefit, there is still evidence that there are improvements in certain abilities, depending on the type of bilingualism.

In particular, research shows that people who put a large load on their working memory by simultaneously interpreting one language into the other have greater improvements in working memory. It seems that professional interpreters thus have a greater benefit from the bilingual effect than normal bilinguals. There are certainly levels of bilingualism, from speaking at a very basic level to speaking at a native level in both languages, which unsurprisingly has varying levels of benefit. 

One limitation that must be noted from research on the cognitive benefits of bilingualism is that the tests of executive function varied for each paper, with some tests possibly not generalizing well. There are also some studies that seem to show that there are no cognitive benefits for bilingualism. For example, a large study in 2020 of 11,000 participants that showed no cognitive benefits after removing confounding factors. 

There is a precedence for this argument. In fact, bilingualism was initially believed to be a cognitive disadvantage, creating smaller vocabularies and confusing children, before the pendulum of scientific consensus shifted.

However, even without the cognitive benefits in young age, there is also evidence of benefits over the long-term, with bilingualism protecting against cognitive decline, and delaying the onset of dementia. A study on Alzheimer disease found that bilingual patients were diagnosed 4.3 years later and had onset symptoms 5.1 years later than monolingual patients.

Although the cognitive benefits of bilingualism will continue to be argued over, there are benefits that cannot be debated. 

It allows you to communicate with people you otherwise couldn’t. It give you perspective, connecting you with multiple cultures. You can read great writers of the past, appreciating them in the subtleties and nuances of the original text. After you learn multiple languages, you really start to understand how every culture offers deep insights, with great thinkers from every part of the Earth. Shakespeare is not the only great writer!
 
But even if you’re not interested in these less tangible ideas, speaking more than one language certainly makes you more employable. In Florida, bilingual Hispanics earn almost 7,000 dollars more than the fully English speaking counterparts. The demand for bilingualism are also on the rise. The listings of jobs specifically aimed at bilingual workers more than doubled in a 5 year period from 2010 to 2015, going from 240,000 to 630,000 jobs. Especially in a country with a relatively low percentage of bilingual speakers, speaking more than one language is a unique skill that can be leveraged. 

There was a funny meme that was popular a while back about the Duolingo (a popular language learning app) bird ruthlessly forcing people to learn different languages. Now, with all of this in mind, maybe it's about time you log into your Duolingo account. And if you already speak multiple languages, you can always learn another one!