7 Amazing Benefits of Learning a New Language

There have been numerous studies pointing to the benefits of learning a new language. Yet, recent study shows that only 18% of Americans can fluently speak two or more languages.

Part of the reason is that learning a new language only becomes an interest to us once we reach adulthood, and we mistakenly think that it’s impossible to acquire a new language at a certain age. While it’s not a walk in the park, nearly anyone can learn a new language with a bit of motivation and diligence. Some people have more of an aptitude for learning languages, like children, but we shouldn’t let it discourage us from continuing to improve.

If you need more reasons to motivate yourself to learn a new language, here are 7 amazing benefits backed by science.

1. You Will Improve Your Native Languages

It’s only when we learn a new language, that we can appreciate the roots and fundamentals of our native language. This is because we grew up speaking our native language, without much thought in terms of how sentence structures worked or breaking down the accents for each syllable.

According to the Impact of the Second Language Education, studying a second language alone will significantly improve the grammar, reading, vocabulary, and speaking skills of your first language. It’s similar to playing basketball your whole life, then learning how to play volleyball, and using those skills to improve your basketball game.

2. Enhances Your Focus

In a study, published online in the journal Brain and Language, individuals who spoke more than one language were observed through an fMRI, while performing word comprehension tasks. Results showed that multilingual individuals were better at filtering out competing words than one-language speaking individuals. This ability to tune out competing words benefits in blocking out distractions to focus on the task at hand.

Luckily for us, studies have shown that even those of us with minimal knowledge of a secondary language can reap the advantages of these traits.

3. Prevents Common Brain Diseases

Hopefully none of us have to worry about this anytime soon, but aging is something that is common in all of us. When it comes to the brain, learning a new language can prevent or delay Alzheimer’s disease and dementia by 4.5 years. This is a far more powerful than the best drugs, which only delay the symptoms by 6–12 months.

4. Learn Anything Faster

In a study done in Massachusetts in 2007, the researchers have concluded that the “exercise in cognitive problem solving” through language learning can be directly applied to anything we want to learn. Your memory retention is also improved when learning a new language. Absorbing and retaining more information can significantly shorten your learning curve, because you can spend more time learning new information instead of re-learning something you’ve already seen before.

5. Become More Outgoing And Liked By Others

Language learning is not only about communicating in a foreign language, it’s about experiencing a new culture.

The first reason is that meeting foreign people is embedded in the core of language learning. In order to practice and improve a new language, you’ll need to work with a native speaking teacher (or a coach on Rype), use conversation exchanges, or attend language meetups. This is similar to how you need to just ride the bicycle instead of watching videos about it, its just part of the process.

The experience of speaking with conversation partners is essentially the same as meeting anyone. The skills of being communicative and sociable are directly transferable to other areas of your life. Most importantly, learning a new language helps you step into the shoes of people different to yourself and see the world from a contrasting perspective — therefore developing empathy for others.

6. Double Your Creativity

We often have to puzzle together words to form a sentence until it fits and makes sense for another person. Learning a new language improves your divergent thinking skills, training you to produce multiple solutions to problems on a consistent basis. This “out of the box” experimentation practice is why researchers have concluded that multilingual individuals are more creative than monolingual individuals.

7. Boost Your Confidence Level

When we set out to achieve something and find success, it boosts our confidence levels — no matter how small the success. Even being able to carry a 30-second conversation with a native speaker can significantly boost your confidence, because you know it’s something you wouldn’t have been able to do before.

This “yes, I can!” mentality will become your personal mantra, and can be applied to any goal you want to achieve in your life.

Source: http://perk.fm/4rs9i

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Meditation Improves Brain Function

There is a great deal of evidence that meditation, in particular mindfulness meditation, improves the brain, and the research is teaching us a lot about how and why that happens.

Let’s look at some of the research. In one recent study:

“…the researchers examined participants aged 55 to 90 years old who had some form of mild cognitive impairment. Some of the participants practiced [mindfulness meditation] for eight weeks, and they ended up with improved functional connectivity in an area of the brain that’s associated with memories.”

This means that meditation could at least temporarily stave off or improve memory impairment symptoms among people with early stages of Alzheimer’s or dementia, braintrauma from things like military service or car accidents, or impairment from substance abuse.

Mindfulness meditation improves the brain in other ways, not just memory. A study from Carnegie Mellon University shows how meditation, even in small amounts, relives stress. Research from Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital confirms these results. Still another study published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine shows that mindfulness meditation improves immune function.

What’s incredible about all this research is that we have learned in a relatively short period of time that the brain is not static and that even when damaged, new growth and healing can take place. This is the information we use in addiction treatment to improve results. For example, while sitting in a 12-step meeting listening to stories offers camaraderie and support, it does not change the brain in meaningful ways. However, when that activity (community support and self-help) is added to intensive one-on-one psychotherapy, yoga, meditation and other whole health therapies, we see a tremendous impact on treatment outcomes. Addicts report to us that they find it relatively easy to remain sober and live a healthy lifestyle. They also report to us that this becomes more ingrained with time, so long as they maintain their meditation and therapeutic practice. Research to prove (or disprove) these anecdotal claims is welcome.

Does mindfulness meditation “cure” addiction or other health issues? No. But it is a great adjunctive therapy that is teaching us a lot about how the brain works and offers important symptomatic relief for people who suffer from a variety of disorders. At present, this research is some of the most promising in applied neuroscience. And the kicker – there are no negative side effects to meditation. Meditation is a therapy that has only an upside.

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