Full transcript
0:00It used to be thought that being bilingual was a bad thing -
0:03that it would confuse or hold people back, especially children.
0:07Turns out, we couldn't have been more wrong.
0:09Learning new languages is an exercise of the mind.
0:13It's the mental equivalent of going to a gym every day.
0:22In the bilingual brain, all our languages are active,
0:25all at the same time.
0:28The continual effort of suppressing a language
0:31when speaking another, along with the mental challenge
0:34that comes with regularly switching between languages,
0:37exercises our brain.
0:39It improves our concentration, problem solving, memory,
0:44and in turn our creativity.
0:49It's now widely accepted that there are huge benefits
0:51to being bilingual.
0:53A key breakthrough came back in 2007 in Toronto,
0:56when Ellen Bialystok and her team made a discovery
0:58that shook the scientific community -
1:01and has massive real-world implications.
1:07It was the first study which suggested
1:10that bilingual people -
1:11people who speak more than one language -
1:14develop dementia four to four-and-a-half years later
1:18than those who don't.
1:20It was a powerful confirmation of the idea of cognitive reserve.
1:25Now, what is cognitive reserve?
1:28Cognitive reserve is the idea that people develop
1:30a reserve of thinking abilities, and this protects them
1:33against losses that can occur through ageing and disease.
1:36As well as delaying the onset of dementia, bilingual people
1:39have been shown to recover significantly better after a stroke.
1:43Learning anything new helps build cognitive reserve.
1:46But there's something special about language.
1:49Language is particularly broad and complex.
1:52It affects ideas and concepts, perception, different sounds.
1:58The more complex a certain skill is, the more likely it is
2:03to have a positive effect on cognitive reserve.
2:08So when is the best time to learn a new language?
2:11Well, here's part of the answer.
2:14The brain is a complex set of neural networks.
2:17When you're learning a new language as a child,
2:20you're building new networks.
2:29But when you learn a language later in life,
2:33you have to modify the existing networks
2:36and make more connections.
2:39Because learning languages later in life can be more challenging,
2:44the benefits can also be greater.
2:48But a 2023 study at Great Ormond Street suggests
2:51this is just part of the story.
2:53So we invited three groups of children
2:56that were aged eight to 10.
2:57We had a group of children who were monolinguals.
3:00A group of children who had early exposure
3:02to Greek and English from birth - they were our early bilinguals.
3:06And finally, we had a group who had been exposed to English
3:09between the age of two and five, and they were our later bilinguals.
3:13So what we did that no-one had done before,
3:15is that we asked the children to lie in the scanner
3:18while doing nothing - and just stare at a cross.
3:21And during this, we measured their brain activity.
3:24What we found that was really exciting for us
3:26is that our early bilingual group
3:28had the strongest connectivity in the network at rest.
3:32And these group of regions are regions that light up
3:34when we're doing nothing and just mind-wandering.
3:37A little bit like if you're going to the gym every day,
3:39your muscles might look bigger at rest.
3:42Similarly your brain might be better connected at rest,
3:45because you are learning a language early.
3:47And this is something no-one had found before.
3:49And there's more.
3:52One lesser-known behavioural effect
3:55of bilingualism in both children and adults
3:58is the ability to see the other people's perspective,
4:02or to understand that it is possible to have different points of view.
4:07Recent studies have also found that people tend to react
4:11more emotionally in their first language, and more rationally,
4:16in a more abstract way, in their second.
4:19And the way it is usually explained is that the first language
4:23is the one which we use to speak with family, with friends -
4:27in informal settings.
4:29The second language is usually learned at school,
4:32at the university, at work.
4:36Scientists are discovering new upsides to being bilingual
4:39all the time.
4:40And it's not just our brains that benefit.
4:43Learning new languages,
4:45and speaking more than one language,
4:47is very important - not only for individuals, but also for societies.
4:50Learning new languages can open doors
4:54to new cultural experiences, life opportunities.
4:59Different people, different communities,
5:01and different ways of seeing the world.
5:04And with that, we'll say a final...
5:17Bye!