The Benefits of Bilingualism

There was a recent article in the NY Times about bilingualism and studies showing people who speak multiple languages tend to be smarter and better able to withstand the onset of dementia during old age. Even what was once considered a negative, linguistic interference, is now a positive because it forces the brain to work harder to solve the problem, giving it strength. As for those of us who will never be bilingual, "there is reason to believe that [these benefits] may also apply to those who learn a second language later in life."

I know in California, there has been a push to offer dual immersion programs in a variety of languages after a period of English only being the law of the state. Yet, in the Netherlands, apparently, the recommendation is to speak only one language at home, although when I visited the government Dutch well baby clinic, the doctor suggested I speak to our daughter in English while my wife use Spanish which was what we had been doing because she was worried the alien would end up talking like this:



Neither of us being Dutch speakers hasn't impacted our progeny from learning the local language. She's attended daycare three times a week since she was one and the teachers say that she has no problem in communicating with them or the other toddlers. In fact right now, she serves as our de facto translator when people talk to us on the street. The only negative, if you can call it that, is that the cheeky monkey wields her languages as a weapon. When she's angry with my wife and I, she uses Dutch to tell us off while at school she'll use Spanish because she knows her teachers speak English.

The one issue I'd take with the radio Netherlands article cited above is this.

Misconception 1. It is better to teach a child a second language at as young an age as possible.

It is true that it is good to start early, says Sharon Unsworth. “But there is no critical age, like four years old for instance, which is thought to be too late to learn a second language.”

She stresses that learning a second language depends greatly on the number of hours a child is exposed to the second language. The more a child hears, reads or uses a certain language, the better they pick it up - at whatever age.

Research has shown a child's ability to form or distinguish between certain sounds ie. phonemic awareness usually ends, neurologically speaking, before age two. So the sooner you get your tyke exposed to the language the better.