Bilingual Benefits
Feb. 21st, 2023 11:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmith.. include delaying Alzheimer's disease, and probably similar forms of cognitive decline. This effect far outstrips the latest drug approved for that purpose.
1) Given a choice between a free treatment that requires a lot of work, and an expensive drug, I suspect that people who can obtain the drug will prefer it. But the free option remains available to everyone.
2) Since proficiency is what matters, a great improvement to public health could be made by teaching all children a second language from birth or at least preschool, when it is possible to learn with native fluency. I doubt that America has any interest in doing so. But any parent could arrange it for their own kids, especially if there is a history of cognitive illness in the family.
1) Given a choice between a free treatment that requires a lot of work, and an expensive drug, I suspect that people who can obtain the drug will prefer it. But the free option remains available to everyone.
2) Since proficiency is what matters, a great improvement to public health could be made by teaching all children a second language from birth or at least preschool, when it is possible to learn with native fluency. I doubt that America has any interest in doing so. But any parent could arrange it for their own kids, especially if there is a history of cognitive illness in the family.
Options
Date: 2023-02-22 05:52 am (UTC)For what it's worth, I have done quite a lot of Duolingo:
- Completed the Latin course, which isn't saying much, but I was proud of doing so all the same.
- Completed about half of the German course.
- Fought my way through some French.
- I started the Welsh course as well, but then I found out that it was completely useless, so I gave up on it.
I've thought about picking up some workbooks for myself, but have put it off.
Do you suppose that conlangs might be similarly useful to the mind?
Re: Options
Date: 2023-02-22 06:22 am (UTC)Go you!
>>I've thought about picking up some workbooks for myself, but have put it off.<<
Do you own DVDs? Most of those have multiple foreign language tracks. You should have lots of French and German. The others are long shots but I've seen some surprising choices -- it's really down to what languages the producer likes or can find a translator for. Put in a show you already know and watch it in a different language for immersion practice.
>>Do you suppose that conlangs might be similarly useful to the mind?<<
Yes. The protection comes from multiplying connections. Your brain doesn't care if you're speaking German or Sindarin, it only cares that you're demanding a lot of cross-referencing.
Re: Options
Date: 2023-02-23 02:34 am (UTC)Variables:
I wonder if learning languages of different modality would work, i.e. if you grew up with spoken language would learning a sign language offer more of a buffer than learning a second spoken language? Would having a spoken and signed and tactile language be better than just two?
Do you need to be able to speak [produce linguistic output of] the language to gain benefits? Blissymbols has no spoken form, Rikchik is not speakable by humanoids, and some disabled folks might be able to receive a language without being able to speak it (selective mutism, for example).
https://www.blissymbolics.org/
https://www.omniglot.com/conscripts/rikchik.htm
[EDIT: Does having a language community affect anything? (It is harder to find a chat buddy for, say Rohingya or Laadan than for Russian or Spanish).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rohingya_language#:~:text=Rohingya%2C%20also%20known%20as%20Ru%C3%A1ingga%2C%20is%20a%20language,languages%20have%20a%20high%20degree%20of%20mutual%20intelligibility.
... END EDIT]
(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-22 10:18 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-22 05:27 pm (UTC)Yes ...
Date: 2023-02-23 03:53 am (UTC)Re: Yes ...
Date: 2023-02-23 05:33 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-02-23 06:03 am (UTC)For kids, hiring bilingual babysitters or childminders, and encouraging them to speak in their other language(s) while minding the children could work.
Thoughts
Date: 2023-02-23 06:08 am (UTC)Some online services do that. Terramagne has a lot of language clubs, but those are rarer here.
>> For kids, hiring bilingual babysitters or childminders, and encouraging them to speak in their other language(s) while minding the children could work.<<
That's something I want to do with the Rutledge thread. Previously most of that activity was French, but now they've got plenty of Arabic speakers and a few other languages thrown in too.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2023-02-23 06:25 am (UTC)I think there are some apps. Though the one time I tried, I couldn't tell if the people who replied wanted to talk with me or flirt with the American lady...
Big cities would have a lot of language and culture clubs. Suburbs may have a few.
Also, look at colleges/universities, religious institutions*, programs aimed at recent immigrants, and local libraries.
*Many religious institutions have services in a heritage language (i.e. Coptic) or may have a lot of foreign-language speakers in the congregation. Plus, they tend to be social hubs.
>>That's something I want to do with the Rutledge thread. Previously most of that activity was French, but now they've got plenty of Arabic speakers and a few other languages thrown in too.<<
I have mostly come at it from the other angle, suggesting people add extra languages to job-search materials.
For Rutlidge; I imagine people will end up looking after friend's kids, or bringing their own kids to mixed groups, etc. I think casual "watch my kid a minute" might still include a language barrier, but a more formal arrangement would include at least one bilingual participant.
If you decide to do this one I have a cute story-detail you could weave in. ;)