This may be the best argument for requiring students in K-12 school programs to learn a foreign language that I’ve ever heard. And if you’re like me, and becoming a bitmore forgetful with every passing year, it’s a pretty good argument for ordering a Berlitz course and becoming fluent in anything from Spanish to Urdu — it just doesn’t matter which one you choose.
According to a recent article in Science magazine, scientists have begun to show that bilingualism not only makes you smarter, it can have a profound effect on improving cognitive skills and even help prevent, or delay, the onset of dementia in old age. According to several recent studies, knowing at least two languages and being fluent in them gives the brain a much-needed workout that generally makes bilinguals better at solving problems and puzzles, planning and other mentally demanding tasks. It helps the person stay focused and hold information in the mind.
“Bilinguals have to switch languages quite often — you may talk to your father in one language and to your mother in another language,” Albert Costa, a researcher at the University of Pompeu Fabra in Spain, told the magazine. “It requires keeping track of changes around you in the same way that we monitor our surroundings when driving.”
The benefits apparently extend into old age, and are even apparent in folks who learned a second language later in life. A recent study at the University of California, for example, found that people with a higher degree of bilingualism were more “resistant than others to the onset of dementia and other symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease: the higher the degree of bilingualism, the later the age of onset.” For much of the last century, many parents, students and some educators considered foreign language requirements busywork that had little tangible, long-term benefit, and even interfered with learning that had more practical applications, like additional math or science courses. Now, it appears that learning those second languages may have helped countless students succeed in other core classes, and given them a leg up on challenges faced throughout life.
I have a friend who brags that he can curse in seven different languages (he can’t converse in any of them, and can only cuss a blue streak), but I don’t think that’s gonna be enough to keep him from losing his car keys or his cell phone once or twice a month as he navigates his golden years. To get the full benefit, he’s going to have to learn to conjugate verbs, and learn genders and tenses in at least one of them. I suggest Spanish, so the next time he sees the word Cuidado! on yellow tape somewhere, he won’t trip and break his monolingual neck.
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Don’t knowif you saw this bit of news last week, but I’ll bet Ray Dolan will be looking for a new title for the book he’s writing. For the last several months, Dolan, 39, of West Virginia, has been hitchhiking across the country gathering material for a book he’s writing called “The Kindness of America” about how nice and helpful average people can be. He got as far as northeastern Montana, near a town called Glasgow, and said he was sitting on the side of the road eating lunch when a car drove up. Thinking they were going to give him a ride, Dolan claimed he approached the vehicle, and the driver pulled a weapon and shot him in the arm. Dolan was treated at a local hospital and was expected to recover. The perp — alleged to be Lloyd Christopher Danielson III, a 52-year-old man from Washington State — was arrested about four hours later 100 miles away by Sheriff’s deputies in
Roosevelt County.
That sad story made the national news, which is apparently what Dolan wanted all along, because Friday, police said he confessed to shooting himself in the arm in a desperate attempt to get publicity for his book. Charges are pending against Dolan; charges against Danielson have been dropped. The folks at the Montana Department of Tourism are popping champagne corks in relief — they actually dodged a bullet.
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I was at a bittersweet luncheon last week forAdeleYoung, the longtime news editor and head of the copy desk at Greater Media Newspapers, whowill retire this month. In her years with the company, she set a high standard of excellence when it came to all things regarding grammar, punctuation, usage and style. You may remember her because she writes the annual “Bloopers” column about all the funny things that almost made it into the paper, and sometimes did. I could probably write a couple of columns extolling the virtues and contributions of this fine journalistic professional — who was one of those who made the trains run on time at our publications — and still not do her justice. But suffice it to say that she will be missed by nearly everyone at the newspapers, and by me personally.
For almost 20 years, Adele read everything Iwrote for publication and kept me from making a fool of myself about a jillion times. I say that only so that my loyal readers will know that the next time I misspell a name or make some other boneheaded blunder that sees its way into print, it won’t be my fault. It will be Adele’s fault for jumping ship and leaving me tomy own puny devices (there are other wonderful copy editors at the papers who’ll backstop me, but I’m not above ladling on a little guilt).
Thanks for everything, Addle (that’s what Spell Check wants me to change your name to every time I use it). It was an honor and a pleasure to work at your side. You made us all better.
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The response to last week’s column about the law requiring pets to be restrained in vehicles, and levying huge fines to violators has been heavy, and is still coming in. At this point, it’s about 10-1 — those who agree with me that the law is ridiculous vs. those who say the law is just peachy and that I ought to be fined on general principle. I’ll share some of those comments in more detail in a column in the near future.
Gregory Bean is the former executive editor of Greater Media Newspapers. You can reach him at [email protected].