To all the people commenting here: Firstly, I'm deeply envious of anyone who is genuinely bilingual. I've worked pretty hard, and still only have a smattering

To all the people commenting here: Firstly, I'm deeply envious of anyone who is genuinely bilingual. I've worked pretty hard, and still only have a smattering of other languages. I've never really had the chance or reason to develop fluency in anything other than my native tongue, so cherish your ability. You probably can't - from the inside - realise quite what advantages it bestows. And that's my second point. Many of you are saying that you don't think it's significantly affected your ability to multi-task, but you can't know. This is why science demands proper double-blind randomized trials. You don't know what you would be like without your bilingualism, so you don't know how - or if - it's affected you. Maybe without your bilingualism you'd be a lot worse at multi-tasking. Or a lot better. You can't tell. I have various skills, and I believe that some have helped, and perhaps some have hindered, my programming, but I certainly can't tell. See also http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2244178 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2244178 where there's a report that bilingualism seems to delay the onset of Alzheimer's.