10 ms·

Is being bilingual good for your brain?

170 points by Anon84 1y ago

muneeer 1y ago
https://archive.is/lSCR2 https://archive.is/lSCR2
Groxx 1y ago
>We value your privacy >... Together with our 173 trusted partners... In a full screen, multi-stage permissions pop-up. Yeah how about no. No need to lie, tell me how you really feel, maybe "we will sell anything we can to anyone we can because we need the money". (It is a very detailed pop-up tho, in a good way - breaks down each toggle with individual companies, and there's a search across all of them)
- signal-intel 1y ago
  If your user agent is providing strangers with information you don’t want it to, find a better user agent.
  - whoisyc 1y ago
    Your comment would be much more persuasive if you provide a concrete actionable suggestion instead of vague handwringing about “finding a better user agent” (and don’t get me started on how “user agent” is basically just an ingroup signal these days)
    - noisem4ker 1y ago
      Let me do it on their behalf: Firefox + uBlock Origin + EasyList Cookie List ...until Firefox learns to dismiss cookie banners on its own (they're working on it).
    - ashwinsundar 1y ago
      “User agent” is a technical term. what ingroup does it signal that you’re part of, by using the term correctly?
      - signal-intel 1y ago
        The most despicable group of the modern era: folks who expect their own software to act on their own behalf.
        whoisyc 1y ago
        Thank you for the snark. I am sure this will work wonders to persuade more people to take their privacy seriously.
        deleted 1y ago
        [deleted]
        signal-intel 1y ago
        I’m quite sure nobody here knows what you’re point you’re trying to make.
    - fsckboy 1y ago
      english usage aside: you could accuse him of handwaving, but he's not complaining, so his comment is not "handwringing". you are complaining (about his comment) so your comment is closer to handwringing. "find a better user agent" is not handwringing; "i can't find a better user agent" is handwringing.
  - Groxx 1y ago
    Already doing that, they don't really have a choice. I still have to deal with the awful UX they've chosen to inflict on everyone by "valuing our privacy by selling our info to over 100 companies", and they can still sell data they collect directly.
    - signal-intel 1y ago
      Indeed. Blame the regulators that required this, and/or the engineers that have developed a system that gives away your data.
    - jraph 1y ago
      uBlock Origin has lists that block most of these modals
- kgwgk 1y ago
  They don’t lie! When they say “We value your privacy” they mean that your privacy is valuable to them. Of course, they need to convert that value into money.
TMWNN 1y ago
I have heard that hyperpolyglots, such as translators at EU headquarters who work with many languages, are more susceptible to mental illness.
- mythrwy 1y ago
  Could be from listening to politician talk all day every day though. Just look at how much mental illness politics seems to produce in people who interact with it less frequently.
- tgv 1y ago
  I'm not sure those people are hyperpolyglot (whatever that exactly means). They usually have extreme skills in two languages, one being their native language. However, a task like simultaneous translation is tough. It requires a different way of focusing, and has other demands on working memory. There is some evidence that it leads to "functional" changes in the brain. That could be a factor. OTOH, since the effect is bound to a small group living in a few places, it could just as well be a life-style effect.
- johnisgood 1y ago
  Sometimes there is a thin line between a genius and someone with a mental illness. That is not to say those translators are geniuses, I am speaking more broadly.
dehrmann 1y ago
With time being limited, I wonder if using a second language, playing an instrument, solving puzzles, physical activity, or some other activity is "better" brain stimulus.
- basisword 1y ago
  Would any effect be limited once you achieve mastery (or close to it)? After 25 years playing my instrument when I play it my brain just switches off. No thinking at all. Doesn't matter whether I'm looking at sheet music playing something new, improvising, or playing something I know well. It's all easy. I imagine it's similar with a second language if you fully immerse yourself in it for a long time.
  - SoftTalker 1y ago
    When did this transition happen? I have tried to play but found that even after four or five years it was difficult, required a lot of concentration, and gave me little pleasure. The only physical skill I have that might be comparable is typing, but (as a programmer) even after typing for over 40 years, while I can type without "thinking" about where the keys are, I can usually type only three or four words without needing to make a correction.
    - basisword 1y ago
      Probably not until the 12 year mark. Maybe a little before that. I would say that it was a combination of time + actively learning certain skills. There were periods where I rested on my laurels for a few years so I probably could have reduced the time by a few years (if that was the aim). I would say 7 years is around where it got really enjoyable though and I knew enough that it wasn't too much effort to learn new songs and skills. Worth mentioning I started when I was a kid. Learning something when you're young is so much easier due to the available time and the ability to obsess (this was also pre-internet mostly). When I try learning new instruments these days it takes much longer because I have responsibilities.
    - dehrmann 1y ago
b0a04gl 1y ago
[dead]
hombre_fatal 1y ago
The most interesting part: > Age plays a role too. Studies suggest that the effects of languages on the brain are stronger for young children and the old than they are for young adults. Bilingual tots seem to outperform in cognitive development in the early years, but their monolingual classmates may catch up with them later. One meta-analysis on the topic found that 25 studies of 45 found a bilingual advantage in children younger than six, while only 17 found them in children aged 6-12. That's gonna be a let down to most people who read the title and make assumptions.
- zelphirkalt 1y ago
  Could be explained by education systems. If all these children go through the same kind of schools, then the cognitive development may be limited there, allowing the monolingual kids to catch up, while wasting the potential of the bilingual ones.
- _Algernon_ 1y ago
  That comparison is meaningless without doing a proper meta-analysis. What is the sample size of these studies? What are the effect sizes? That's more important than the number of studies that go in each direction.
- mrangle 1y ago
  I wonder how is this cognitive development progress was measured, and I question the results of whichever study this refers to. I acknowledge that "bilingual tots seem to outperform in cognitive development in the early years" seems both intuitive and logical. This is a string of words that we'd expect to find together. We'd almost be offended if they weren't. Because both bilingualism and learning more things are better. My concern over the reference to this research is that early cognitive development milestones are largely language acquisition milestones, and it has long been known that language acquisition is somewhat behind in bilingual tots. Rather than accelerated. Generally, it is assumed that bilingual child development metrics will later catch up to those of their peer group. Which is the inverse of "their monolingual classmates may catch up with them later". Bilingual children aren't actually cognitively delayed, if only marginally on the face of their assessments, but rather they tend toward having a temporary delay in language acquisition due to to their bilingual environment. With any cognitive development disadvantage that this could theoretically cause essentially being non-risk. However, I've never seen anything that indicates performant development due to bilingualism. Just the opposite, to a statistically relevant degree. Even if only marginally behind. This is textbook information and part of the body of knowledge of language acquisition. It's not a vanguard research topic.
instagib 1y ago
Need to learn the second language and use it over years switching thinking between the two languages. Learning it in university then not using it does not count.
AdrianB1 1y ago
I think that most people working in tech that don't have English as their native language are bilingual. What that means, I am not sure, the article suggests some benefits and the next logical step is to assume these people should be slightly better on average than native English speakers, but this is just speculation.
afiodorov 1y ago
I use my third language, Spanish, every day, and my second, English, for work. On top of that, my partner is a native Portuguese speaker, so I'm passively soaking up a fourth. (I usually reply to her in Spanish, but we watch everything in Portuguese—though this month it's been all Italian, just for fun). To this day, I still find Spanish a bit more challenging than my native language or even English. I think it's because even though I moved to Spain over seven years ago, I never fully immersed myself in the culture. I'm pretty sure I haven't read a single book in Spanish. I still do that classic thing non-fluent speakers do: I'll get halfway through a sentence, realize I don't know a specific word, and have to rephrase my thought more simply. To be clear, I'm far from a beginner, just not yet fluent. Anyway, I can attest that grappling with a language you haven't quite mastered is a daily mini-puzzle that definitely keeps the brain working a bit harder than it otherwise would. On a side note, I love that LLMs can handle so many languages now. After 17 years of living abroad, I still feel most at ease speaking my native language, Russian, even though my vocabulary is a bit lacking these days for more complex topics. It makes me completely understand why people prefer to receive medical care in their native tongue.
- timr 1y ago
  > I still do that classic thing non-fluent speakers do: I'll get halfway through a sentence, realize I don't know a specific word, and have to rephrase my thought more simply. To be clear, I'm far from a beginner, just not yet fluent. Isn't that a thing everyone does? I don't have as many languages as you, but when I finally got to the point where I could reliably do what you're describing in Japanese, I felt like I had actually achieved a baseline level of fluency for the first time. The flywheel became self-perpetuating vs. my French, where every sentence is a struggle. Not asking to be argumentative, btw -- just wondering what's on the other side.
  - afiodorov 1y ago
    There's another level after fluency (C1), which is near-native fluency (C2). At the level of such mastery you don't feel the need to simplify just to be understood, your utterances now define the language itself as you've achieved the level of the crowd whom the language belongs to in the first place. P.S. I've typed this out in English after having achieved such unlock.
self_awareness 1y ago
I wonder why pro-diversity folks didn't pick it up yet. What could be more monocultural if not the language? We need more language diversity.
- BuckRogers 1y ago
  No one is pro diversity. Including Google, Microsoft and Apple. They just think it’s good publicity to make more money. And getting women and immigrants put to work drops drive down wages. More workers equals less pay. You can see this by how those companies operate with their divisions in the Middle East. You won’t see a pride flag. If you were really taking a stand, you’d fight the hard fights, lose money. Not just do things where you think you can get away with it. In fact, if I’m not mistaken, most of those companies changed their policies on DEI hiring as soon as Trump said anyone with contracts with US government could not participate in DEI or they lose those contracts. But there is no uproar all.
  - self_awareness 1y ago
    Big corpos, sure. But small confused individuals belive this. So I'm wondering why they won't learn a new language to bring more diversity.
  - johnisgood 1y ago
    I saw those TikTok videos where "women in tech" went into an empty office building from Google and Facebook and did absolutely nothing. Can I get a work like that, too, if I tell them I identify as a female? Genuine question.
    - self_awareness 1y ago
      No. Leftist movements are about who you are, not what are you doing. You're not the right person for these perks, so you can't get the job, and there's nothing you can do to change it.
      - johnisgood 1y ago
robomartin 1y ago
> A study from 2019 showed that a moderate amount of language learning in adults does not boost things like executive function. I guess these days a few paragraphs qualifies for an "in depth" article. No links to any of the sources referenced, except to one of their own pages. Not very useful. That said, sure, as someone who speaks several languages and can mostly understand a few more, I think there are interesting insights gained by having this ability. For me, a lot of it has to do with, perhaps, less-than-verbal communication. Each culture has a certain way to communicate in person during conversations. Spanish spoken in Spain, Mexico, Peru, Ecuador and Argentina, while different, also drag along non-verbal cues that are distinct in each culture. Same with English in various parts of the UK, US and other anglo-speaking countries. As much as some Canadians think themselves to be French, there are differences there as well with France. Non-verbal cues in the Arab world (and Middle East in general) are different as well. How you sit, move, pace, use your hands and gesticulate during in-person conversations are linked to both language and culture. Etc. Who remembers the bar scene in Inglorious Basterds? Yup, very true. Instant communication. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86Ckh80mLlQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86Ckh80mLlQ
- throaway955 1y ago
  French-Canadians think they're French-Canadian, not "French."
  - robomartin 1y ago
    Oh, I am sure. And yet, I have also seen evidence to the contrary from some. People can be weird. The argument goes something like: We are direct descendants of French immigrants ("pure blood" argument). It's along similar lines as descendants of Italian immigrants in New York calling themselves "Italian"...not realizing how far they are from that being remotely real.
    - throaway955 1y ago
      Is there not a big difference between Canadiens living in a Francophone province (one that they founded hundreds of years ago), speaking French as a first language and practicing French culture, and Italian-Americans speaking English and living in English speaking states that they have no historical association with?
heresie-dabord 1y ago
What is "good for one's brain" (apart from proper nutrition and absence of concussions) is a strong education and healthy lifelong social interactions. Human language is essential for these interactions. Having multiple human languages opens more books, interactions, and cultures. The opposite is to remain closed. This is a dangerous state of mind and culture. From TFA: all these studies take for granted the uncontroversial mental superpower that you get from language study: being able to talk to people you could not have otherwise. Not just to talk to people, but to unlock an understanding of their culture and perspectives. Talking to more people in more contexts is a practical affordance: having more tools in the shop means being able to handle new and different types of problems effectively. People solve problems working together with people. Having the cognitive adaptability to use new and different tools is certainly a valuable quality. We can nurture it as a learning objective, but it may may not be as universalisable as we have hoped. That said, the cost of not trying to educate people is to fail even worse.
- mythrwy 1y ago
  I don't think I agree that social interactions are necessary to keep one sharp. In fact excessive social interactions with people that aren't all that sharp might dull one a bit. Reading and thinking and studying can be done alone just fine. Now as far as effectiveness in the real world, yes, social interactions and fluency is needed, but I believe this to be different from being "sharp". It probably helps keep you looking sharp though.
  - anonymars 1y ago
    As someone content with being by myself, I get what you're saying but overall I don't agree. COVID was a good experiment and it busted up a lot of people. Even excepting COVID, in the elderly the difference with social isolation can be night and day. I have witnessed firsthand one's cognitive deterioration reversed when the person moved into an assisted living community and gained a social life, and then when COVID hit and everyone was locked down the decay set in again
- jamager 1y ago
  > What is "good for one's brain" (apart from proper nutrition and absence of concussions) is a strong education and healthy lifelong social interactions Sure, but I think this is more about the fact that what you don't use, you lose. Learning languages is hard, so even learning old Greek keeps you brain sharp as long as you enjoy it to some extent. Gym for the brain is good, what you do with it can be better, but gym is still good.
keiferski 1y ago
These studies always miss the obvious cultural point to me, [1] which is that knowing more than one language usually means you deeply understand more than one culture. This by default makes one a bit more capable of nuance, seeing other perspectives, etc. Languages are not just interchangeable collections of words, but are whole worldviews. Language in this sense is a kind of knowledge and not a different brain state, akin to reading books about history to understand a conflict better. 1. Maybe that’s not their fault, as they are ostensibly interested only in the biology. But it still seems like a major hole when discussing the benefits of being bilingual.
- leidenfrost 1y ago
  I wonder if these studies also take in account indigenous languages and its native speakers. People from Paraguay speak both Spanish and Guarani. A lot of people from Mexico speak both Spanish and Mayan. Does that have the same effect as the son of a family that speaks English and German?
  - keiferski 1y ago
    In terms of the knowledge sense I mean, I think it is logical that the more distant the worldviews of the languages, the greater the effect. Even more so if they both have a large media / cultural sphere.
  - FlyingSnake 1y ago
    I think so, yes. My daughter speaks English and German fluently and I can see she has deep insights into these cultures. (She also speaks 2 other languages) She once told me that she likes to read conversational books like “Greg’s Tagebuch” in German while “Harry Potter” type books in English.
    - bogdan 1y ago
      Could it also be because translations are never as good as the originals? One thing that comes to mind is translated songs, they usually sound off and forced to my ear. On the other hand I never read the same material in two languages so it's hard to really have an opinion but I did CS in another language than English and can say very confidently say that it was a huge pain to discuss with professors CS terms that were force translated into my native tongue, it was unnecessary and even though it's been many years since I graduated I still have those terms imprinted into my mind.
agumonkey 1y ago
Personally, being half lifed and busted mentally, I found surprising how refreshing it was to learn bits of latin. It rewires concepts all across the brain in a smooth way and connect news ideas that you don't in you native language.
dumroll 1y ago
I have a different take. I am an immigrant. I speak 3 regional languages fluently and can partly speak German. While I always had English exposure since the age of 5 or 6, my parents spoke different language. Everyone in my neighborhood who was not economically okay spoke different language than English. I think it hurts more than helps when you are polylingual if you decide to spend majority of time in country like United States. I have collected a lot of data around this. Time and time again, I can prove with data, that native english langauge speakers outperform anyone else. Whether it is college admissions, admissions to incubators like Y Combinator, job opportunities, sports opportunities, housing opportunities and more. If language is the sole factor to be considered, then polylinguals do not win. When you speak a foreign language than English, you accent is bound to be messed up. Look at Indian Americans or Pakistani Americans or other people who speak dual langauge. There is always something off about their accent. This leads to acceptance and at time getting asked "are you american" or "were you born here?" I am not saying dont learn foreign language. But, language is one aspect of being polylingual. You just dont speak words. Words have meaning and they are deeply ingrained in cultures. If you know long term where you want to be, learn and speak and immerse yourself in the culture. Otherwise you are just creating more noise for social media points and making it harder for yourself to be a master of one language.
- seszett 1y ago
  > When you speak a foreign language than English, you accent is bound to be messed up. Look at Indian Americans or Pakistani Americans or other people who speak dual langauge. That's not true, in this case it is simply the accent they learn because everyone around them has this accent. But learning different languages when young doesn't mean one develops a foreign accent. I know Flemish people of Vietnamese origins who speak correct Vietnamese as well as Flemish with a perfectly good farmer accent from West Flanders. And their kids speak native French with a neutral (French) accent in addition to native Flemish, because the French speakers in their family are French and not Belgian. When learning languages young, accents don't creep from one language to the other, that happens when one learns a language later on.
  - numpad0 1y ago
zeroCalories 1y ago
Unless you love the culture, there's no reason to learn a language besides English. I would ditch the knowledge and thousands of hours spent on my native language to improve my English, or really any other skill. Always funny watching Americans try to larp as cultured cosmopolitans by learning a language they'll never actually need. Especially in 2025, when you can just point an AI at something and ask it to read it for you.
- swat535 1y ago
  I'm not sure about that. I speak 3 language fluently, I think its important to nurture your native language. Perhaps because we partially identify our personalities and cultures based on our mother tongue, but I would feel like a part of me would be lost if I drop it. I agree with your point regarding English however, I think everyone should learn it regardless and I can't help but feel like it's a lighthearted language. I wonder if others are the same, but I feel like a different person based on the language I speak.. somehow I'm "kinder" (is that the right word?) when I speak English for example..
- BuckRogers 1y ago
  You should be complementing people trying to be cosmopolitan and learning another language. There’s nothing wrong with that. And as people have commented here, it’s good for their mind. It seems that Americans can never win. Either the most racist xenophobic people in the world that deserve to have foreigners take their country over. Or, they’re fake cosmopolitans larping. Of course the real answer is that people are just envious of Americans. But we won’t go into that. It’s true that AI is making nearly any intellectual endeavor pointless from a necessity standpoint. But that’s OK, we’re going to be able to intellectually dive into things that we actually want to do for enjoyment in the future. People will still learn languages and study whatever they want. I find foreign language is interesting and fun. I don’t know if it’s the brain stimulation or just the sheer joy of having a secret language that many people around me don’t understand.
- FlyingSnake 1y ago
  This is such a sad and utilitarian take. I would rather do the opposite and try to learn as many languages as possible. I can’t imagine the fun of reading “Cien Años de Soledad” in Spanish or Dostoevski in Russian.
nayuki 1y ago
I think English monolingual people have a harder time learning and distinguishing homophones (words with same pronunciation but different spelling) - such as to/too/two, there/their/they're, its/it's, etc. If you know another language and correspond the aforementioned English words with those in the other language, you can see that they become quite distinct. For example, to/too/two in French is à/aussi/deux.
xvilka 1y ago
Mandatory mention of Language Transfer project[1]. [1] https://www.languagetransfer.org/ https://www.languagetransfer.org/
- kiru_io 1y ago
  Can you give more info on that? the website is not very clear what it is, so basically it's an app to learn languages?
  - xvilka 1y ago
    It's learning languages by employing "thinking method" where you learn new language using English, mostly, as a basis. In the case of some languages, like Spanish, using the knowledge of common Latin roots. And thinking method itself focuses on learning the rules rather than memorizing individual words. Here[1] the author explains his method in details, in a guidebook for writers of new courses. [1] https://www.languagetransfer.org/guidebook https://www.languagetransfer.org/guidebook
FlyingSnake 1y ago
Sometimes I really pity the monolinguals who can’t witness the beauty of the varied linguistic cultures of the world. It’s not a brag but here’s a sample of how my polylingustic life looks like: In the past week I had discussions about Clausewitz’s “Vom Krige” and “Rét Samadhi” by Gitanjali Shree, discussed Marathi poetry with my daughter, listened to mellifluous Tamil songs like “Nenjukkul Peidhidum”, appreciated my wife’s Uttara Kannada accent, all the while consuming English media in copious amounts. Languages and accents are a unique part of being human and I firmly believe that we’re meant to be multilingual.
- xdfgh1112 1y ago
  You're talking about the huge amount of content you can consume but speak nothing of creation. No matter what you enjoy, there is an unfathomable spectrum of the human experience you have not been a part of. Your particular preference is not superior to anyone else's.
  - FlyingSnake 1y ago
    You brought in „superiority” into this not me. BTW how are monolinguals immune to the charge you’ve laid against me? At least we multilinguals can enjoy the “unfathomable expanse” in more dimensions than them.
    - xdfgh1112 1y ago
      You said it was part of being human, that we are meant to be multilingual (so monolinguals aren't human enough?), you clarified "it's not a brag" (i.e. it sounds like a brag), you said you pity them. > BTW how are monolinguals immune to the charge you’ve laid against me? Monolinguals have to learn languages from scratch. This is a massive investment of time. You can do other things with that time. Some people spend their whole life creating art, music and writing. Are they superior to to people who only consume? Some people volunteer or travel the world, are they superior to those who cannot? Nobody can do everything, we all have to choose.
      - 1y ago
hiAndrewQuinn 1y ago
n=1 data point here, but most of my free time these days is spent learning Finnish, a notoriously difficult language for English monolinguals. (I haven't always been in the monolingual camp, but a decade away from Latin has 99% put me back there.) For the most part, I don't feel like it has made me any sharper. Had I taken the ~2000 hours I'm in the hole for so far and spent them on going to the gym and sleeping more I'm nearly certain that would have had a much larger effect on my day to day mental acuity. Had I spent it on my career I'd probably be substantially richer. I probably have another ~2000 to go before I reach a level where I'm happy plateauing. In general I think it's very hard to justify learning a foreign language when subjected to a normal adult person's cost-benefit analysis. I persist mostly because I just really, really, really want to reach true proficiency, not the fake proficiency that gets you an A in Spanish or Latin class, as I outlined in [1]. If you don't have a similar drive your time and energy is probably better spent elsewhere. [1]: https://andrew-quinn.me/thoughts-on-language-learning-at-the-end-of-the-world/ https://andrew-quinn.me/thoughts-on-language-learning-at-the...
- rahimnathwani 1y ago
  In general I think it's very hard to justify learning a foreign language when subjected to a normal adult person's cost-benefit analysis. This is true for most people. I'd say the exception is if you're learning a language that's native to the place where you live. This reduces the effort required to get conversation practice AND makes it more fun. So rather than choosing between Netflix and language study, you're choosing between Netflix and chatting with people in a bar.
  - hiAndrewQuinn 1y ago
    Well, Finnish is native to the place I live, because I also live in Finland. My experience even here suggests that even this exception is only true for maybe 10-15% of immigrants, which is already a small pool of people. Part of this, of course, is that we're now talking very different goals with different levels of commitment required. You can pick up enough of any language to be fun at a bar in a single digit precentage of the time it takes to become professionally fluent with it. The opportunity cost really is at least one, and maybe two, orders of magnitude lower here, depending on how much "My practice needs to be fun" matters to you. Empirically, from both personal experience and personal observation: Most people who move countries, if they're not already moving as working class professionals with a preexisting command of the native language, just find it much easier to settle into enclaves of similar immigrants and try to interact with the broader society with help from that community. This was as true in the US as it is in Finland, and I've known a lot of immigrants from a lot of different backgrounds throughout my life. Like seeks like everywhere alike. My attempt at being the opposite of this person puts me at odds with most other immigrants I have known. I'm actually the only person I've met here so far who has actually read a complete, non-selkosuomi book in Finnish without being a native or heritage speaker, for example. "Can read an ordinary book written for adults" is not exactly a high bar to pass in absolute terms for any language, but it's higher than what the vast majority of people will ever do in one they didn't grow up with.
kazinator 1y ago
I suspect the benefit is greater when the second language is from a completely different family, and has a different writing system.
hartem_ 1y ago
https://archive.is/20250628212925/https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2025/06/27/is-being-bilingual-good-for-your-brain https://archive.is/20250628212925/https://www.economist.com/...
ur-whale 1y ago
https://archive.is/lSCR2 https://archive.is/lSCR2
qprofyeh 1y ago
The way looking up words in your vocabulary works kind of like a vector db search. Then sometimes I think of something and the query result returns only the thing in language 3.
- luxpir 1y ago
  Yes this. I worked in restaurants a lot and embarrassed myself back home when I could only remember the term pichet for jug, making me not look like a very talented linguist at all. Now I've been away from the learned language countries it's happening a bit in reverse.
Caelus9 1y ago
If you want to slow cognitive decline or improve mental flexibility, then learning a second language, even if it's started later in life, does make sense, but expecting it to improve intelligence or memory overall is probably a beautiful but unrealistic fantasy.
- 331c8c71 1y ago
  > then learning a _second_ language Strange way to phrase it. Lots of people know more than one language already.
  - sandbach 1y ago
    'Second language' is a technical term meaning a foreign language learnt after early childhood. For example, if someone grows up speaking English and German natively and then learns French at school, French is a second language to them, even though you could say it's language #3.
qoez 1y ago
My theory is that being bilingual isn't good so much because you know two languages, but because you get to know two cultures. I'd probably go crazy if american was the only culture I was exposed to on a deep level and didn't have a second language to help filter out the bad ideas from the good.
- esperent 1y ago
  There are so many cultures that speak English though. I'm only fluent in English, but as an Irish person who spent parts of my childhood in England and Scotland, I feel like I have a deep (fluent) understanding of Irish and English culture, and a second language equivalent of Scottish and American cultures, maybe at a third language equivalent level I could add Australian. All of these cultures are easily as different from each other as non English speaking European cultures like German, French, Italian. I've also spent the last few years living and running a business in Vietnam, and while I've failed hard at learning the language, I do work with Vietnamese people everyday and I am growing to have a reasonable understanding of Vietnamese culture, even while I would struggle to have any kind of deep conversation in the language.
- bethekidyouwant 1y ago
  America has endless subcultures
lvl155 1y ago
I have a theory that being bilingual in early ages and having constant exposure to both languages, the latter being key, create two cognitive centers in your brain. It also matters when you picked up your languages. Exposure later in life may mean that you basically and merely “installed” a translation layer.
HichamCh 1y ago
It's not just about delaying dementia, either. I've heard it improves cognitive flexibility and multitasking abilities. Makes sense, you're constantly switching between mental frameworks.
Hashex129542 1y ago
These kinda articles are 2nd language imposition propaganda we've seen lot.
Pearledlang 1y ago
Here in Finland, we have a good trial population: Finnish-Swedes. They are genetically very similar to Finns, but despite being bi-lingual, and wealthier than native population, they are very slightly duller. (1-3 iq points).
firefax 1y ago
I don't think it's bad for your brain.
Noelia- 1y ago
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idkfasayer 1y ago
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quite-sfwd 1y ago
I'm pretty sure that learning Polish made me dumber. After years of effort I still don't speak it fluently and lost countless days of my focus for having a marginal convenience of knowing Polish superficially.

170 points by Anon84 1y ago

https://archive.is/lSCR2 https://archive.is/lSCR2

>We value your privacy >... Together with our 173 trusted partners... In a full screen, multi-stage permissions pop-up. Yeah how about no. No need to lie, tell me how you really feel, maybe "we will sell anything we can to anyone we can because we need the money". (It is a very detailed pop-up tho, in a good way - breaks down each toggle with individual companies, and there's a search across all of them)

signal-intel 1y ago
If your user agent is providing strangers with information you don’t want it to, find a better user agent.
- whoisyc 1y ago
  Your comment would be much more persuasive if you provide a concrete actionable suggestion instead of vague handwringing about “finding a better user agent” (and don’t get me started on how “user agent” is basically just an ingroup signal these days)
  - noisem4ker 1y ago
    Let me do it on their behalf: Firefox + uBlock Origin + EasyList Cookie List ...until Firefox learns to dismiss cookie banners on its own (they're working on it).
  - ashwinsundar 1y ago
    “User agent” is a technical term. what ingroup does it signal that you’re part of, by using the term correctly?
    - signal-intel 1y ago
      The most despicable group of the modern era: folks who expect their own software to act on their own behalf.
      - whoisyc 1y ago
        Thank you for the snark. I am sure this will work wonders to persuade more people to take their privacy seriously.
        deleted 1y ago
        [deleted]
        signal-intel 1y ago
        I’m quite sure nobody here knows what you’re point you’re trying to make.
  - fsckboy 1y ago
    english usage aside: you could accuse him of handwaving, but he's not complaining, so his comment is not "handwringing". you are complaining (about his comment) so your comment is closer to handwringing. "find a better user agent" is not handwringing; "i can't find a better user agent" is handwringing.
- Groxx 1y ago
  Already doing that, they don't really have a choice. I still have to deal with the awful UX they've chosen to inflict on everyone by "valuing our privacy by selling our info to over 100 companies", and they can still sell data they collect directly.
  - signal-intel 1y ago
    Indeed. Blame the regulators that required this, and/or the engineers that have developed a system that gives away your data.
  - jraph 1y ago
    uBlock Origin has lists that block most of these modals
kgwgk 1y ago
They don’t lie! When they say “We value your privacy” they mean that your privacy is valuable to them. Of course, they need to convert that value into money.

TMWNN 1y ago

I have heard that hyperpolyglots, such as translators at EU headquarters who work with many languages, are more susceptible to mental illness.

mythrwy 1y ago
Could be from listening to politician talk all day every day though. Just look at how much mental illness politics seems to produce in people who interact with it less frequently.
tgv 1y ago
I'm not sure those people are hyperpolyglot (whatever that exactly means). They usually have extreme skills in two languages, one being their native language. However, a task like simultaneous translation is tough. It requires a different way of focusing, and has other demands on working memory. There is some evidence that it leads to "functional" changes in the brain. That could be a factor. OTOH, since the effect is bound to a small group living in a few places, it could just as well be a life-style effect.
johnisgood 1y ago
Sometimes there is a thin line between a genius and someone with a mental illness. That is not to say those translators are geniuses, I am speaking more broadly.

dehrmann 1y ago

With time being limited, I wonder if using a second language, playing an instrument, solving puzzles, physical activity, or some other activity is "better" brain stimulus.

basisword 1y ago
Would any effect be limited once you achieve mastery (or close to it)? After 25 years playing my instrument when I play it my brain just switches off. No thinking at all. Doesn't matter whether I'm looking at sheet music playing something new, improvising, or playing something I know well. It's all easy. I imagine it's similar with a second language if you fully immerse yourself in it for a long time.
- SoftTalker 1y ago
  When did this transition happen? I have tried to play but found that even after four or five years it was difficult, required a lot of concentration, and gave me little pleasure. The only physical skill I have that might be comparable is typing, but (as a programmer) even after typing for over 40 years, while I can type without "thinking" about where the keys are, I can usually type only three or four words without needing to make a correction.
  - basisword 1y ago
    Probably not until the 12 year mark. Maybe a little before that. I would say that it was a combination of time + actively learning certain skills. There were periods where I rested on my laurels for a few years so I probably could have reduced the time by a few years (if that was the aim). I would say 7 years is around where it got really enjoyable though and I knew enough that it wasn't too much effort to learn new songs and skills. Worth mentioning I started when I was a kid. Learning something when you're young is so much easier due to the available time and the ability to obsess (this was also pre-internet mostly). When I try learning new instruments these days it takes much longer because I have responsibilities.
  - dehrmann 1y ago

b0a04gl 1y ago

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hombre_fatal 1y ago

The most interesting part: > Age plays a role too. Studies suggest that the effects of languages on the brain are stronger for young children and the old than they are for young adults. Bilingual tots seem to outperform in cognitive development in the early years, but their monolingual classmates may catch up with them later. One meta-analysis on the topic found that 25 studies of 45 found a bilingual advantage in children younger than six, while only 17 found them in children aged 6-12. That's gonna be a let down to most people who read the title and make assumptions.

zelphirkalt 1y ago
Could be explained by education systems. If all these children go through the same kind of schools, then the cognitive development may be limited there, allowing the monolingual kids to catch up, while wasting the potential of the bilingual ones.
_Algernon_ 1y ago
That comparison is meaningless without doing a proper meta-analysis. What is the sample size of these studies? What are the effect sizes? That's more important than the number of studies that go in each direction.
mrangle 1y ago
I wonder how is this cognitive development progress was measured, and I question the results of whichever study this refers to. I acknowledge that "bilingual tots seem to outperform in cognitive development in the early years" seems both intuitive and logical. This is a string of words that we'd expect to find together. We'd almost be offended if they weren't. Because both bilingualism and learning more things are better. My concern over the reference to this research is that early cognitive development milestones are largely language acquisition milestones, and it has long been known that language acquisition is somewhat behind in bilingual tots. Rather than accelerated. Generally, it is assumed that bilingual child development metrics will later catch up to those of their peer group. Which is the inverse of "their monolingual classmates may catch up with them later". Bilingual children aren't actually cognitively delayed, if only marginally on the face of their assessments, but rather they tend toward having a temporary delay in language acquisition due to to their bilingual environment. With any cognitive development disadvantage that this could theoretically cause essentially being non-risk. However, I've never seen anything that indicates performant development due to bilingualism. Just the opposite, to a statistically relevant degree. Even if only marginally behind. This is textbook information and part of the body of knowledge of language acquisition. It's not a vanguard research topic.

instagib 1y ago

Need to learn the second language and use it over years switching thinking between the two languages. Learning it in university then not using it does not count.

AdrianB1 1y ago

I think that most people working in tech that don't have English as their native language are bilingual. What that means, I am not sure, the article suggests some benefits and the next logical step is to assume these people should be slightly better on average than native English speakers, but this is just speculation.

afiodorov 1y ago

I use my third language, Spanish, every day, and my second, English, for work. On top of that, my partner is a native Portuguese speaker, so I'm passively soaking up a fourth. (I usually reply to her in Spanish, but we watch everything in Portuguese—though this month it's been all Italian, just for fun). To this day, I still find Spanish a bit more challenging than my native language or even English. I think it's because even though I moved to Spain over seven years ago, I never fully immersed myself in the culture. I'm pretty sure I haven't read a single book in Spanish. I still do that classic thing non-fluent speakers do: I'll get halfway through a sentence, realize I don't know a specific word, and have to rephrase my thought more simply. To be clear, I'm far from a beginner, just not yet fluent. Anyway, I can attest that grappling with a language you haven't quite mastered is a daily mini-puzzle that definitely keeps the brain working a bit harder than it otherwise would. On a side note, I love that LLMs can handle so many languages now. After 17 years of living abroad, I still feel most at ease speaking my native language, Russian, even though my vocabulary is a bit lacking these days for more complex topics. It makes me completely understand why people prefer to receive medical care in their native tongue.

timr 1y ago
> I still do that classic thing non-fluent speakers do: I'll get halfway through a sentence, realize I don't know a specific word, and have to rephrase my thought more simply. To be clear, I'm far from a beginner, just not yet fluent. Isn't that a thing everyone does? I don't have as many languages as you, but when I finally got to the point where I could reliably do what you're describing in Japanese, I felt like I had actually achieved a baseline level of fluency for the first time. The flywheel became self-perpetuating vs. my French, where every sentence is a struggle. Not asking to be argumentative, btw -- just wondering what's on the other side.
- afiodorov 1y ago
  There's another level after fluency (C1), which is near-native fluency (C2). At the level of such mastery you don't feel the need to simplify just to be understood, your utterances now define the language itself as you've achieved the level of the crowd whom the language belongs to in the first place. P.S. I've typed this out in English after having achieved such unlock.

self_awareness 1y ago

I wonder why pro-diversity folks didn't pick it up yet. What could be more monocultural if not the language? We need more language diversity.

BuckRogers 1y ago
No one is pro diversity. Including Google, Microsoft and Apple. They just think it’s good publicity to make more money. And getting women and immigrants put to work drops drive down wages. More workers equals less pay. You can see this by how those companies operate with their divisions in the Middle East. You won’t see a pride flag. If you were really taking a stand, you’d fight the hard fights, lose money. Not just do things where you think you can get away with it. In fact, if I’m not mistaken, most of those companies changed their policies on DEI hiring as soon as Trump said anyone with contracts with US government could not participate in DEI or they lose those contracts. But there is no uproar all.
- self_awareness 1y ago
  Big corpos, sure. But small confused individuals belive this. So I'm wondering why they won't learn a new language to bring more diversity.
- johnisgood 1y ago
  I saw those TikTok videos where "women in tech" went into an empty office building from Google and Facebook and did absolutely nothing. Can I get a work like that, too, if I tell them I identify as a female? Genuine question.
  - self_awareness 1y ago
    No. Leftist movements are about who you are, not what are you doing. You're not the right person for these perks, so you can't get the job, and there's nothing you can do to change it.
    - johnisgood 1y ago

robomartin 1y ago

> A study from 2019 showed that a moderate amount of language learning in adults does not boost things like executive function. I guess these days a few paragraphs qualifies for an "in depth" article. No links to any of the sources referenced, except to one of their own pages. Not very useful. That said, sure, as someone who speaks several languages and can mostly understand a few more, I think there are interesting insights gained by having this ability. For me, a lot of it has to do with, perhaps, less-than-verbal communication. Each culture has a certain way to communicate in person during conversations. Spanish spoken in Spain, Mexico, Peru, Ecuador and Argentina, while different, also drag along non-verbal cues that are distinct in each culture. Same with English in various parts of the UK, US and other anglo-speaking countries. As much as some Canadians think themselves to be French, there are differences there as well with France. Non-verbal cues in the Arab world (and Middle East in general) are different as well. How you sit, move, pace, use your hands and gesticulate during in-person conversations are linked to both language and culture. Etc. Who remembers the bar scene in Inglorious Basterds? Yup, very true. Instant communication. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86Ckh80mLlQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86Ckh80mLlQ

throaway955 1y ago
French-Canadians think they're French-Canadian, not "French."
- robomartin 1y ago
  Oh, I am sure. And yet, I have also seen evidence to the contrary from some. People can be weird. The argument goes something like: We are direct descendants of French immigrants ("pure blood" argument). It's along similar lines as descendants of Italian immigrants in New York calling themselves "Italian"...not realizing how far they are from that being remotely real.
  - throaway955 1y ago
    Is there not a big difference between Canadiens living in a Francophone province (one that they founded hundreds of years ago), speaking French as a first language and practicing French culture, and Italian-Americans speaking English and living in English speaking states that they have no historical association with?

heresie-dabord 1y ago

What is "good for one's brain" (apart from proper nutrition and absence of concussions) is a strong education and healthy lifelong social interactions. Human language is essential for these interactions. Having multiple human languages opens more books, interactions, and cultures. The opposite is to remain closed. This is a dangerous state of mind and culture. From TFA: all these studies take for granted the uncontroversial mental superpower that you get from language study: being able to talk to people you could not have otherwise. Not just to talk to people, but to unlock an understanding of their culture and perspectives. Talking to more people in more contexts is a practical affordance: having more tools in the shop means being able to handle new and different types of problems effectively. People solve problems working together with people. Having the cognitive adaptability to use new and different tools is certainly a valuable quality. We can nurture it as a learning objective, but it may may not be as universalisable as we have hoped. That said, the cost of not trying to educate people is to fail even worse.

mythrwy 1y ago
I don't think I agree that social interactions are necessary to keep one sharp. In fact excessive social interactions with people that aren't all that sharp might dull one a bit. Reading and thinking and studying can be done alone just fine. Now as far as effectiveness in the real world, yes, social interactions and fluency is needed, but I believe this to be different from being "sharp". It probably helps keep you looking sharp though.
- anonymars 1y ago
  As someone content with being by myself, I get what you're saying but overall I don't agree. COVID was a good experiment and it busted up a lot of people. Even excepting COVID, in the elderly the difference with social isolation can be night and day. I have witnessed firsthand one's cognitive deterioration reversed when the person moved into an assisted living community and gained a social life, and then when COVID hit and everyone was locked down the decay set in again
jamager 1y ago
> What is "good for one's brain" (apart from proper nutrition and absence of concussions) is a strong education and healthy lifelong social interactions Sure, but I think this is more about the fact that what you don't use, you lose. Learning languages is hard, so even learning old Greek keeps you brain sharp as long as you enjoy it to some extent. Gym for the brain is good, what you do with it can be better, but gym is still good.

keiferski 1y ago

These studies always miss the obvious cultural point to me, [1] which is that knowing more than one language usually means you deeply understand more than one culture. This by default makes one a bit more capable of nuance, seeing other perspectives, etc. Languages are not just interchangeable collections of words, but are whole worldviews. Language in this sense is a kind of knowledge and not a different brain state, akin to reading books about history to understand a conflict better. 1. Maybe that’s not their fault, as they are ostensibly interested only in the biology. But it still seems like a major hole when discussing the benefits of being bilingual.

leidenfrost 1y ago
I wonder if these studies also take in account indigenous languages and its native speakers. People from Paraguay speak both Spanish and Guarani. A lot of people from Mexico speak both Spanish and Mayan. Does that have the same effect as the son of a family that speaks English and German?
- keiferski 1y ago
  In terms of the knowledge sense I mean, I think it is logical that the more distant the worldviews of the languages, the greater the effect. Even more so if they both have a large media / cultural sphere.
- FlyingSnake 1y ago
  I think so, yes. My daughter speaks English and German fluently and I can see she has deep insights into these cultures. (She also speaks 2 other languages) She once told me that she likes to read conversational books like “Greg’s Tagebuch” in German while “Harry Potter” type books in English.
  - bogdan 1y ago
    Could it also be because translations are never as good as the originals? One thing that comes to mind is translated songs, they usually sound off and forced to my ear. On the other hand I never read the same material in two languages so it's hard to really have an opinion but I did CS in another language than English and can say very confidently say that it was a huge pain to discuss with professors CS terms that were force translated into my native tongue, it was unnecessary and even though it's been many years since I graduated I still have those terms imprinted into my mind.

agumonkey 1y ago

Personally, being half lifed and busted mentally, I found surprising how refreshing it was to learn bits of latin. It rewires concepts all across the brain in a smooth way and connect news ideas that you don't in you native language.

dumroll 1y ago

I have a different take. I am an immigrant. I speak 3 regional languages fluently and can partly speak German. While I always had English exposure since the age of 5 or 6, my parents spoke different language. Everyone in my neighborhood who was not economically okay spoke different language than English. I think it hurts more than helps when you are polylingual if you decide to spend majority of time in country like United States. I have collected a lot of data around this. Time and time again, I can prove with data, that native english langauge speakers outperform anyone else. Whether it is college admissions, admissions to incubators like Y Combinator, job opportunities, sports opportunities, housing opportunities and more. If language is the sole factor to be considered, then polylinguals do not win. When you speak a foreign language than English, you accent is bound to be messed up. Look at Indian Americans or Pakistani Americans or other people who speak dual langauge. There is always something off about their accent. This leads to acceptance and at time getting asked "are you american" or "were you born here?" I am not saying dont learn foreign language. But, language is one aspect of being polylingual. You just dont speak words. Words have meaning and they are deeply ingrained in cultures. If you know long term where you want to be, learn and speak and immerse yourself in the culture. Otherwise you are just creating more noise for social media points and making it harder for yourself to be a master of one language.

seszett 1y ago
> When you speak a foreign language than English, you accent is bound to be messed up. Look at Indian Americans or Pakistani Americans or other people who speak dual langauge. That's not true, in this case it is simply the accent they learn because everyone around them has this accent. But learning different languages when young doesn't mean one develops a foreign accent. I know Flemish people of Vietnamese origins who speak correct Vietnamese as well as Flemish with a perfectly good farmer accent from West Flanders. And their kids speak native French with a neutral (French) accent in addition to native Flemish, because the French speakers in their family are French and not Belgian. When learning languages young, accents don't creep from one language to the other, that happens when one learns a language later on.
- numpad0 1y ago

zeroCalories 1y ago

Unless you love the culture, there's no reason to learn a language besides English. I would ditch the knowledge and thousands of hours spent on my native language to improve my English, or really any other skill. Always funny watching Americans try to larp as cultured cosmopolitans by learning a language they'll never actually need. Especially in 2025, when you can just point an AI at something and ask it to read it for you.

swat535 1y ago
I'm not sure about that. I speak 3 language fluently, I think its important to nurture your native language. Perhaps because we partially identify our personalities and cultures based on our mother tongue, but I would feel like a part of me would be lost if I drop it. I agree with your point regarding English however, I think everyone should learn it regardless and I can't help but feel like it's a lighthearted language. I wonder if others are the same, but I feel like a different person based on the language I speak.. somehow I'm "kinder" (is that the right word?) when I speak English for example..
BuckRogers 1y ago
You should be complementing people trying to be cosmopolitan and learning another language. There’s nothing wrong with that. And as people have commented here, it’s good for their mind. It seems that Americans can never win. Either the most racist xenophobic people in the world that deserve to have foreigners take their country over. Or, they’re fake cosmopolitans larping. Of course the real answer is that people are just envious of Americans. But we won’t go into that. It’s true that AI is making nearly any intellectual endeavor pointless from a necessity standpoint. But that’s OK, we’re going to be able to intellectually dive into things that we actually want to do for enjoyment in the future. People will still learn languages and study whatever they want. I find foreign language is interesting and fun. I don’t know if it’s the brain stimulation or just the sheer joy of having a secret language that many people around me don’t understand.
FlyingSnake 1y ago
This is such a sad and utilitarian take. I would rather do the opposite and try to learn as many languages as possible. I can’t imagine the fun of reading “Cien Años de Soledad” in Spanish or Dostoevski in Russian.

nayuki 1y ago

I think English monolingual people have a harder time learning and distinguishing homophones (words with same pronunciation but different spelling) - such as to/too/two, there/their/they're, its/it's, etc. If you know another language and correspond the aforementioned English words with those in the other language, you can see that they become quite distinct. For example, to/too/two in French is à/aussi/deux.

xvilka 1y ago

Mandatory mention of Language Transfer project[1]. [1] https://www.languagetransfer.org/ https://www.languagetransfer.org/

kiru_io 1y ago
Can you give more info on that? the website is not very clear what it is, so basically it's an app to learn languages?
- xvilka 1y ago
  It's learning languages by employing "thinking method" where you learn new language using English, mostly, as a basis. In the case of some languages, like Spanish, using the knowledge of common Latin roots. And thinking method itself focuses on learning the rules rather than memorizing individual words. Here[1] the author explains his method in details, in a guidebook for writers of new courses. [1] https://www.languagetransfer.org/guidebook https://www.languagetransfer.org/guidebook

FlyingSnake 1y ago

Sometimes I really pity the monolinguals who can’t witness the beauty of the varied linguistic cultures of the world. It’s not a brag but here’s a sample of how my polylingustic life looks like: In the past week I had discussions about Clausewitz’s “Vom Krige” and “Rét Samadhi” by Gitanjali Shree, discussed Marathi poetry with my daughter, listened to mellifluous Tamil songs like “Nenjukkul Peidhidum”, appreciated my wife’s Uttara Kannada accent, all the while consuming English media in copious amounts. Languages and accents are a unique part of being human and I firmly believe that we’re meant to be multilingual.

xdfgh1112 1y ago
You're talking about the huge amount of content you can consume but speak nothing of creation. No matter what you enjoy, there is an unfathomable spectrum of the human experience you have not been a part of. Your particular preference is not superior to anyone else's.
- FlyingSnake 1y ago
  You brought in „superiority” into this not me. BTW how are monolinguals immune to the charge you’ve laid against me? At least we multilinguals can enjoy the “unfathomable expanse” in more dimensions than them.
  - xdfgh1112 1y ago
    You said it was part of being human, that we are meant to be multilingual (so monolinguals aren't human enough?), you clarified "it's not a brag" (i.e. it sounds like a brag), you said you pity them. > BTW how are monolinguals immune to the charge you’ve laid against me? Monolinguals have to learn languages from scratch. This is a massive investment of time. You can do other things with that time. Some people spend their whole life creating art, music and writing. Are they superior to to people who only consume? Some people volunteer or travel the world, are they superior to those who cannot? Nobody can do everything, we all have to choose.
    - 1y ago

hiAndrewQuinn 1y ago

n=1 data point here, but most of my free time these days is spent learning Finnish, a notoriously difficult language for English monolinguals. (I haven't always been in the monolingual camp, but a decade away from Latin has 99% put me back there.) For the most part, I don't feel like it has made me any sharper. Had I taken the ~2000 hours I'm in the hole for so far and spent them on going to the gym and sleeping more I'm nearly certain that would have had a much larger effect on my day to day mental acuity. Had I spent it on my career I'd probably be substantially richer. I probably have another ~2000 to go before I reach a level where I'm happy plateauing. In general I think it's very hard to justify learning a foreign language when subjected to a normal adult person's cost-benefit analysis. I persist mostly because I just really, really, really want to reach true proficiency, not the fake proficiency that gets you an A in Spanish or Latin class, as I outlined in [1]. If you don't have a similar drive your time and energy is probably better spent elsewhere. [1]: https://andrew-quinn.me/thoughts-on-language-learning-at-the-end-of-the-world/ https://andrew-quinn.me/thoughts-on-language-learning-at-the...

rahimnathwani 1y ago
In general I think it's very hard to justify learning a foreign language when subjected to a normal adult person's cost-benefit analysis. This is true for most people. I'd say the exception is if you're learning a language that's native to the place where you live. This reduces the effort required to get conversation practice AND makes it more fun. So rather than choosing between Netflix and language study, you're choosing between Netflix and chatting with people in a bar.
- hiAndrewQuinn 1y ago
  Well, Finnish is native to the place I live, because I also live in Finland. My experience even here suggests that even this exception is only true for maybe 10-15% of immigrants, which is already a small pool of people. Part of this, of course, is that we're now talking very different goals with different levels of commitment required. You can pick up enough of any language to be fun at a bar in a single digit precentage of the time it takes to become professionally fluent with it. The opportunity cost really is at least one, and maybe two, orders of magnitude lower here, depending on how much "My practice needs to be fun" matters to you. Empirically, from both personal experience and personal observation: Most people who move countries, if they're not already moving as working class professionals with a preexisting command of the native language, just find it much easier to settle into enclaves of similar immigrants and try to interact with the broader society with help from that community. This was as true in the US as it is in Finland, and I've known a lot of immigrants from a lot of different backgrounds throughout my life. Like seeks like everywhere alike. My attempt at being the opposite of this person puts me at odds with most other immigrants I have known. I'm actually the only person I've met here so far who has actually read a complete, non-selkosuomi book in Finnish without being a native or heritage speaker, for example. "Can read an ordinary book written for adults" is not exactly a high bar to pass in absolute terms for any language, but it's higher than what the vast majority of people will ever do in one they didn't grow up with.

kazinator 1y ago

I suspect the benefit is greater when the second language is from a completely different family, and has a different writing system.

hartem_ 1y ago

https://archive.is/20250628212925/https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2025/06/27/is-being-bilingual-good-for-your-brain https://archive.is/20250628212925/https://www.economist.com/...

ur-whale 1y ago

https://archive.is/lSCR2 https://archive.is/lSCR2

qprofyeh 1y ago

The way looking up words in your vocabulary works kind of like a vector db search. Then sometimes I think of something and the query result returns only the thing in language 3.

luxpir 1y ago
Yes this. I worked in restaurants a lot and embarrassed myself back home when I could only remember the term pichet for jug, making me not look like a very talented linguist at all. Now I've been away from the learned language countries it's happening a bit in reverse.

Caelus9 1y ago

If you want to slow cognitive decline or improve mental flexibility, then learning a second language, even if it's started later in life, does make sense, but expecting it to improve intelligence or memory overall is probably a beautiful but unrealistic fantasy.

331c8c71 1y ago
> then learning a _second_ language Strange way to phrase it. Lots of people know more than one language already.
- sandbach 1y ago
  'Second language' is a technical term meaning a foreign language learnt after early childhood. For example, if someone grows up speaking English and German natively and then learns French at school, French is a second language to them, even though you could say it's language #3.

qoez 1y ago

My theory is that being bilingual isn't good so much because you know two languages, but because you get to know two cultures. I'd probably go crazy if american was the only culture I was exposed to on a deep level and didn't have a second language to help filter out the bad ideas from the good.

esperent 1y ago
There are so many cultures that speak English though. I'm only fluent in English, but as an Irish person who spent parts of my childhood in England and Scotland, I feel like I have a deep (fluent) understanding of Irish and English culture, and a second language equivalent of Scottish and American cultures, maybe at a third language equivalent level I could add Australian. All of these cultures are easily as different from each other as non English speaking European cultures like German, French, Italian. I've also spent the last few years living and running a business in Vietnam, and while I've failed hard at learning the language, I do work with Vietnamese people everyday and I am growing to have a reasonable understanding of Vietnamese culture, even while I would struggle to have any kind of deep conversation in the language.
bethekidyouwant 1y ago
America has endless subcultures

lvl155 1y ago

I have a theory that being bilingual in early ages and having constant exposure to both languages, the latter being key, create two cognitive centers in your brain. It also matters when you picked up your languages. Exposure later in life may mean that you basically and merely “installed” a translation layer.

HichamCh 1y ago

It's not just about delaying dementia, either. I've heard it improves cognitive flexibility and multitasking abilities. Makes sense, you're constantly switching between mental frameworks.

Hashex129542 1y ago

These kinda articles are 2nd language imposition propaganda we've seen lot.

Pearledlang 1y ago

Here in Finland, we have a good trial population: Finnish-Swedes. They are genetically very similar to Finns, but despite being bi-lingual, and wealthier than native population, they are very slightly duller. (1-3 iq points).

firefax 1y ago

I don't think it's bad for your brain.

Noelia- 1y ago

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idkfasayer 1y ago

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deleted 1y ago

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quite-sfwd 1y ago

I'm pretty sure that learning Polish made me dumber. After years of effort I still don't speak it fluently and lost countless days of my focus for having a marginal convenience of knowing Polish superficially.