While decluttering my computer, I found some documents that I had started for themed “batches of links” and never got around to finishing. Some are still relevant even if they are not recent, but I’ve added one brand new link below about a new study and one article published right before Christmas. So here’s a belated batch of links about bilingualism!
- Being bilingual changes the structure of your brain, which is why I sometimes find myself reaching for a word in my native language and coming up with it only in my second language. Also, my brain sometimes thinks in chiac. Turns out, it’s normal.
- People who are bilingual can learn a new language more quickly than those who are monolingual.
- The brain remembers the birth language in some way, even when the individual forgets it. Here’s another article on the same topic.
- Another way of looking at it: the first language you learn changes how you hear all other languages after, even if you no longer speak the original language.
- Interesting article on how babies learn two languages at the same time, which leads to the conclusion that bilingual babies have more flexible brains.
- Bilingual babies benefit from learning faster.
- Bilingual children are better at problem-solving, probably because they are used to thinking about the same thing in different ways. The sample size is small, but since my children are bilingual, I’m not going to question this.
- Good New York Times article on bilingualism, which such gems as the fact that bilingualism helps forestall the symptoms of Alzheimer’s and bilinguals are better at multitasking.
- For a better brain, learn another language.
- Although, to be fair, the bilingual advantage is often overstated.
- The language you speak changes your view of the world, and this view can change depending on the language in which you operate. For example, English doesn’t have gendered nouns whereas French does. When the Engineer reads The Very Hungry Caterpillar to our kids, the caterpillar is male, but when I read it, she’s female. A random fly or spider that finds its way into our house is male in English and female in French. Really, there’s a 50-50 chance anytime either one of us speaks about said fly or spider, but it’s interesting to see genders spontaneously applied differently by different members of the household!
- As a matter of fact, writers who switch languages compare the process to being born again. With my limited experience, I’d tend to agree, because there are certain things that I can only express in one language.
- However, a new study actually found no evidence of any advantage in the brain’s executive functions. A very informative article is here. In short, studies are often hard to replicate and easy to criticize.
- Les enfants bilingues ont l’oreille musicale.
- Les bébés vivant dans des milieux bilingues sont plus attentifs.
- Les bienfaits du cerveau bilingue se confirment.
- J’ai aimé aussi ce petit billet, De la diglossie dans les chaumières montréalaises, qui parle du fait que bien que le Québec impose le français dans la place publique, les ménages tendent à conserver la langue et la culture allophones à domicile, ce qui n’est pas le cas en Ontario par exemple, où l’anglais prend toute la place.
- Which leads me to How a family recipe taught me what is at stake when Franco-Ontarians lose their roots.
[Update, May 22, 2019: Here’s another link! Support for bilingualism for children waning in Canada.]
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