LEARNING LANGUAGES: DELAYING DEMENTIA AND ENGINEERING EMPATHY

If someone asked you why you decided to take Spanish or German during high school, how would you respond? You might say something about how it can increase your chances of getting into college or how it can give you better career opportunities. This is because that is  something that we are often told when we first begin high school. But did you know that learning other languages has even more benefits that go far beyond what we were initially taught?

Delaying Dementia

Many people tend to learn a new language during high school, but never continue to learn and use that language after they graduate. However, continuing to learn and use different languages as you get older can have incredible benefits, such as delaying things like dementia. 

According to researchers John Grundy from Iowa State University, John Anderson from the Center for Addiction and Mental Health, and Kornelia Hawrylewicz from the Department of Psychology at York University, learning a new language can delay the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease by up to five years. However, learning a new language only delays these symptoms; it doesn’t magically reverse or completely protect you from dementia. 

When you continue to challenge yourself to learn new languages for many years even after you graduate, you are encouraging your body to fight off the symptoms of dementia for longer.

Students dedicating their time to learn Spanish in class; photo by Kailee Carver

Building Empathy

When you learn another language, you are allowing yourself to think differently and see the world from a different perspective. Additionally, you learn to both communicate ideas that you aren’t able to communicate in your native language and you challenge yourself to better understand different cultures and people.

According to the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, “To learn a culture’s history or art or traditions is secondhand knowledge; to learn its language is the first step to true understanding.” This means that, by learning another language, you are truly allowing yourself to learn and understand new ideas and ways of life that you wouldn’t usually learn from anything else. 

Additionally, learning a new language allows you to understand what someone who is trying to learn your native language is going through, which encourages you to respect others who are different from you. Dr. Florence Boulard from James Cook University in Australia says, “Unless we are reminded of the challenge iit is to process, comprehend and use another language, it can be hard for us to listen with empathy.” When we were young children, we had to push through the struggle of learning a language  when we were learning our native languages. However, as we continued to use that language(s) over time and became more skilled, we forgot how difficult it was to learn it in the first place. Now, when many people hear someone who doesn’t share the same native language as them and who might have an  accent, mispronounce some words, or make some mistakes, they tend to think of that person as less intelligent or not as professional as themselves. However, the person who is struggling a little bit with someone else’s native language might know two or more different languages and is brave enough to challenge themself to learn new languages, while the other person only knows one language and is unwilling to learn another one. When you learn a new language, you are reminded of how difficult it is to learn and become skilled at a language, which allows you to better understand and respect others.

Memory Workout

If you are taking or have taken a German, Spanish, or any other language class, you most likely know how much memorization it takes to learn a new language. When you learn and produce words and rules in another language, you are constantly using your memory and recall skills, which causes them to strengthen over time. 

Learning a new language requires you to juggle all of the new vocabulary and grammatical rules of the language you’re learning alongside continuing to use your native language, often at the same time. According to an article on Verbalplanet, this “leads to the enhancement of working memory capacity,”. Studies have also shown that those who are fluent in two or more languages have better long-term memory than those who are only fluent in one language.

Strengthening While Learning

While you had to learn the words and sounds of your first language when you were learning it when you were younger, you didn’t really have to focus on the more complex parts of language. This is because you were most likely immersed in an area with others who spoke that language, so you naturally learned it as time went on. However, when you learn a new language now, you are immediately plunged into the different complex grammatical structures and vocabulary rules instead of naturally learning them from your environment. This can be very overwhelming, but by learning the different rules or types of words in the other language, you can learn more complex things about your native language, too. You might learn new rules that you never realized existed in your language, you might better understand why certain things in your language work the way they do, or you might learn interesting connections between different words and sounds. This allows you to become more skilled in the language that you already knew while also learning a new language.

“Learning a New Language is Just Too Difficult”

While learning a new language has so many benefits and is fun for many people, it is something that takes a lot of time and hard work, which is not for everyone. The difficulty of learning a new language varies greatly by person, language, and form of learning, so it might be much more difficult for one person to learn a new language than another. If you’re trying your hardest to learn a new language, whether for school or for personal use, but you can’t seem to understand the different rules and vocabulary, it doesn’t automatically mean that you will never learn a language. You can try to find different forms of learning to see which works best for you, you can try to learn a different language that makes more sense to you, or you can try to slow down or speed up the speed at which you are learning. If you’re taking a class here at Clear Creek Amana High School to learn another language, you can communicate with your teacher and ask them questions that you think would help you better understand what you are learning.

You might also just dislike learning new languages, which is okay. If you want nothing to do with learning new languages after you leave high school, your Spanish or German teacher won’t chase you around and encourage you to continue learning the language. After you graduate, you can take a break from learning new languages and maybe continue learning new languages when you get older. However, the best way to become fluent in a new language is to practice that language every day.

Which path will you take? When you finish high school, will you stick with the language that you’re learning now and gain all of these benefits, or will you stop learning new languages?