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5 Fascinating Things That Happen to Your Brain When You Learn Another Language
The best time to start is now.
The human capacity for learning languages makes us unique compared to any other animal on the planet.
What makes languages so special is that they are compositional, giving us endless ways to generate sentences using subjects, objects, and verbs. Whereas other animals use different sounds to communicate various symbolic meanings to each other, human language allows us to exchange complex ideas and information.
Learning another language allows you to see the world through different eyes, improve your employability, and connect with new people from all around the world. Additionally, there are amazing psychological benefits within the bilingual brain.
With so many resources out there now for learning another language, the time has never been better to start doing so. If you’re looking for a reason to start learning in 2021, here are 5 amazing ways speaking another language will transform your brain.
1. Your brain size increases
Learning a foreign language has been found to cause an increase in the size of the hippocampus and the cerebral cortex, the parts of your brain that are responsible for learning and memory.
A practical study carried out by researchers in Sweden compared the brains of members of the Swedish armed forces before and after undergoing accelerated language training as part of an intensive course.
The brain scans of the army recruits were compared with those of medical students from a local university. After three months, the military brain scans showed growth in the brain's language and memory processing areas. The brains of the medical students remained unchanged.
Their findings suggest that learning a second language keeps the brain’s mental processing functions healthy and in good shape.
2. Your grey matter becomes denser
The term ‘grey matter’ refers to the area of the brain packed with nerve cells and fibers designed for processing information.
