The ability to speak two or more languages is kind of like a secret superpower. It might seem kind of strange, but being bilingual offers you a host of benefits.
In addition to the ones that you might expect, such as being able to find jobs more easily or being able to communicate more effectively with others, there are tons of things that being bilingual does to your brain that makes you smarter, gives your cognitive ability a major boost, and that can even help to prevent dementia[1] and Alzheimer’s disease as you grow older.
Researchers have even found that bilingual individuals have denser grey matter[2] than those who only speak one language.
Makes You Better at Multitasking
The improved cognitive ability of those who are bilingual shows itself in a lot of different ways. At the most basic level, those individuals who are bilingual have consistently proven to be able to complete tasks such as puzzle solving at a faster rate than their monolingual counterparts.
Not only that, but their ability to quickly switch between two languages and two language structures means they’re also able to switch between other tasks much more quickly, making them more effective at multitasking than their peers.
Improved Memory
It almost goes without saying that their practice in developing immense vocabularies spanning two languages has an enormous benefit on the memories of bilingual individuals. They have also been shown to have a better ability to concentrate on their tasks and to make better decisions, often by thinking major decisions through in both languages they are fluent in.
Related: 9 Key Lifestyle Changes for Preventing Alzheimer’s and Dementia