Struggling to learn the language of your host country? Don’t give up! At the end, you will have a better expat experience. And your brain will work faster too, according to a new research study.
The more the better
Learning foreign languages enhances our brain’s elasticity and its ability to code information, according to scientists from the Higher School of Economics (HSE) in Russia and from the University of Helsinki. The more foreign languages we learn, the more effectively our brain reacts and processes the data accumulated in the course of learning, they say. The researchers measured electrical activity in the brains of 22 participants who listened to recordings of different words in their native language, as well as in foreign languages. The words were both known and completely unknown by them.
Working faster
Investigators tracked changes in the brain’s activity when the words popped up and specifically looked at the speed at which the brain readjusted its electrical activity to deal with unknown words. They then compared their measurements to the participants’ linguistic background – how many languages they knew, at which age they began to learn them, etc. They found that knowing a second language had influenced the brain’s plasticity. Brains of participants who knew more languages processed the information more quickly. Overall, knowledge of an additional language was associated with faster neural activity.
Source: sciencedaily.com and healthnewsline.net
