3 Badass Benefits of Your Bilingual Brain

Are you blessed with a superpowered bilingual brain?

Does your gift of language bring you joy, and a different perspective of the world?

If you feel your polyglot powers bring you extraordinary advantages…YOU ARE RIGHT!

And here are just a few reasons why:

1. Remarkable Cognitive Ability

If you have been bilingual since childhood, chances are you have heightened cognitive skills.

As a child, the process necessary for a bilingual brain to switch from one language to another, and even to determine which language is appropriate for the situation, fosters the development of improved problem-solving abilities and multitasking.

Studies conducted on multilingual preschoolers showed that they were much faster at sorting puzzles, categorizing shapes by form and color, and had an easier transition between tasks than their monolingual peers.

What does this mean for a bilingual adult?

Well, you probably have an easier time focusing on tasks and working through problems in all aspects of your life. Awesome!

2. Exceptional Creativity

Researchers at the University of Mashad studied a population of advanced language learners ages 16-18 and compared their creative thinking ability with their monolingual counterparts.

The study revealed that the bilingual language learners scored higher on the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking, which measures originality, fluency, elaboration, and flexibility.

This is attributed to the bilingual individual’s constant awareness and vigilance in ensuring that the two languages do not interfere with each other in any particular situation.

Learning a second language also exposes one to cultures and customs that are different from one’s own. Having that different perspective provides an incredible creative advantage over monolinguists, who have the perspective of only one language.

3. Impeccable Memory

Do you remember details in a conversation or meeting that others do not? This is not a coincidence.

Studies show bilinguals have higher information retention than those that are only fluent in one language because they have had to memorize vocabulary and grammatical structure for two languages.

Growing up bilingual gives you a head start in memorization skills starting in early childhood, which comes in very handy as a bilingual adult.

So, be grateful for your awesome bilingual superpowers!

They bring you success in brilliant – and often unexpected – ways.