We regularly hear of advantages to be gained in learning languages aside from our mother tongue, but what are they, and what proof is there of these mental improvements?
Antonella Beconi, Convenor for Italian at the Centre of Continuing Education and a PhD Candidate at the University of Sydney, tells SBS Italian that learning a second language can have a positive impact on your brain’s health and your personality.
Can learning another language protect against Alzheimer’s disease?
"Learning another language makes us healthier and stronger if and when we are faced with brain degenerative diseases," says Beconi, citing a range of studies.
"It has been shown that learning another language - a new vocabulary, a different grammatical structure, a new alphabet perhaps - which can be difficult and challenging, makes us less vulnerable to brain-degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and dementia later in life," said Beconi.
There are numerous studies in this area.
suggested that "early bilingualism produced a statistically significant 4.1 year delay in onset of memory loss symptoms in older individuals with Alzheimer’s disease, possibly reflecting an increase in the cognitive reserve of these individuals."
found that "lifelong bilingualism acts as a powerful CR proxy in dementia and exerts neuroprotective effects against neurodegeneration.”
Increasing tolerance
Another advantage of learning a new language, says Berconi, is the ability to see and understand the perspectives of other people.
"To have the so-called 'vision of the other' is a rare thing to achieve as a person," she says.
"For example, if you put a child in front of a cup and then you put a glass in front of the cup, sit on the other side — the side of the glass — and ask the child, 'what do I see?,' the child will say the cup, and not the glass.”
Beconi compares that child’s subject perspective to language, saying it’s only when we become far more familiar with other perspectives that we appreciate and empathise with others.
"Instead of saying, 'Why do Germans speak back to front?,' 'Why can't they speak like us?,' one is more open to viewing the world through someone else's eyes. So speaking another language gives you a greater capacity to understand a culture, understand someone who is different from us and become more tolerant by opening one's own borders."
Become a better decision-maker
Learning another language helps young people acquire more self-confidence, says Beconi, which in turn results in more effective, confidently made decisions.
"Especially for young people, learning another language helps feeling more confident when making decisions, as well as being more open and tolerant."
Learning another language , researchers at the have found in a study that saw people make more rational decisions when thinking through a problem in a non-native tongue.
But which new language should you learn?
"It’s indifferent, the important thing is to challenge yourself", says Beconi, adding that "the main thing is to make the experience an enjoyable one, otherwise learning a new language could become difficult".
The fourth edition of the SBS National Languages Competition is still open. The competition celebrates the cultural and linguistic diversity of the Australian multicultural society with the aim of promoting the benefits of multilingualism. For more information on our initiative, visit
