Think you might be too old to learn French – well think again. Learning a new language is a great way to age-proof your brain according to scientists…
Learning another language or even several more languages helps to keep your brain sharp. It may also have significant health benefits attached in that it helps to protect your brain from cognitive problems. According to research by psychologists, learning a new language at any point in life sharpens your brain and may even protect against Alzheimer’s disease. For many people it’s also a feel-good factor to learn another language. Your trips and tours become even more exciting if you know the language of the place you are visiting. You are welcomed in a different manner to a place, city or country if you communicate with the locals in their mother tongue. By learning a new language you get better acquainted to the culture and civilisation of that particular place or country. It actually makes you a curious learner throughout your life.
What is the right age to learn a new language?
The best part of learning a language is that you can learn it at any age. Though some research shows that early exposure to more than two languages increases divergent thinking strategies which reflect in a child’s holistic development, it’s also good for us to learn whatever age we are. Generally speaking It’s harder to learn French when you’re older though the reasons why are not known. (Read top tips for learning French when you’re a bit older here).
There’s a ‘Czech’ proverb which means “You live a new life for every new language you learn…..If you know only one language, you live only once.”
By Simran Batra, Author “Apprenons le francais” and “Ailes” French workbook series, goodreadsdotcom
