"Being bilingual may delay Alzheimer's and boost brain power..."

[Östen Dahl]

So what does "bilingual" mean in this context? It seems to me that it is being used in a rather vague way, possibly conflating quite different situations. Is a bilingual person someone who has grown up speaking more than one language, or is it anyone who has some knowledge of a second language? And it is using the second language, or knowing it, that is crucial? -- Having to speak a non-native language daily may be like solving cross-words, which is supposed to be good for keeping your cognitive abilities intact. But if you know the language from an early age, it might not take any special effort to speak it, and thus there may be no positive effect. So generalizing about "bilingual people" would be rather misleading. But maybe there are other things going on.
- östen


-----Ursprungligt meddelande-----
Från: funknet-bounces at mailman.rice.edu [mailto:funknet-bounces at mailman.rice.edu] För alex gross
Skickat: den 20 februari 2011 23:28
Till: funknet at mailman.rice.edu
Ämne: [FUNKNET] "Being bilingual may delay Alzheimer's and boost brain power..."

Here's some pleasant news from The Guardian, at least for those of us fortunate enough to be bi- or multi-lingual...assuming it doesn't get contradicted by another set of texts next month...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/feb/18/bilingual-alzheimers-brain-power-multitasking

All the best to everyone!

alex