Bilingualists are faster

[Joel S. Berson]

According to research by Ellen Bialystok, a cognitive neuroscientist,
and a distinguished research professor of psychology [although not
honored by capital letters} at York University, Toronto, "the
conventional wisdom was that bilingualism was a disadvantage. Some of
this was xenophobia. Thanks to science, we now know that the opposite
is true."

Billingualists are smarter, acquire Alzheimer's 5 or 6 years later,
are better at multitasking, and faster on even non-verbal
tests.  (But high-school French is not sufficient.)

The NYTimes, May 31, 2011.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/31/science/31conversation.html?scp=1&sq=bilingualism%20bialystok&st=cse

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