Learning a second language is a powerful gift you can give your brain.

Many folks announced their New Year’s Resolution to learn a language yesterday. As you know, I don’t need a date on the calendar; becoming bilingual is something I’ve been slowly working on for years. Now, I have substantial reason to step my game up. My current work involves not only communicating with Spanish speaking players, but getting to know them on an intimate, more personal level. Becoming more than conversational is critical if I expect to deeply connect with the Latin players in the Dodgers organization.

Luckily for me, by taking the time to practice, I’ll be killing a second bird with the same stone. I’ll strengthen my cognitive muscle. As you know through following the blog, I value a strong mind as much as a strong body. From studies posted at bbc.com:

The findings indicate that those who spoke two or more languages had significantly better cognitive abilities compared to what would have been expected from their baseline test.

The strongest effects were seen in general intelligence and reading.

The effects were present in those who learned their second language early, as well as later in life.

Dr Bak said the pattern they found was “meaningful” and the improvements in attention, focus and fluency could not be explained by original intelligence.

This is true incentive. Taking the first step towards a new goal is always difficult, particularly when there is little instant gratification involved. When we go to the gym, we get instantaneous feedback from our muscles letting us know that work was done. We get sore, and rightly or wrongly, assume the pain is indicative of us becoming stronger.

When we flex our mental muscle by studying a language, we don’t necessarily receive an immediate return on investment. Make no mistake though, our brains become more powerful as a result of our effort. From psu.edu:

Learning and practicing something, for instance a second language, strengthens the brain,” said Ping Li, professor of psychology, linguistics and information sciences and technology. “Like physical exercise, the more you use specific areas of your brain, the more it grows and gets stronger.

Just what I always wanted, a bigger dome. I have a new training partner. Her name is Rosetta.

Tenga un buen dia,

Kap