Thread: Study: Bilingualism helps delay dementia

Most people never get much credit for their bilingualism.
Most of the time it's just taken for granted that you have to be bilingual under a lot of different circumstances.
The problem instead, occurs if you are NOT bilingual.
And I know plenty of bilingual people who might have a tiny edge over real backwater billies, but it's very marginal.

I guess the most painless way to make somebody bilingual is to start from childhood.
However odds are the kid will end up preferring the larger/more common language of the two, and miss out on the depth of the smaller one.

Originally Posted by Hanna

Most people never get much credit for their bilingualism.
Most of the time it's just taken for granted that you have to be bilingual under a lot of different circumstances.
The problem instead, occurs if you are NOT bilingual.
And I know plenty of bilingual people who might have a tiny edge over real backwater billies, but it's very marginal.

I guess the most painless way to make somebody bilingual is to start from childhood.
However odds are the kid will end up preferring the larger/more common language of the two, and miss out on the depth of the smaller one.

It would have been a lot easier to learn Russian if I had been raised speaking it at home. But being immersed in the culture really helps.