The more language you know, the better your brain works?

Assalamualaikum!

For this entry, I am focusing on the claim that  bi/multilingualism relates to how it creates competency in other things aside from language. 

The level of competency in one person differs from others and surely, one can be good at certain things but probably not good at others. Accordingly, language acquisition differs from one person to another and there was a claim that individuals who are bilingual and multilingual possess higher competency level than monolinguals. During our lecture, my lecturer used Lionel Messi the Argentinian football star as an example to relate how he may excel in his profession as a footballer but not certain if he would be good at, say, writing essays in his academic years. Similarly, bi and multilingual students are said to be more competent and excel in their academic compared to those who only know one language.  


One of the things related to this would be the claim that bi/multilingual individuals have cognitive advantage of taking more things into their brain compared to those who are monolingual. The brain works differently for different people and hence, one's competency would differ too.

Taking myself as an example, I have been a big fan of Hongkong Cantonese's serial drama for years and have been constantly watching them since I was in Primary 6 (in 1998). 4 years later, I am able to converse with my Chinese friends and even Malay family members who share the same interest. Many ask why Cantonese? Well I don't really know how to answer the question; I guess it just came along when I first got addicted to watching the series. And further question that I often get from people is how do I learn without having basic learning process?


Like I mentioned, brain chooses what it prefers to be included into memory and perhaps learning Cantonese happens to be something that my brain feels like learning! I am already exposed to Brunei Malay, Standard Malay and English since birth so if the claim were to be true, my brain still has more slots to learn other languages. Being bilingual or multilingual don't just occur in everyone; the desire by the brain to keep on filling in from time to time and constant learning could be some of the factors too. The saying "practice makes perfect" could be applied to this context and thanks to the brain, memories are created and stored. 


Despite this, the claim that bilingual/multilingual individuals' ability to possess more into their brains compared to monolinguals could be misleading as it could not explain the competency level just by learning many languages. What if the monolingual person is great at cooking, for example? Does it not involve the brain to work too? If we were to include these questions, then the claim would be easily weakened and refuted. But for this entry, the post circulates around what our lecture discussed on and that is the relation between cognitive actions and competency in language acquisition.


Love Love Love,
Zyra A.