General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSecond Languages Slow Brain Decline
Speaking two languages throughout life may slow the loss of mental agility that comes with age.
When seniors were challenged to switch between two basic thought tasks, bilinguals reacted more quickly than those who spoke only English. Whats more, imaging scans showed that older people who had always spoken two languages used their brains more efficiently than single-language speakers.
The findings add to growing evidence that, along with other mentally stimulating activities, speaking multiple languages from a young age can help buffer the brain from aging-related declines.
Bilingualism "doesnt make you young like a young adult, but it makes you faster than your peers who only speak one language," said Brian Gold, a neuroscientist at the University of Kentucky, Lexington.
http://news.discovery.com/human/bilingualism-protects-brain-into-old-age-130108.html
mzteris
(16,232 posts)Should be the norm for nearly every child
Xipe Totec
(43,890 posts)nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)Xipe Totec
(43,890 posts)поздравляю!
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)Отличная новость, мы все покрыты!
HereSince1628
(36,063 posts)either in standard notation or in tablature.
Xipe Totec
(43,890 posts)And I am sure that computer languages also bring some benefit.
Anything that expand the mind.
HereSince1628
(36,063 posts)Scuba
(53,475 posts)kelliekat44
(7,759 posts)Honeycombe8
(37,648 posts)socialist_n_TN
(11,481 posts)At least I think that's the way it's spelled in pin yin.
I didn't start learning other languages until I was in my 40s though other than a couple of years of HS French. I wonder if they've done studies about learning another language later in life.
TXDemoGal
(59 posts)But I don't have the tone markers for the pinyin.
谢谢!
Honeycombe8
(37,648 posts)Honeycombe8
(37,648 posts)all that.
hollysmom
(5,946 posts)Xipe Totec
(43,890 posts)Some computer languages more than others, I'm sure.
Machine language? Definitely
Assembly? Probably.
C, C++, Java? Likely.
COBOL? Not!
hollysmom
(5,946 posts)I used to translate machine language into octal for a while because computer time was more valuable than my time, heh, so I had to act as a compiler to save time for people. Hexadecimal had not yet been invented. times change.
Started out in Fortran, went over to COBOL and a whole bunch of 4GL and alphabet soup of databases. Ended up learning UNIX while managing a staff of over 100 (ineptly).
Xipe Totec
(43,890 posts)Frankly, Dijkstra doesn't have any kind things to say about any computer language, but he particularly despised COBOL:
The tools we use have a profound (and devious!) influence on our thinking habits, and, therefore, on our thinking abilities.
FORTRAN "the infantile disorder", by now nearly 20 years old, is hopelessly inadequate for whatever computer application you have in mind today: it is now too clumsy, too risky, and too expensive to use.
PL/I "the fatal disease" belongs more to the problem set than to the solution set.
It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that have had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration.
The use of COBOL cripples the mind; its teaching should, therefore, be regarded as a criminal offence.
APL is a mistake, carried through to perfection. It is the language of the future for the programming techniques of the past: it creates a new generation of coding bums.
http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcriptions/EWD04xx/EWD498.html
I took my first computer language course in 1973 - FORTRAN. COBOL was the second language. Dijkstra's essay was published in 1975. In 40 plus years as a programmer, I can't say that I ever used COBOL professionally. Mostly because there were always so many COBOL programmers to choose from and far, far fewer FORTRAN programmers. Then came C, and C++, and later JAVA - The COBOL of the internets.
hollysmom
(5,946 posts)You look at anyone who can code as being acceptable. There is an art to any language. You have to understand what goes on behind the code. COBOL could be inefficient where you need huge machines to do simple things (and this is what happened when so many untalented people went into the business) or you could code elegantly, understanding what you were doing and making the code portable and self documenting. I always kept the documentation as comments in the code so that the programmers had to update it when they made changes. And if needed, it could be printed out and booked.
Clients would hire me to code, but I was always promoted to designing and mentoring others in how to improve their work to make it self documenting and consistent, even in different languages. No matter what language you use, there is a right and wrong way to code. Efficiency is not the most important, but inefficiency can cripple a system. Lack of maintained documentation, lack of....
You can't blame the language so much as the people who hired and ran projects.
I can not tell you how much trouble I had getting hired when I got older - older women not desirable in programming, One client told me they didn't want to hire me because it would be like trying to manage her mother. But we became friends and after she had to fire all the other consultants she had me conduct the interviews to hire a new staff for her with my unusual tactic of asking questions to see if they understood what they were doing, not just if they knew buzzwords and correct answers.
Xipe Totec
(43,890 posts)I was one to the chosen, not the chooser.
You can't program the Space Shuttle's on-board flight software on, 64K of ferrite core memory, using COBOL, no matter how good a programmer you are. That requires skill, scientific training, and a specialized language called HAL (Heuristic Algorithm Language) running on a specialized operating system (FCOS, Flight Computer Operating System). The right tool for the right job.
As a scientific computer programmer, I was never called on to write business applications using COBOL, the COmmon Business Oriented Language. The name says what the purpose is.
The litany of specialized languages I've had to use is too long, and arcane to be meaningful. From real time operating systems to digital signal processors.
Each language molds the mind a certain way. It establishes a frame of reference and a domain of interest. Alan Turing proved that all computers and all programming languages are equivalent and interchangeable, if speed and size of code are irrelevant.
But speed and size of code are never irrelevant.
mucifer
(23,549 posts)She had lots of dementia in her final years in her mid '70s.
Mira
(22,380 posts)you made my entire new year.
flamingdem
(39,313 posts)Surfers would live forever
donco
(1,548 posts)i speak three.
Amonester
(11,541 posts)English is my second language (and, too often, it shows... apologies).
barnabas63
(1,214 posts)hobbit709
(41,694 posts)If it does, then I'm good.
Art_from_Ark
(27,247 posts)私はずっとバイリンガルの生活をしている!
Xipe Totec
(43,890 posts)素晴らしい!
davidpdx
(22,000 posts)I live in South Korea and when I was teaching at a university a few years a Korean professor told me this one:
What do you call someone who knows two languages?
Bilingual
What do you call someone who knows one language?
American
Initech
(100,080 posts)kentauros
(29,414 posts)Okay, after looking through that article, I didn't see anything with regards to what these other activities might be. Considering, too, that this added benefit of being bilingual stems from learning those languages during childhood, I think I'd rather know what these other activities might be. I didn't learn any languages until high school (German and Latin.)
Xipe Totec
(43,890 posts)Speaking two languages isnt the only way to fight back against agings assault on the brain. Other research offers strong evidence for the protective effects of physical exercise and crossword puzzles, among other stimulating behaviors. The new research into bilingualism may help show how all sorts of activities like these offer benefits.
My take as to what those other activities might be are anything that puts your mind or body to work. puzzles, games, exercise, music, poetry,...
kentauros
(29,414 posts)So I hope that counts, too
Thanks for finding that. I skimmed trying to see if they referenced beyond that one little statement, and missed it anyway.
HughBeaumont
(24,461 posts)It just takes too damned long to be fluent. If I'm learning a second language, I'm not going to want to sound like an American tourist when I'm done. Unfortunately, that takes time and gobs of cash. "Ever heard of a library??" PFFFFFFFFFFFT. The old school repetition-based crap they got there isn't getting me off the launch pad. More than a few reviewers of the expensive Rosetta Stone system even say you won't be fluent even after five volumes of it. What does it take? I don't exactly have money to travel and I don't live in Canada.
Xipe Totec
(43,890 posts)Tanuki
(14,918 posts)Several of my friends who were born in other countries and knew no English when they moved here as adults have said that they learned a lot of English by watching TV, including simple-minded programs such as soap operas and cartoons.
Xipe Totec
(43,890 posts)And a whole slew of tv shows like:
Gunsmoke
Lost in Space
Star Trek
The Wild Wild West
Honey West
The Avengers
The Twilight Zone
eShirl
(18,494 posts)Shankapotomus
(4,840 posts)You can remotely immerse yourself in a language and culture. Pick a language! Any language!
KitSileya
(4,035 posts)Eller, det var gode nyheter.
Ou peut-être, voila de bonnes nouvelles! (J'ai oublié presque tout mon francais, mais cet automne, j'ai lu 'Le Tour du Monde en 80 Jour' en francais pour mon club de lecture(?). Comme j'ai été fier quand j'ai fini! )
O, posso dire che é una buona notizia. (Ho anche dimenticato almeno tutto il mio italiano, ma....)
It's also good to hear just after I signed up for Japanese classes