Can Learning Languages Help Prevent Dementia?

The gist of it is that learning languages is good for you.

Any kind of brain activity is good for you.

Hi there, Steve Kaufmann here today, and I want to talk about language

learning and dementia or Alzheimer's.

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I do appreciate it.

So, the subject of old age and dementia, Alzheimer's uh, it,

it comes up fairly frequently.

Uh, I think as people get older, they're obviously, you know, concerned

that they might start showing symptoms of Alzheimer's or dementia.

Uh, I think...

I'm 77 at times uh, I forget things.

I'm not sure whether I'm more forgetful now than I was before.

I was always a little forgetful.

Uh, we tend to interpret any sort of moments where we forget things

as an example of, uh, declining, you know, brain function or whatever.

And to some extent, probably as we get older, just as our bodies are not as, as

strong, uh, perhaps our brains are also slowly, uh, you know, not functioning

as, as well as they did, uh, you know, earlier on, but that's not the same as

obviously as as dementia or Alzheimer's.

So very often you hear that learning another language can

help stave off Alzheimer's.

Not entirely clear whether this means someone who already is bilingual or

multilingual and therefore has these defenses against the onset of Alzheimer or

if someone takes up the study of languages in old age or older, when they're older,

does that help stave off dementia?

And it's easy enough to Google and look up, and you'll find a, a, a

variety of articles on this subject.

Uh, the gist of it is that learning languages is good for you.

Any kind of brain activity is good for you.

Doing Sudoku, playing the piano, anything that activates the

brain cells is better for you.

Sitting in front of the television, for example, um, which is not an

activity that engages the brain a lot, reading actually does.

So any activity like that, I, I would imagine, and I'm sure there's lots

of research on it, shows that you're helping to delay the potential onset

of dementia in terms of evaluating, you know, being bilingual or multilingual

or learning other languages and the effect that has on dementia.

There are studies, percentage improvement or, uh, you know, delay

the onset by a few years or whatever.

However, these studies, I don't think they've done a good job of sort of

isolating for example, you know, people in different socioeconomic

circumstances, uh, how well do you actually have to speak the language for

it to have a, an effect or benefit you?

Is it enough that you were, you know, bilingual as a kid?

Do you have to be continuing to learn these languages?

There's so many unanswered questions there, but I just

take it that it's good for you.

So learning languages is gonna help you stave off dementia.

Uh, but there's another aspect to that and to this and that is, it's not just

that you're learning languages and you're activating certain parts of your brain.

I think it's the fact that if you commit to learning a language at

my age, let's say, or even 10 years younger or 10 years older, that

means you have a purpose in life.

So there seems, there's quite a bit of research to show that it's

not even enough to be positive.

We all like to be positive, but actually to feel you have a purpose and, uh, I feel

a sense of purpose in learning languages.

I enjoy doing it.

It gives me satisfaction and I,you know, acquiring knowledge is a, a, a,

a perfectly legitimate purpose in life.

I just happen to be reading a book about the history of Arabs written by Albert

Hourani, and he talks about Ibn Khaldun the famous, uh, Arab, uh, traveler and

and writer in the maybe 14th century.

And, uh, he spent his mornings working for the visa for the

government and in the afternoon he studied, like that was his activity.

Learning learning is a perfectly legitimate activity.

It's a constructive purpose.

And so if we have that purpose and we feel that purpose, then we are less likely

to suffer from Alzheimer's it turns out.

Whereas people who don't have a sense of purpose when they're older,

they're more likely to, you know, have these kinds of, uh, difficulties.

So it's not enough just to be positive because the positive can go up and down.

I was not that positive about my Arabic because I wasn't making much progress.

And then strange things happen.

Amazon delivery, the delivery man was from Yemen.

We speak a few words in Arabic, I'm re-motivated, so then when I work

out on my treadmill, I go and grab...

or if I, I go to Netflix and find an an Egyptian movie to watch.

And so all of a sudden I'm more positive about my Arabic little things.

You know, sometimes you're a little bit down because you can't remember

stuff, and then something happens to make you more positive, but beyond

that having this sense that you have a purpose, whatever that purpose may

be, uh, apparently is very powerful in staving off the onset of Alzheimer's.

So couple that with the fact that learning languages has some not

totally, clearly defined, beneficial effect, uh, in providing you with, with

better defense against Alzheimer's.

Uh, I think those are very good reasons for learning languages well into old age.

So I leave you with those thoughts.

I'd be interested in what you have to say, and uh, it's just another

reason why language shorting is such a good thing to do.

Thank you for listening.

Bye for now.