ENGLISH with Science — How Speaking Two Languages Transforms Your Brain

okay so now let's go to that video and

this video is interesting this clip um

it's called cognitive advantages of

bilingualism from a Harvard Professor

named Maria polinski

so Maria polinski is a professor of

linguistics at Harvard University and we

got this clip from the channel serious

science by the way we will leave the

link to the channel here in the

description in case you guys want to

check out the channel and watch more

videos that they have it's really

interesting but in this clip casting

she's talking something along the lines

of what you were saying before about how

bilingual people or multilingual people

are able to easily suppress certain

areas of the brain let's say on demand

and it's funny because she also gives

the analogy or the example of driving so

uh apparently when we drive we tend to

do that too right we tend to suppress

everything else that we are doing so we

can keep our attention on the road

and she says that as a bilingual person

you can do the same by switching on and

off between languages so let's check out

this clip and talk a little bit about

that and also break down some language

that she uses here likewise when you

have two languages or more represented

in your brain when you speak one a lot

of your energy and a lot of your memory

resources go into suppressing the other

language which is constantly present in

your recognition and precisely because

you're so experienced as a bilingual or

multilingual speaker and suppressing the

other languages in your representation

your executive control is better and the

way you exercise it way more than let's

say monolingual speaker does and that

leads to significant cognitive advantage

all right interesting I can't say any

thoughts any comments yeah I I think

this is something that of course we

don't think about because we have no

need to think about it it's one of those

things that's sort of automatic like you

don't realize that you're suppressing

other information while you're driving

you don't realize that you're

suppressing for example I I think when I

hear her speak I'm thinking about when

for example in your case I imagine there

are times when you're you know in a

meeting or you're expressing an idea or

thought and you don't even realize that

you're suppressing your Portuguese in

order to communicate the message in

English and even right now we're both

doing it right now so I think this is

something that is fascinating to think

about because it's happening without us

even recognizing and I think that's the

point but I I feel like a lot of

Learners they're they're in the

beginning they're always at their point

of oh I want to be able to think I want

it to be automatic I don't want to have

to be translating in my head and this is

it like when you're

doing this for a long time when you keep

practicing this is what happens this is

the

the payoff right so it's that like it

becomes so automatic and fascinating to

think about I really like the last line

she says there yeah that uh you know

significant cognitive Advantage you have

yeah simply by speaking more than your

native tongue that's incredible let's

break down some language she uses here

Cassie she starts the clip by saying

likewise because you know before that

just to give you some context she gives

the driving example

that I just described and then she says

likewise when you have two languages or

more what does it mean likewise in this

context so we use the word likewise to

mean in the same way by the way I love

to teach

um that word to students as an

alternative to nice to meet you too

because a very common phrase that

Learners learn is hello I'm Thiago nice

to meet you and then the person says

nice to meet you too but you can also

say nice to meet you oh likewise

is it just a word very simple very

quickly nice I also I actually use that

one like about an hour ago someone said

it's good to see you again Cassie and I

said oh likewise so you don't have to

repeat the greeting you can just simply

respond

much more practical communication there

about connected speech uh there is this

segment here in the clip which goes a

lot of your energy and a lot of your

memory a lot of your energy and a lot of

your memory resources this is a common

connection we have here so the T the

final t for lot

sounds like a flap T sound

and then we connect that with the

preposition of so a lot of a lot of a

lot of so is this the the article a

before lot also has the schwa sound here

so we say uh uh a lot a lot and then a

lot of a lot of just has something

interesting also here she says a lot of

your memory resources go into

suppressing the other language in a

little bit I had she also says that

bilingual or multilingual speakers they

are good at suppressing the other

languages notice that in these two

instances here we have a preposition

into and add

and after we have a verb the verb

suppress now a grammar rule here that is

important to point out is if you had a

preposition and a verb right after the

preposition the verb is in the ing form

we use the verb in the ing so that's why

we say into suppressing and not into

suppress or at suppressing and not at

suppress all right just to give another

example let's say I am good at playing

guitar you see at preposition playing

verb in the ing by the way because we

are using this word a lot here what does

it mean to suppress

so to suppress something means to sort

of hold it back or to stop something

from happening or for example if you

want to cry you're feeling really

emotional while watching a movie you

could suppress your tears which means to

sort of hold them back and prevent them

from flowing or if someone tells a joke

and it's an inappropriate one you might

want to suppress your laughter so you're

like

which means you prevent yourself from

laughing so think about it as you know

stopping something from happening I just

want to point out that you just used the

rule that I just explained about

prepositional verb you said prevent from

flowing you see from is a preposition

and flow is a verb from flowing yeah

from laughing yeah she also says in the

clip here that your executive control is

better uh executive control is a kind of

a term that they use uh in Neuroscience

to relate to different cognitive

abilities that we have for example your

working memory attentional control

planning reasoning problem solving so

all these are examples of executive

control so what she's saying here is

that bilingual or multilingual people

have better executive control better

cognitive abilities in other words

and finally Kelsey she says and that

leads to significant cognitive Advantage

what does it mean when something leads

to something else so when one thing

leads to another thing it means that

this is sort of this causes this or this

results in this happening so for example

studying every day could lead to you

acing the test or exercising every day

could lead to you becoming fit and

healthy or will most likely lead to you

being fit and healthy think of it one

thing resulting in another thing and

also lead I think there's a mental

picture that it draws for me so it

doesn't happen immediately if one thing

if someone leads they're taking you sort

of on a journey they're they're you know

taking you somewhere to a destination so

one thing will result in another thing

over time when we think about our old

age you know being an elderly person we

don't think that learning a language has

anything to do with that right we don't

think that it will pay off that learning

that language is going to pay off in the

long run we think about now we can make

money now we can make friends now we can

travel and communicate now but I think

surprisingly being bilingual or having

the having a bilingual brain

has its benefits in terms of like

delaying the onset of diseases like

Alzheimer's and Dementia which are

terrible diseases if you've ever met

anyone or know you know what it does to

to people in their old age or

yeah the consequences of those diseases

so being bilingual science proves that

it can delay the onset of these diseases

by up to five years wow so I think

that's pretty pretty important right it

is by the way what does that mean like

you know it delays the onset of dementia

or Alzheimer's what is the onset in this

case so the onset of something is the

beginning or the starting point of

something and usually unpleasant um so

of course it doesn't mean that it's

you're not going to get Alzheimer's or

you're not going to but it can also not

only decrease the possibility of you

getting it but it can decrease the

symptoms and the the effects that the

disease has on your body so that's

pretty important right you said

something nice there that I wanted to

ask about you said pay off in the long

run what does it mean when something

pays off in the long run you can think

about it as like an investment think of

any investment when you go and you

invest money in something you don't see

the the rewards today it doesn't pay

back today it over time maybe in 10

years five years you will receive an

amount of money because of the

Investments that you've made today so

when something pays off in the long run

it means that you will see the rewards

in the future not today perhaps but in

the future you will see the rewards of

that work yeah great great hey so this

is the end of this lesson but if you

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