The Superior Social Skills of Bilinguals

BEING bilingual has some obvious advantages. Learning more than one language enables new conversations and new experiences. But in recent years, psychology researchers have demonstrated some less obvious advantages of bilingualism, too. For instance, bilingual children may enjoy certain cognitive benefits, such as improved executive function — which is critical for problem solving and other […]

SFUSD Board Approves Pilot Program Expanding Instruction In Mandarin; Other Languages To Follow

San Francisco school children could soon have more opportunities to learn a language other than English in elementary school under a pilot program approved Tuesday night. A resolution approved unanimously by the San Francisco Unified School District board Tuesday asked the district to prepare a pilot program offering Mandarin language instruction at elementary schools that […]

School district may increase foreign language class options

The Yorkville School District is exploring more foreign language class options. Director of Teaching and Learning Kelley Gallt told the Board of Education on Monday that administrators are considering adding German I at the Yorkville Middle School where Spanish I is already offered. Both languages are now taught at Yorkville High School. In addition, during […]

For a Better Brain, Learn Another Language

There’s a certain sinking feeling one gets when thinking of the perfect thing to say just a moment too late. Perhaps a witty parting word could have made all the difference. There is no English word to express this feeling, but the French have the term l’esprit de l’escalier—translated, “stairwell wit”—for this very phenomenon. Nor […]

Bilingualism

By Paweł Zieliński The aim of this article is to present a short compendium of theories concerning bilingualism and bilinguals. Firstly, one needs to provide a clear definition of a bilingual. The most common, or rather a layman one would claim that a bilingual is a person with a command of two languages. A person […]

Does Your Language Shape How You Think?

Seventy years ago, in 1940, a popular science magazine published a short article that set in motion one of the trendiest intellectual fads of the 20th century. At first glance, there seemed little about the article to augur its subsequent celebrity. Neither the title, “Science and Linguistics,” nor the magazine, M.I.T.’s Technology Review, was most […]