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toddmc

Jan 13, 2007, 6:17 AM

Post #1 of 4 (2471 views)

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Yet ANOTHER benifit of learning a second language.

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A study just out of Canada reports that being bilingual can significantly delay the onset of dementia.

http://news.yahoo.com/...ementia_bilingual_dc

Todd

Bloviator

Jan 13, 2007, 7:09 AM

Post #2 of 4 (2462 views)

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Re: [toddmc] Yet ANOTHER benifit of learning a second language.

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I don't know about that, but I do know that my pathetic efforts at learning Spanish have kept my mind working more than anything else I have been doing in the past year.

Unfortunately, it is also going to cause a divorce in my family. My wife has informed me that when I return from my month long intensive Spanish program, the house will be sold and she will be gone.

She really doesn't understand that I feel an absolute need to become competent in Spanish and cannot live here without it. I hope she's joking. Besides, I doubt the house would sell in a month.

jerezano

Jan 13, 2007, 10:28 AM

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Re: [dlyman6500] Yet ANOTHER benifit of learning a second language.

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Hello dlyman6500,

Have you thought of taking your wife along? Most of those intensive language course schools set up family living arrangements and almost always they will accept a non-enrolled companion.

You might try it, just to keep the house from being sold.

Adiós. jerezano.

Bloviator

Jan 13, 2007, 10:38 AM

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Re: [jerezano] Yet ANOTHER benifit of learning a second language.

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It will probably come down to that, but my wife loves to talk and has no interest in learning Spanish - though recently she has begun to realize it may be a good idea to do so. If we went together, we would spend most of our time speaking to each other - or I would listen to her - in English. That would pretty much defeat the purpose of the trip. If we went out, she would be left out as I tried to speak Spanish to those we encountered.

Just finished reading an article that points out that men and women's brains are different and that women talk three times as much as men. Their brain chemistry even gets some kind of a rush out of hearing themselves talk. This was a study by a neuropsychiatrist (??), who as a feminist really wanted to reject the results of the research that she and other have done that show men and women to be different.