NB: This may not be a word-for-word transcript.Why Bilingualism Is Good for Your BrainNarrator: It used to be thought that being bilingual was a bad thing – that it would confuse or hold people back, especially children. Turns out, we couldn’t have been more wrong.Prof. Li Wei: Learning new languages is an exercise of the mind. It’s the mental equivalent of going to a gym every day.In the bilingual brain, all our languages are active, all at the same time. The continual effort of suppressing a language when speaking another, along with the mental challenge that comes with regularly switching between languages, exercises our brain. It improves our concentration, problem solving, memory, and in turn our creativity.Narrator: It’s now widely accepted that there are huge benefits to being bilingual. A key breakthrough came back in 2007 in Toronto, when Ellen Bialystok and her team made a discovery that shook the scientific community – and has massive real-world implications.Dr. T
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