Why Learning A New Language Can Help Senior Citizens

Learning a new language can help senior citizens and prevent the onset of dementia, say researchers. So what are you waiting for? Add a new language to your vocabulary today!

Learning a new language at an older age can be like opening a door to another world, one in which both the social and cognitive faculties are refreshed and invigorated. The greatest obstacle to older adult language learning is the doubt in the minds of both learner and teacher if older adults can learn a new language, but it’s vital to realize that it is absolutely an attainable goal. Those who cast aside doubt and embrace the benefits are guaranteed to find success, often sooner than they expect.

A 2013 study among 648 Alzheimer’s patients in Hyderabad documented that bilingual patients developed dementia 4.5 years later than the monolingual ones. There was a significant difference in age at onset also.

“Speaking more than one language is thought to lead to better development of the areas of the brain that handle executive functions and attention tasks, which may help protect from the onset of dementia.” says study author Suvarna Alladi, DM, with Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences in Hyderabad, India. The benefits of learning a new language seem, in fact, to be proportional to the effort expended by the brain.

Teaching a new language to senior citizens; Photo courtesy: The Great Times Club

Understanding language is one of the hardest things your brain does. Because language is complex, speaking or learning a foreign language gives your brain a good workout. Learning a second language offers proven benefits for intelligence, memory, and concentration. MRIs revealed that those who were bilingual developed better connectivity between different regions of their brains.

Cognitive benefits: With age comes a growing concern for the health of one’s mind. There are an estimated 46.8 million people living with dementia around the world aand as yet there is no treatment for it. But learning a second language might just be one method of prevention. A 2012 article in the ‘The Telegraph, London’ suggests that studying a second language ‘rewires’ the brain, and could help delay the onset of dementia for years. People who speak two or more languages have significantly better overall cognitive abilities than those who speak one.

Social benefits: Signing up for a course in the locality or joining an online community is a great way to meet new people and make friends. Sharing the same interest in a language and culture is an ideal starting point for conversation, plus a consistent demand for review prompts plenty of excuses for extra-curricular meet-ups.

Builds confidence in your ability to learn: We tend to think that the ability to learn something weakens dramatically as one gets older. Now, neuroscience has discovered a peculiar phenomenon called neurogenesis. Basically, the brain does not stop growing and developing after a certain point. Neurogenesis (the spontaneous growing of new brain cells) can occur at any point in your life. But neurogenesis can be spurred on by various activities, a key activity being learning new things like a second or third language. When you learn something new, your confidence and ability to learn something else grows, too.

Learning a new language can help widen your social circle too!

Helps in travel: Learning a new language can be useful if you enjoy traveling in retirement. After retirement, one has the time to really enjoy traveling and adventuring. It’s really best to pick a language that one may have the possibility of using in an immersed environment.

Research shows that bilingual children use the same brain regions for both languages if they are learned during childhood, whereas learning a second language later on in life recruits different regions from those involved in using one’s mother tongue. And learning a foreign language, much like learning to play a musical instrument, does indeed appear to be a good way of exercising one’s brain, and keeping it healthy, throughout life. Partha Basu, 64, learns Spanish at Great Times Club, a social and recreational hub for 55+ in Gurgaon and finds it enjoyable. “Learning has no age bar,” Mr Basu says, “I am now learning Spanish to compete with my daughter.”

So if you have always wanted to brush up your Bonjour and get a handle around Hola, now is the time to learn it all.

Have fun!