It doesn’t seem to matter if people actually have children of their own or not, everyone loves to weigh in on how the rest of the world should raise their kids. The benefits or hindrances of never telling a child “no,” or not feeding them gluten, or breastfeeding them well into their elementary school years, there seems to be no end to the kind of advice that is supposed to result in the healthiest, most well-rounded child any parent could ask for. While the vast majority of these ideas are merely that, there are things that can benefit a child greatly while they are still malleable and growing, such as instituting the learning of a second language from a French teacher in Salt Lake City.
In some homes it makes perfect sense to have a son or daughter receive formal second language schooling; some children might be sent to learn the language of immigrant parents to keep ancestral culture alive in the home; some parents have different native tongues and find it helpful to have a child who is learned in both of those languages. But not all homes have any obvious practical need for having their child learn a second language – so why go through the trouble?
It wasn’t until the last few decades that science started to realize just how mentally beneficial being bilingual could be. People went from thinking that speaking more than one language led to a crowded and confused brain to seeing that such things are actually good for an active brain. Through scientific study, we now know the abounding number of good things bilingualism can do for the brain, including but not limited to:
• A person’s grey matter (a major physical component of the brain) is responsible for memory, language processing, and attention – bilinguals have denser grey matter than single language speakers.
• Because the brain has to learn to manage and keep two languages separate, bilinguals are inherently better at multitasking and holding concentration.
• Bilinguals with hereditary mental issues such as dementia and Alzheimer’s take twice as long to develop symptoms next to their single language counterparts.
• Children who speak two languages are better with advanced and abstract thinking, which leads to higher test scores, especially in math.
• In most professions, bilinguals generally earn thousands more in annual salary than monolinguals.
While all of these ideas are incredibly attractive, the question most parents find themselves asking at the end of the day is, “where am I supposed to find an Italian or French teacher in Salt Lake City who teaches children?” At Inlingua Utah, part of one of the leading language training organizations in the world, courses are available for children in a multitude of languages and there are even courses should parents wish to learn in tandem with their kids. For those interested, it is as simple as checking out https://www.inlinguautah.com/ or calling 1-801-355-3775 to get more information. If you are in need of a Salt Lake City French teacher, Inlingua is definitely the place to be.