The Advantages of Multilingualism

I came across this article this morning that was on the Argentinian news site Clarin.com, discussing bilingualism and multilingualism. One of the points I found most interesting in the article was their assertion that bi or multilingual speakers tend to be more innovative problem solvers and creative thinkers. This makes sense. According to this article, and many other sources, language is a tool we use to construct our our conceptual universe. One of my favorite examples (this is till a theory mind you), is our English verb "to know." I "know" a fact about a country, news article or an idea, and I also "know" my buddy Bob down the street. I hear that Bob just robbed a bank and the cops come to my door asking about him and all I can say is: "I thought I "knew" him!" In English we don't have differing conceptual words for knowing something and knowing someone (unlike Spanish: saber / conocer or Mandarin: zhidao / renshi) which often leads to fascinating social encounters where people realize that they just didn't "know" someone and were surprised at something they had done. Would they still think this if we had a separate word / concept for "knowing" someone? This is a fascinating subject and does lend a lot of credence to the assertion in the article. How much easier would it be to solve a problem when you're used to thinking beyond the confines of a single conceptual framework and can bring more ideas to the table! Additionally, having the ability to think within and beyond different conceptual frameworks definitely aids in creative thinking. One of the thing I love about SF is exploring all the new worlds and ideas that SF writers come up with. When you learn a second language, you also learn to see the world in a different way, exploring, in effect a new world and new ideas. The new worlds opened by a new language is excellent fodder for SF writing and has given us some of our classics like Lord of the Rings and Stranger in a Strange Land, in which Robert Heinlein explored this theme. Language plays an important part in my own writing and I draw heavily on what I know when I'm building a world for a story. To me, it lends authenticity to a setting to have names and ideas expressed within a specific linguistic system (I'll be bitching about this in my next post!). I also find that it helps imagine how the characters interact with each other and their world, adding nuance to their personas. The link to the article is below. Enjoy! https://es.babbel.com/es/magazine/el-cerebro-bilingue?bsc=spamag-a49-bilingualbrain-esp-ob&btp=1_esp_out_cd&utm_campaign=cd_espall_ges-cx1_bilingualbrain&utm_content=%C2%BFSabes+c%C3%B3mo+funciona+el+cerebro+biling%25C&utm_medium=CON&utm_source=outbrain&utm_term=5003063