The power of multilingualism
Conservatives alike would have you believe that multilingualism is a pre-requisite for linguistic disaster. An ailing fruit, conservatives hold the misinformed belief that multilingualism is a hindrance, and makes you worse at understanding and processing new and up and coming languages.
This blog-post seeks to re-inform and have you believe the opposite.
When we talk about multilingualism, the idea of a state comes to mind, which in itself is a contested subject. Yuval-Davis (2011) argues that ethnicities and states are contested entities and we as a society need to reimagine what we mean by these terms. With contested notions of the state and ethnicity, comes contested notions of language and the benefits of multilingualism. We need to reimagine nations and ethnicities as groups of collectivities, and with this comes the fruits of multilingualism. Often ethnicities and collectivities alike are formed around the basis of a language and language discrepancies. Language is a shared social script that forms the social imagining of a collectivity. The power of language here is a strong, and can be emphasised by the benefits of multilingualism.
With multilingualism arises questions of citizenship and identity. This links back to the theoretical dissemination as aforementioned of language and collectivities. Ålund (2005) notes how ‘emergent mixtures of cultures, cultural innovation….illustrate the diversity of contemporary multicultural society and its potential for change’ (Ålund, 2005 p.156).
Many bilinguals often report feeling different when speaking a language other to their native language. This links back to the idea of citizenship and state.
Bilingualism has interesting effects on personality. Ask a person to finish a sentence in one language and the response is very different to their response in another. In the 1960s psychologists analysed this phenomenon which joint Japanese-English speakers. The responses they gave varied. When asked what the purpose of friendship was in Japanese, they responded that real friends should help each other; when the question was given in English, the response was to be frank.
This links back to the socio-linguistic semantics of the cultural context of which multi-linguists operate under. There is a perception that learning a new language weakens your ability to speak others. However, it is an undisputed fact that adapting yourself to other languages makes you stronger and more proficient in your native language.
Then there are biological factors to continue. Multilingualism has literally been proven to sharpen the mind. Recent studies have found that multilingualism in a person that their cortical thickness, which is associated with high intelligence, was thickened when speaking or learning a new language.
Then there are the social factors associated with multilingualism. It is a well-known belief that assimilating with communities that differ from your own offers a diagnosis to racist beliefs and attitudes. The same can be said for language and language skills. Learning and speaking new languages offers an insight into a new worldview, which often alleviates prejudices.
The great Audre Lorde (1977) once wrote that poetry is not a luxury. I believe the same can be said for languages. Learning a new language does not have to be a costly expedition. Invest in a new textbook, get a free app and learn in the best way possible that suits you.
This factors into the elements of self-care. In a world plagued by Covid, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the world could be in a better state. When recently writing self-care tips for a newsletter, I looked to the remarkable work of Susan Cain (2012) who offered tips on how to lead a better and more productive life for all the fun-loving introverts and extroverts out there.
One of the tips to lead a better life came from investing in leisure to alleviate social stress and pressures. Cain uses the example of art, but I believe the same can be said for learning a new language. I believe linguistic abilities can alleviate social pressures and boost productivity for a better and more refined version of you.
Artwork by Katherine Hattam