Latin America (ES)
Study a new language and focus on your fluency first
Learning a second language makes your smarter and delays later-life dementia, a recent study concluded, but you should also know that being fluent in the English language is more important than having a perfect pronunciation. Have you already picked out a language to study?
An English language course, a French course, Russian, Japanese… it doesn’t really matter: the most important for you is to learn a new language because it will benefit your cognitive skills.
A research developed at the University of Edinburgh tested 853 people in two very different phases: first, 1947, when they were 11 years-old; second, between 2008 and 2010, when those people were already over 70.
The study concluded that the participants that were able to communicate in a language other than their mother-tongue – bilingual - had improved their cognition significantly, especially in terms of intelligence and reading skills, delaying the onset of dementia.
And if you are over 18, do not worry, because you are still on time to learn a new language: both those who studied before and the ones who did it during their adulthood showed the same positive mental health results – your focus, attention and verbal fluency will be benefited in the future.
Speaking of fluency, another research, this time from the North-American institution Purdue University, revealed that the pronunciation is not the most important aspect if you want to be easily understood by English native speakers.
The more fluent your speech is, with fewer pauses and restarts, the less effort they have to make to keep track of your conversation – the study suggests.
Using speech samples from 20 non-native English speakers, groups of English language natives assessed the speakers’ capability of being understood.
Therefore, regardless the Spanish, Japanese, Chinese or French accent on your English, even your English friend, with the strongest British accent, will still be able to understand what you are saying: simply try to diversify your English, focusing on your vocabulary and grammar first, and the rest you will get and improve as time goes by.
