(As described in TIME magazine June 29th 2013 in the science section pp28-31)

THE BENEFITS TO THE BRAIN BY LEARNING A SECOND LANGUAGE

In an article entitled "THE POWER FOR THE BILINGUAL BRAIN"

"A bilingual brain is not necessarily a smarter brain, but it is proving to be a more flexible, more resourceful one and more nimble"

"The advantages of multilingualism in the senior population are especially important - and comparatively easy to measure...bilingual adults, in experiments, were more accurate and also faster than monolinguals". Testing their brains showed that the bilingual adult brains were put under less pressure while given a task to fulfil.

"Older people have to activate their brains more in general that younger people do. But bilingual people have to do it less".

But most important perhaps, for adults is the fact that amongst seniors suffering from serious age related cognitive decline and those who are still high functioning the estimate is that people who engage in learning a second language get an extra 4.1 years of clarity before any form of dementia set in. Those who might develop Alzheimer's specifically get an extra 5.1 years.