TED-ed【being?bilingual?makes?you?smarter】

阿巴阿巴阿巴(西班牙語)

阿巴巴阿巴巴(法語)

你會說中文嗎？

If you answered,"阿巴”，“阿巴巴”or“會”,and you're watching this in English,chances are you belong to the world's bilingual and multilingual majority.

如果你的回答是“會”,并且在看這段英文視頻,或許你就是世界上具有雙語或者多語言能力者中的一員。

And besides having an easier time traveling or watching movies without subtitiles,knowing two or more languages means that your brain may actually look and work differently than those of your monolingual friends.

除了外出旅行時更方便，以及看電影不需要字幕之外，會兩種或多種語言意味著你的大腦的運行方式和單語言的小伙伴們不一樣。

So what does it really mean to know a language?

那么會一種語言意味著什么呢？

Language ability is typically measured in two active parts,speaking and writing,and two passive parts,listening and reading.

典型的語言能力評估包含兩個主動層面——說和寫；還有兩個被動層面——聽和讀。

While a balanced bilingual has near equal abilities across the board in two languages,most bilinguals around the world know and use their languages in varying proportions.

盡管協(xié)調(diào)的雙語能力意味著兩個層面的均衡發(fā)展，世界上大部分的雙語人士對于語言的認知和運用程度是不同的。

And depending on their situation and how they acquired each language,they can be classified into three general types.

并且根據(jù)他們的情況和學習語言的方式，可以分為三種類型。

For example,let's take Gabriella,whose family immigrates to the US from Peru when she's two years old.

以Gabriella為例，當她兩歲時，她的家庭從秘魯移民到美國。

As a compound bilingual,Gabriella develops two linguistic codes simultaneously with a single set of concepts,learning both English and Spanish as she begins to process the world around her.

作為一名合成雙語者，Gabriella同時發(fā)展兩種語言編碼。在她探索世界的過程中，對于同一組概念，她同時接受英語和西班牙語的用法。

Her teenage brother,on the other hand,might be a coordinate bilingual,working with two sets of concepts,learning English in school,while continuing to speak Spanish at home and with friends.

另外，她年輕的哥哥或許會成為一個并列雙語者,并列處理兩組概念——在學校學習英語，同時在親戚朋友間依然使用西班牙語。

Finally,Gabriella's parents are likely to be subordinate bilinguals who learn a secondary language by filtering it through their primary language.

最后，Gabriella的父母很可能是附屬型雙語者,他們學習第二語言的方式，是借助基本語言進行梳理。

Because all types of bilingual people can become fully proficient in a language,regardless of accent ot pronunciation,the difference may not be apparent to a casual observer.

由于任何一種雙語者都能夠完全掌握另一種語言，而不管發(fā)音、語調(diào)是不是標準，對于任意一個研究者而言，區(qū)別還是很明顯的。

But recent advances in brain imaging technology have given neurolinguists a glimpse into how specific aspects of language learning affect the bilingual brain.

但如今，腦成像技術(shù)的發(fā)展，給予了神經(jīng)語言學家一個機會來研究不同語言學習層面對雙語大腦的影響。

It's well known that the brain's left hemisphere is more dominant and analytical in logical processes,while the right hemisphere is more active in emotional and social ones,though this is a matter of degree,not an absolute split.

眾所周知，人的左腦在分析與邏輯進程中起決定作用，而右腦在精神和社交層面更為活躍——盡管這只是程度上的區(qū)分，而不是絕對的劃分。

The fact that language involves both types of functions while lateralization develops gradually with age,has lead to the critical period hypothesis.

事實上語言包含以上兩種功能。因為語言包括的兩種功能，而這兩種功能中的一種會隨著年齡的增長更有優(yōu)勢。于是就有了臨界周期的假說。

According to this theory,children learn languages more easily because the plasticity of their developing brains lets them use both hemispheres in language acquisition.

根據(jù)這種理論，孩子們更容易學會一門語言，因為他們不斷成長的半腦之間的粘性，會讓他們在學習語言的時候同時用兩個半腦。

While in most adults,language is lateralized to one hemisphere,usually the left.

然而對于大多數(shù)的成年人，他們通常會用左腦學習語言。

If this is true,learning a language in childhood may give you a more holistic grasp of its social and emotional contexts.

如果這個理論是正確的，在你對于在孩童時期學習的語言，更能有在社會和情感層面上的整體把握。

Conversely,recent research showed that people who learned a second language in adulthood exhibit less-emotional bias and a more rational approach when confronting problems in the second language than in their native one.

然而，近期的研究表明，在成年時期學習第二門語言的人在用第二門語言處理問題時會展現(xiàn)出更少的情緒性偏見并傾向于理性地解決問題.

But regardless of when you acquire additional languages,being multilingual gives your brain some remarkable advantages.

如果不考慮上述的問題，多學幾門語言會給你的大腦許多巨大的好處。

Some of these are even visible,such as higher density of the grey matter that contains most of your brain's neurons and synapses and more activity in certain regions when engaging a second language.

某一些好處甚至是可察覺到的，比如說你大腦中的容納神經(jīng)元和突出的灰質(zhì)的密度會更高。使用第二語言的時候，大腦中的特定部分也會尤其活躍。

The heightened workout a bilingual brain receives throughout its life can also help delay the onset of diseases,like Alzheimer's and dementia by as much as five years.

進一步的研究表明，多學幾門語言，能推遲你的突發(fā)疾病的時間，比如說能讓阿爾茨海默病和癡呆癥推遲5年突發(fā)。

The idea of major cognitive benefits to bilingualism may seem intuitive now,but it would have surprised earlier experts.

對于學習多門語言帶來的好處是我們主觀臆測的，但實際上這里已經(jīng)有許多驚人的早期試驗。

Before the 1960s,bilingualism was considered a handicap that showed a child's development by forcing them to spend too much energy distinguishing between languages,a view based largely on flawed studies.

在1960年之前，學習多門語言被認為是孩子成長中的阻礙，因為孩子會因此話費更多的時間去區(qū)別兩種語言——這是種基于有缺陷的研究觀點。

And while a more recent study did show that reaction times and errors increase for some bilingual students in cross-language tests.

一些年代更近的研究表明，學習多種語言的人在跨語言的測試中反應(yīng)更慢，錯誤也更多。

It also showed that the effort and attention needed to switch between languages triggered more activity in and potentially strengthened,the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.

這也表明了更多的努力和關(guān)注應(yīng)該從語言觸發(fā)的活動切換到其對背外側(cè)額葉皮層可能的加強上。

This is the part of the brain that plays a large role in executive function,problem solving,switching between tasks,and focusing while filtering out irrelevant information.

這也是大腦在以下事項上發(fā)揮巨大作用的表現(xiàn)——問題的解決、任務(wù)之間的切換和在過濾無用信息是對任務(wù)本身的關(guān)注度。

So,while bilingualism may not necessarily make you smarter,it does make your brain more healthy,complex and actively engaged,and even if you didn't have the good fortune of learning a second language as a child,it's never too late to do yourself a favor and make the linguistic leap from "Hello" to "阿巴" , "阿巴巴" or "您好"s because when it comes to our brains a little exercise can go a long way.

所以，學習多門語言可能不會一定讓你變得聰明，但是一定會讓你的大腦更加健康復(fù)雜，并且更易被充分利用。即便你在孩童時期沒有機會學習第二門語言，從現(xiàn)在開始，自己從“Hello”到"阿巴" , "阿巴巴" 或是 "您好"開始來到達語言能力的飛躍。因為對于我們的大腦來說，一點點的練習都有深遠的影響。