Joan Beck’s commentary (Op-Ed, July 17) sheds some light on the process of how bilingual individuals store information of both languages in the same area of the brain.
She also reminds us of studies that prove how a child is able to learn two languages at the same time so much easier than it is for an adult and questions why more American school systems don’t introduce foreign languages in elementary or even preschool.
As a multilingual teacher at Berlitz, the School of Languages, I can only confirm what Ms. Beck asserts. I was raised bilingual, speaking German and Italian at age 2. Since my childhood I’ve been switching to different languages with extreme ease, and I can assure you of one thing: My childhood brain learned to work much more efficiently than that of many monolingual folks.
You surely want your children’s brains to work more proficiently to be successful. It does not matter which foreign language they learn; your tax dollars are well spent on foreign language education. The payback will be tenfold.
