Học một ngôn ngữ mới có thể ngăn chặn chứng mất trí nhớ?

-----

My father decided to start learning French when he was 57. He hired a tutor to meet with him twice a week and diligently (siêng năng) completed his homework before every lesson. Before long, he was visiting the French bakery across town to practice his pronunciation (and buy macarons). Now, 20 years later, he’s on his third tutor.

On the surface, his retirement hobby seems a little random — our family has no connection to French-speaking countries — but his motivation ran deeper than a passion for pastries (bánh ngọt). My grandmother developed signs of Alzheimer’s disease in her early 70s, and studies suggest that being bilingual can delay the onset (khởi phát) of the condition by up to five years.

Drawn (thu hút) by that potential benefit, many people, like my father, have attempted to pick up a new language in adulthood. According to a survey conducted (tiến hành) by the language learning app Memrise, 57 percent of users reported “boost brain health” as a motivation for using the program.

But is that really possible? The studies on bilingualism and dementia (mất trí nhớ) were conducted in people who have used multiple languages in their daily life since at least early adulthood. Whether casually learning another language later on confers (mang lại) the same cognitive advantages is up for debate.

source: nytimes,