On Fri, Jun 6, 2014 at 12:55 AM, John Sundman <[email protected]> wrote:

> http://www.sci-news.com/othersciences/neuroscience/science-bilingualism-aging-brain-01969.html

> I'd be curious to learn what languages listers know.

English (it is still kind of English, although a curious amalgam of
English and American with overlapping areas of emphasis)
Kannada (having done all of my formal education in Bangalore, although
my reading and writing skills are unusably rusty. I speak at native
level, though)
Tamil (my mother tongue, which I speak fluently but cannot read or write)
French (3 years at the Alliance Française, plus 3 years at college. I
used to be able to make myself understood, but can't anymore. Perhaps
a few days of immersion will bring it back.)
Hindi (can read and write at basic level. Can more or less make myself
understood, although my spoken Hindi is the stuff of legend among my
cronies)
and an inconsequential smattering of other Indian languages.

> I'm willing to bet you're all going to experience less cognitive decline than 
> I will.

My belief is that surrounding yourself with interesting people is a
better way to arrest cognitive decline than surrounding yourself with
laguages, although these are not mutually exclusive. :)

Udhay

PS: waiting to see if our resident polyglot will chime in. Dibs? You there?

-- 
((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))

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