Seniors who spoke two languages ever since childhood are faster than monolinguists in processing tasks as lifelong bilinguals show different patterns of brain activity when making the switch, ScienceDaily has reported.

I wonder if it has to be "fluent in both languages" since childhood or if "know enough to get by" counts. My grandmother only spoke Spanish as a child (learning English ~30 years old), and when she started getting Alzheimers her English was one of the first things to go. My mom was bilingual (started learning English at 5), but when she raised my brother and I, she was one of those "Cuando en los Estados Unidos, habla Ingles" folks, so we never spoke Spanish at home. Now I can understand some, and converse a little, but I'm nowhere near fluent.

I love language. I just read that fluently.

Not with Spanish, though, subby. It's an inferior language.

Now, Russian or Chinese are good. French and Japanese, marginal. Swedish, Spanish, Swahili, and Filipino are right out.

James!: No. No yo soy medico.

Soy capitan, soy capitan.

/bamba.

El pero es me corazon.

Ich kann Deutsch y hablo espanol.

But I pretty much use neither and they are rusting pretty bad.

Cucaracha?

Very rusty in my French, rusty in my German, fluid English and Dutch. Guess school was good for preventing dementia if nothing else.

/French sucks donkeyballs
//Or would have if they didn't run from the donkey

SPEAK MERRICAN!

Mi aerodeslizador está lleno de anguilas.

/does RAF banter count?

After just skimming the article - is there any benefit to learning a second language later in life other than, you know, knowing a second language? I was monolingual up until I was in my early twenties when I moved overseas and learned French. I was, for a while, fluent-ish in French. I am no longer.

Tu eres Moleculo?

Je n'aime pas la langue francais, particulièrement comment les quebecois parlent. Le joual et prononciation de quebecois est trés laid. Je viens de la monde anglais où les gens parlent la langue du roi. Si c'est assez bon pour Elvis, puis c'est bon pour moi.

I wonder how much difference conversational ability vs reading comprehension would make. I can read French, Spanish, a little bit of Italian, and phonetic alphabetization (though it's been a while), but most conversations are too fast and/or too slang-filled for me to follow easily.

I also wonder if they'd consider my (hearing) niece's fluency in ASL as bilingualism.

I will not buy this record.  It is scratched.

I understood both of those. Does that mean I'm doubly protected against... against....... what were we talking about?.... Where am I?

My hovercraft is full of eels.

Hijo de su chingada puta madre.

I was able to get the idea of the headline. I could find a bathroom and order a meal in Spanish and ask someone if they spoke English and tell them my name in French.

Eu estou tomando uma cerveijinha.

Eso, si. ¿Que es?

Oh, just a little something I use to keep my feet warm.

learn Finnish and i'll be impressed. what a farked up language

/french + english
//emergency spanish

Somacandra: ciberido: I will not buy this record tobacconist.  It is scratched.

FTFY

/you have beautiful thighs

If I said you had a beautiful body, would you hold it against me? I... I am no longer infected.

When I lived in Nepal, I had a Peace Corps friend who was in training to become a math teacher, and he was working with some younger kids, doing practice teaching.  Since he was still in training, the trainer (who was fluent in both Nepali and English) was in the classroom observing his lesson.  The subject was addition, and my friend delivered the lesson in his best Nepali.

My friend divided the students into groups of four and gave each group a box of matches.  As he was telling the students what to do, he gave the instruction "Remove the matches from the box," but he mispronounced the verb for "remove."  The Nepali verb he wanted was "Jickne," but what he actually said was "Chickne."  The students burst out laughing.

Later, my friend asked the trainer why the students had laughed.  The trainer explained that he had used the verb "Chickne" when he should have said "Jickne."  "Chickne" is a vulgar word meaning "to copulate" or "to have six with."  So instead of saying, "Remove the matches from the box," what he had actually told the children was, "Fark the matches in the box"!

Learning Japanese is interesting (and vice versa).

NSFW example.

Das ist nicht sehr gut!
Pero no importa a mi si tu eres un pendejo!

theflatline: ariseatex: Seniors who spoke two languages ever since childhood are faster than monolinguists in processing tasks as lifelong bilinguals show different patterns of brain activity when making the switch, ScienceDaily has reported.

I wonder if it has to be "fluent in both languages" since childhood or if "know enough to get by" counts. My grandmother only spoke Spanish as a child (learning English ~30 years old), and when she started getting Alzheimers her English was one of the first things to go. My mom was bilingual (started learning English at 5), but when she raised my brother and I, she was one of those "Cuando en los Estados Unidos, habla Ingles" folks, so we never spoke Spanish at home. Now I can understand some, and converse a little, but I'm nowhere near fluent.

My father left when I was 2 and went back to Colombia, so no spanish in my house with my Cajun family.  But when I was 30 I lived in Colombia for two years and thanks to my Colombian grandmother she browbeat the language into me, and I am 99.9 percent fluent, which is also helped that I lived there for the last 3 years, and my wife is Colombian and we only speak spanish to each other.

You can learn a language later in life, it is tough but it can be done.

Though most people who claim to speak another, are usually just horrible at.

This relates more to the post you responded to. My grandma learned English at 19 or so after fleeing post WWII Poland. She didn't start speaking only in Polish until the last year or so she was alive, maybe 5 after she was first hospitalized. But once it was gone it was gone, and she had spoken it about 90% of the time for 50 years.

Really made me regret my mom never teaching me (she could only speak and kind of read) but I knew enough to say I loved her.

/dammit dusty miss you grandma