Bilingualism affords no general cognitive advantages: Study
As someone fluent in four languages*, I agree. I would even argue that the opposite of an advantage is true. Consider this: it adds unnecessary cognitive load. When trying to think of a word, it comes to you in four different languages, which isn&#x27;t helpful!<p>I speak four languages out of necessity, not by choice. When you can focus on fewer languages, your proficiency in them improves. Although I can speak four languages, I always feel as if I&#x27;m lacking a certain level of expertise in each one. I wish I only needed to speak one language, saving my mental capacity for other things. Constantly juggling languages doesn&#x27;t help.<p>The main benefit of knowing multiple languages in everyday life is eavesdropping on people in the street speaking their language, but that&#x27;s about it.<p>Moreover, all my friends from my country also speak four languages. Unfortunately, I don&#x27;t hear of people from Moldova faring much better than others.<p>*My mother tongue is Romanian, but everyone in Moldova also speaks Russian (due to the Soviet past). At school, I learned French and later studied in France. I picked up English mainly through computers and the internet. Now, I&#x27;m in the Netherlands and need to learn another language, but this one is proving slow to learn. I don&#x27;t feel any advantage in learning a new language either.<p>I would gladly trade Russian and French over knowing Dutch right now ;o) There are months when I don&#x27;t speak those two so they are of little use for me anymore.