Fluent in five, master of none

Growing up speaking five different languages sometimes felt like juggling too many things at once. I’d switch from language to another depending on who I was talking to, but I always wondered: do I actually know any of these languages well? Once I started learning about neuroscience and physiology, I realized that my brain has been physically shaped by the languages I speak. 

Research has shown that people who speak multiple languages have structural differences in certain brain areas involved in cognitive control, language, and attention. For example, people who speak multiple languages show increased gray-matter density in the left parietal cortex, which is closely tied to language learning and processing (Mechelli et al, 2004). To me, it’s interesting that every time I struggled to switch between languages, my brain was actually strengthening itself. Additionally, multilingual brains are constantly doing behind-the-scenes processing, activating one language when necessary while suppressing the others. This constant juggling strengthens a variety of skills like focusing, attention, and filtering distractions (Bialystok et al, 2012). 

One of the other things I’ve always noticed is how I feel like a slightly different person depending on which language I’m speaking. Neuroscientists and psychologists actually studied this phenomenon. Each language carries different emotional memories and cultural expectations, and switching languages activates different neural networks linked to those experiences. So it’s not that you become a different person, it’s more like a different side of your identity becomes highlighted depending on the language you’re using. 

After learning more about the physiology of multilingualism, my perspective has shifted. What I previously interpreted as a lack is actually a normal outcome of how a multilingual brain functions. It’s not a flaw, it’s just the way the system works. 

References

Bialystok, E., Craik, F. I. M., & Luk, G. (2012). Bilingualism: Consequences for mind and brain. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 16(4), 240–250. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2012.03.001

Mechelli, A., Crinion, J. T., Noppeney, U., O’Doherty, J., Ashburner, J., Frackowiak, R. S., & Price, C. J. (2004). Structural plasticity in the bilingual brain. Nature, 431(7010), 757. https://doi.org/10.1038/431757a