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Bilingual people are twice as likely to recover from a stroke, study finds

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Re: Bilingual people are twice as likely to recover from a stroke, study finds

#31
A lot of people in India speak both English and Hindi, plus a host of other regional languages.

"even after taking into account other factors such as smoking, high blood pressure, diabetes and age"

Did they take into account that people who speak multiple languages are potentially more financially secure and thus would have a healthier/more nutritional diet/lifestyle?

Re: Bilingual people are twice as likely to recover from a stroke, study finds

#32

Strictly anecdotal, but I'll mention it anyway: My grandfather was bilingual, but his native tongue was Arabic. He held off dementia until his 90's, but when it finally set in, it hit hard. It got to the point where he often gave up trying to speak because he couldn't finish the sentence without forgetting a word he wanted and getting frustrated. Surprisingly, however, he often remembered the word in English and star…

Very interesting anecdote.

Re: Bilingual people are twice as likely to recover from a stroke, study finds

#34
post #31

A lot of people in India speak both English and Hindi, plus a host of other regional languages. "even after taking into account other factors such as smoking, high blood pressure, diabetes and age" Did they take into account that people who speak multiple languages are potentially more financially secure and thus would have a healthier/more nutritional diet/lifestyle?

In Hyderabad, people even with little education tend to converse in Telugu and Urdu/Hindi to a level a fluency. Ability to speak English is reflection of better social or economic status. You can still find a lot of people who speak two languages and who are not well off in HYD.

Re: Bilingual people are twice as likely to recover from a stroke, study finds

#36
If you want a lot more information about stroke and linguistics, I highly recommend the book "One Hundred Names for Love: A Memoir" It's about an older married couple, both wordsmiths by trades (linguistics professors? I can't remember). The husband has a stroke leaving him with a single word vocabulary.

It documents what they did in his recovery process as well as mentions the various types of language impairments that can come with stroke. It's a great book - touching and educational.

IIRC, the book mentions that strokes affect single native language, dual native languages, and post childhood acquired languages differently. And that if you want to be able to communicate after a stroke you best bet is to learn another language. Though it's been several years since I've read the book.

Re: Bilingual people are twice as likely to recover from a stroke, study finds

#37
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would support your statement as well. I know three languages: one as my native language, other as my country's only official language, and the last one (English) is my general purpose language, meaning I use at to surf web, to study books, to watch films/series, to code, etc.. Would I learn any other language if I would be born in English society and English family? Doubt it. Maybe some other mainstream language ju…

As a native English speaker, born and raised in the US, it is a lament of mine that I can't justify the enormous time and effort needed to become bilingual. I guess I could learn Spanish, but why? It would be primarily recreational. And the time spent could almost certainly be more productively used picking up some other useful skill. Maybe I should just do it anyway in light of the more abstract benefits that the ar…

"I guess I could learn Spanish, but why?"

Where are you from in the US? Im from the Atlanta area and bilingual spanish/english. Most people I know from georgia, florida, even alabama can at least understand spanish just from being around it so much. I really think to not know spanish you would have to actively try to avoid it - especially if you are young and from the city. In atlanta you can easily live without knowing any english, when friends came from south america we always found people fluent in spanish most native (at Starbucks, McDonalds, Grocery Store, shopping, etc).

Re: Bilingual people are twice as likely to recover from a stroke, study finds

#38
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would support your statement as well. I know three languages: one as my native language, other as my country's only official language, and the last one (English) is my general purpose language, meaning I use at to surf web, to study books, to watch films/series, to code, etc.. Would I learn any other language if I would be born in English society and English family? Doubt it. Maybe some other mainstream language ju…

As a native English speaker, born and raised in the US, it is a lament of mine that I can't justify the enormous time and effort needed to become bilingual. I guess I could learn Spanish, but why? It would be primarily recreational. And the time spent could almost certainly be more productively used picking up some other useful skill. Maybe I should just do it anyway in light of the more abstract benefits that the ar…

> I guess I could learn Spanish, but why?

Because you want to sell to people who speak a language other than English?

Because you want to buy from people who speak a language other than English?

Re: Bilingual people are twice as likely to recover from a stroke, study finds

#39

Not quite related, but I'm wondering what it means to be bilingual. I mean, does the use of English on internet count? For instance, I'm French and I spend most of my time on the "english" internet, including YouTube, reddit, HN, IRC... I'd say 95% of my activity on the web is in English. I also watch american TV series and movies without subtitles. I understand english quite well and yet, I haven't spoken English fo…

It is quite common (in fact, nearly ubiquitous) for bilinguals to have different domains for each language. For example, you would probably prefer to have a computer conversation in English than in French, but you probably would prefer to speak to your family in French. It is also very common (again, nearly ubiquitous) for bilinguals to have varying degrees of competence in each language.

There isn't an absolute boundary that separates bilinguals from monolinguals. If you're interested in the topic, I've been reading this very interesting book. It's slightly technical, but it's a very interesting summary of many recent studies of bilingualism:

http://ca.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-EHEP002792...

Re: Bilingual people are twice as likely to recover from a stroke, study finds

#40

Strictly anecdotal, but I'll mention it anyway: My grandfather was bilingual, but his native tongue was Arabic. He held off dementia until his 90's, but when it finally set in, it hit hard. It got to the point where he often gave up trying to speak because he couldn't finish the sentence without forgetting a word he wanted and getting frustrated. Surprisingly, however, he often remembered the word in English and star…

The same happens with my grandmother but the other way around. She doesn't speak her second language anymore, she has returned to the one of her childhood, but it seems like she understand it yet.
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