Actively speaking two languages protects against cognitive impairment
81–90 of 161 posts
Re: Actively speaking two languages protects against cognitive impairment
#82How do we know the cognitive impairment isn't causing people to not speak two languages (despite knowing two - as in they can't remember one of them), long before other symptoms appear? The only way to test that is to split a pool of bilingual people into two groups, and forbid one group from using one language. Was that done?
I saw a few comments here commenting this. It's a strange perspective to me. The people I know who are bilingual still prefer one language and use the other primarily to speak to people who don't know their primary language.
As an example I am Swedish but fluent in English and Dutch. In my family we use a mix of Swedish and Dutch. But I use Swedish exclusively with anyone else who is Swedish unless someone is in the conversation who only knows English. I have both friends and colleagues who don't speak Swedish (nor Dutch) and I always speak Dutch with my wife's family.
In this context it makes little sense that I'd simply stop using multiple languages, since then I'd be unable to speak to parts of my family, friends, and coworkers.
Re: Actively speaking two languages protects against cognitive impairment
#83This might be me being overly cautious here, but I would be wary of the political implications of the study. It's from an open University that's a project for lifelong learning funded as a public service in Catalonia - promoting the catalan language in the region is a key point of the project, so studies finding out that bilingualism is something great to have raise red flags about the nationalist agenda behind it. T…
I understand your point but you can make the same for a lot of research. You do research on what you get founding for.
They may simply research on topics they get founding and publish the nice results.
Re: Actively speaking two languages protects against cognitive impairment
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
With proper random sampling you only need something like N = 27 (I forget exactly) to reach p = 0.05 Assuming random sampling, it's a misconception that you need ten thousand participants to have a useful study.
Your mixing up your statistics. Perfect random sampling of a normal distribution means you can sample 27 times and your statistical analysis is close to that of the entire population. It's highly dependent on the magnitude of the effect (when comparing two populations) and the distribution across a population. For something dementia, where even measuring the level of cognitive decline is highly subjective, no way N=2…
As long as measurement errors are not significantly correlated with the tested "cause"/category, it should not have significant bearing on the results or their validity. In such a case, 27 individuals should be sufficient.
That being said, article mentions 63+135+68 individuals in 4 hospitals in a single city.
Re: Actively speaking two languages protects against cognitive impairment
#85This might be me being overly cautious here, but I would be wary of the political implications of the study. It's from an open University that's a project for lifelong learning funded as a public service in Catalonia - promoting the catalan language in the region is a key point of the project, so studies finding out that bilingualism is something great to have raise red flags about the nationalist agenda behind it. T…
In general, Catalan nationalists tend to see bilingualism as a process by which one language (Catalan) is gradually being supplanted by another (Spanish). They are not really advocates for bilingualism.
Re: Actively speaking two languages protects against cognitive impairment
#86Do you think Python and JavaScript Count?
Fosho na foriya. Mi peroba lang belta fo da razhdang xiya. :-)
Re: Actively speaking two languages protects against cognitive impairment
#87This might be me being overly cautious here, but I would be wary of the political implications of the study. It's from an open University that's a project for lifelong learning funded as a public service in Catalonia - promoting the catalan language in the region is a key point of the project, so studies finding out that bilingualism is something great to have raise red flags about the nationalist agenda behind it. T…
It is a common point of view from modern Catalan nationalism that the bilingual status-quo is conducive to the minoritization of the Catalan language long term. Bilingualism can also mean Catalan and English. On the other hand, pro-union parties [0] and organizations [1] often defend bilingualism under the opposite premise: that supposedly Catalan has an advantageous position over Spanish. [0] https://www.elmundo.es/…
If you see past the rhetoric you will find that Catalan nationalists would like Catalan to be the dominant language in Catalonia while Spanish nationalists would like Spanish to be the dominant language instead. Neither of them are really concerned about English because English is not in a position to replace either Catalan or Spanish.
Re: Actively speaking two languages protects against cognitive impairment
#88This might be me being overly cautious here, but I would be wary of the political implications of the study. It's from an open University that's a project for lifelong learning funded as a public service in Catalonia - promoting the catalan language in the region is a key point of the project, so studies finding out that bilingualism is something great to have raise red flags about the nationalist agenda behind it. T…
In general, Catalan nationalists tend to see bilingualism as a process by which one language (Catalan) is gradually being supplanted by another (Spanish). They are not really advocates for bilingualism.
I recall "Catalunya si, España también" being a unionist slogan. Did I misunderstand?
TIL there's an ¡Ay Carmela! movie. Recommended or not?
Re: Actively speaking two languages protects against cognitive impairment
#89This might be me being overly cautious here, but I would be wary of the political implications of the study. It's from an open University that's a project for lifelong learning funded as a public service in Catalonia - promoting the catalan language in the region is a key point of the project, so studies finding out that bilingualism is something great to have raise red flags about the nationalist agenda behind it. T…
As an aside, here's a breakdown of who speaks Catalan vs Spanish, in Catalonia, as of 2018:
https://www.idescat.cat/novetats/?id=3446&lang=en
The quick version, in a single image, with the lightest area being the region of Barcelona:
Re: Actively speaking two languages protects against cognitive impairment
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, I haven’t read the paper but how can you control for correlated stuff here, e.g. bilingual people are likely to be richer, more intelligent, exercise more, eat better more varied food and have richer social lives. Maybe.
Are immigrants and their children likely to be richer, eat better, etc?
If I were to immigrate to Barcelona I would learn (Galician) Spanish, but perhaps not Catalan. (Though it’s a beautiful language.) I guess I would count as monolingual in their study.