Multilingual experience linked to delayed aging • Hacker News Board

Re: Multilingual experience linked to delayed aging

#21

Post by yulker » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 4:58 PM UTC

amunozo wrote: post #8

TFNA wrote: post #3

Sadly, this beneficial activity doesn’t look promising in the longterm. Real-time interpretation of foreign languages through earbuds is already available in its nascent phase, and China at least has begun cutting foreign-language programmes at its unis because such AI translation is seen as the way of future. Once this tool becomes adopted enough societally, the learning of foreign languages is going to become a ver…

This has been said for ages and, as a person in a very multilingual environment, I still cannot see it happening, no matter how good the translations are. I may be wrong, but talking through translation earbuds seems dystopic and uncomfortable.

there's also no substitute for the reduced inferential distance when two people speak the same language. the literal meaning of words encodes just a subset of the communication

Re: Multilingual experience linked to delayed aging

#22

Post by Eisenstein » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 5:01 PM UTC

Some peer criticism from: Vanhove, J. (2026). Does multilingualism really protect against accelerated ageing? Critical comments on Amoruso et al. (2025). Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 1–10.

"As the authors correctly point out in their discussion, their observational study does not allow them to establish any causal links between the degree of multilingualism in a country and the extent to which its inhabitants show signs of accelerated ageing. Unfortunately, they do not seem to have kept this insight in mind when they came up with the title (‘Multilingualism protects …’) and the abstract (‘These results underscore the protective role of multilingualism …’) that grabbed the media's attention."

"The authors use country-level data on multilingualism, namely the estimated percentage of monolinguals in the country (the Mono variable in BAG_OR_cross.csv), the estimated percentage of people in the country who know exactly one additional language (One), those who know exactly two additional languages (Two), and those who know at least three additional languages (Three), always at the time of data collection."

"According to a simple OLS regression model at the country level with the monolingualism percentage as its sole predictor, a 10-percentage-point difference in monolingualism is associated with a difference in the average GAP value of about 0.36 years (some 133 days; 95% CI: (58,207) days). If log-per-capita GDP is controlled for, a 10-percentage-point difference in monolingualism is associated with a difference in the average GAP value of about 0.29 years (some 105 days; 95% CI: (22,188) days)."

Re: Multilingual experience linked to delayed aging

#23

Post by tekno45 » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 5:02 PM UTC

TFNA wrote: post #14

tekno45 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

they think art is a niche hobby and not the basis of human culture. I wouldn't listen too intently to them.

Art is perennial and omnipresent in human societies, but the sort of art that operates through a language foreign to the aficionado’s own, and learning that language would be beneficial to appreciation of it, is obviously going to be a niche subset of art.

basic puns and rhyming are niche forms of art?

Re: Multilingual experience linked to delayed aging

#24

Post by slim » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 5:02 PM UTC

drtgh wrote: post #15

TFNA wrote: post #3

Sadly, this beneficial activity doesn’t look promising in the longterm. Real-time interpretation of foreign languages through earbuds is already available in its nascent phase, and China at least has begun cutting foreign-language programmes at its unis because such AI translation is seen as the way of future. Once this tool becomes adopted enough societally, the learning of foreign languages is going to become a ver…

> China at least has begun cutting foreign-language programs because such AI translation is seen as the way of future. Once this tool becomes adopted enough societally, the learning of foreign languages is going to become a very niche hobby. If this happens, professional or reliable translations will only be accessible to those who can afford/pay them, leaving everyone else stuck with the errors produced by LLMs. To…

people learn by trial and error. ai output can be 50% accurate. it is still useful

Re: Multilingual experience linked to delayed aging

#25

Post by Thraway198 » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 5:04 PM UTC

asveikau wrote: post #4

TFNA wrote: post #3

Sadly, this beneficial activity doesn’t look promising in the longterm. Real-time interpretation of foreign languages through earbuds is already available in its nascent phase, and China at least has begun cutting foreign-language programmes at its unis because such AI translation is seen as the way of future. Once this tool becomes adopted enough societally, the learning of foreign languages is going to become a ver…

I think any multilingual person will be skeptical of your analysis. Translation is not a substitute for understanding the original. It's good that we have translations, but it isn't the same. As you get into consuming art, literature, poetry, commentary, this is relevant.

The AI will be able to do all that for you. What you're touching on is the difference between comprehension vs merely being a vessel for information.

Re: Multilingual experience linked to delayed aging

#26

Post by markerz » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 5:04 PM UTC

thisoneisreal wrote: post #2

One thing I've never seen discussed on this topic (possible I just missed it, I only read popular accounts) is whether speaking multiple languages is a proxy for higher sociability / stronger social ties. That's a known dimension that improves health and aging and I wonder if just being able or interested in speaking with a broader swath of people is what helps more than the cognitive demands of switching.

In my world, most multilingual speakers are children of immigrant families, and that transcends socio-economic boundaries. Plenty of immigrants were already wealthy before coming to the SF Bay Area, where we import highly educated, specialized workers. On the other hand, we also import physical laborers who are also generally multilingual but not in the same social class.

Some of these immigrants are very well supported with a strong social network, while others struggle with isolation.

Re: Multilingual experience linked to delayed aging

#27

Post by Thraway198 » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 5:04 PM UTC

drtgh wrote: post #15

TFNA wrote: post #3

Sadly, this beneficial activity doesn’t look promising in the longterm. Real-time interpretation of foreign languages through earbuds is already available in its nascent phase, and China at least has begun cutting foreign-language programmes at its unis because such AI translation is seen as the way of future. Once this tool becomes adopted enough societally, the learning of foreign languages is going to become a ver…

> China at least has begun cutting foreign-language programs because such AI translation is seen as the way of future. Once this tool becomes adopted enough societally, the learning of foreign languages is going to become a very niche hobby. If this happens, professional or reliable translations will only be accessible to those who can afford/pay them, leaving everyone else stuck with the errors produced by LLMs. To…

Nah it'll be the same progression as llms.

Re: Multilingual experience linked to delayed aging

#28

Post by Thraway198 » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 5:05 PM UTC

amunozo wrote: post #8

TFNA wrote: post #3

Sadly, this beneficial activity doesn’t look promising in the longterm. Real-time interpretation of foreign languages through earbuds is already available in its nascent phase, and China at least has begun cutting foreign-language programmes at its unis because such AI translation is seen as the way of future. Once this tool becomes adopted enough societally, the learning of foreign languages is going to become a ver…

This has been said for ages and, as a person in a very multilingual environment, I still cannot see it happening, no matter how good the translations are. I may be wrong, but talking through translation earbuds seems dystopic and uncomfortable.

but for people in unilingual environments, this tech seems like a miracle

Re: Multilingual experience linked to delayed aging

#29

Post by cyberax » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 5:11 PM UTC

elpakal wrote: post #11

thisoneisreal wrote: post #2

One thing I've never seen discussed on this topic (possible I just missed it, I only read popular accounts) is whether speaking multiple languages is a proxy for higher sociability / stronger social ties. That's a known dimension that improves health and aging and I wonder if just being able or interested in speaking with a broader swath of people is what helps more than the cognitive demands of switching.

Raised multilingual here (as in father spoke one, mother spoke another, living abroad and US back and forth). I don't know about the stronger social ties but I have found that thinking in a different language helps me get to sleep easier. There are times when I'm spinning around in webs in English (work, life etc) at night, and when I switch over to Spanish thoughts I fall asleep easier. Maybe just stuff like that is…

Switching into another language also helps if you are stuck in an environment where you do not want to pay attention (e.g. on a bus with blaring ads that you can't mute or with a rude neighbor yapping on their phone).

Re: Multilingual experience linked to delayed aging

#30

Post by wibr » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 5:12 PM UTC

TFNA wrote: post #3

Sadly, this beneficial activity doesn’t look promising in the longterm. Real-time interpretation of foreign languages through earbuds is already available in its nascent phase, and China at least has begun cutting foreign-language programmes at its unis because such AI translation is seen as the way of future. Once this tool becomes adopted enough societally, the learning of foreign languages is going to become a ver…

Even if the translation is perfect and "real-time", it comes with a significant latency that will make any conversation less natural. Good for some situations while traveling, not something you would want to rely on for everyday life.