SEtalk: What a Second Language Does to Your Brain

Have you ever felt like a different person in another language?

你们有没有过这种感觉：换一种语言，就像变了一个人？

I have, and it took me years to understand why it happens.

我有过，而且我花了好几年才明白为什么会这样。

It's often said that learning a language opens doors.

人们常说，学习一门语言能打开许多扇门。

What I've come to believe is that it also rewires the mind.

而我逐渐相信，它还会重塑我们的思维。

At forty-one, I moved to Lisbon, and I knew no Portuguese.

41岁那年，我搬到了里斯本，一句葡萄牙语都不会。

Ordering coffee felt like an exam, and I failed it daily.

点杯咖啡都像一场考试，而我天天不及格。

About a year in, something shifted,

大约一年后，有些东西变了，

and friends told me I was a different person in Portuguese.

朋友们说，我讲葡萄牙语的时候像换了个人。

I was louder and warmer, and I was far more patient!

我更大声、更热情，而且耐心多了！

Some of the clearest evidence comes from a military academy in Sweden,

一些最有力的证据来自瑞典的一所军事学院，

where recruits learn languages like Arabic or Russian from scratch.

那里的新兵要从零开始学阿拉伯语或俄语这样的语言。

Researchers scanned their brains before and after three months of study.

研究人员在他们学习3个月的前后，分别扫描了他们的大脑。

Parts of the brain linked to memory and language had physically grown!

大脑中与记忆和语言相关的区域，竟然真的长大了！

Medical students, who were studying just as hard, showed no such change.

而同样刻苦学习的医学生，却没有出现这样的变化。

So it seems it wasn't hard work alone that made the difference.

所以看来，带来差别的不只是努力本身。

That study lasted months, but the benefits may well last decades.

那项研究只持续了几个月，但它带来的益处很可能会延续几十年。

In a Toronto memory clinic, Ellen Bialystok's team compared hundreds of patients.

在多伦多的一家记忆门诊，Ellen Bialystok的团队比较了数百名患者。

Those who'd spoken two languages all their lives

那些一辈子都讲两种语言的人，

developed symptoms of dementia around four years later!

出现痴呆症状的时间晚了4年左右！

Admittedly, not every study has found such a clear effect,

诚然，并非每项研究都发现了如此明显的效果，

but it's widely thought that juggling two languages keeps the brain flexible.

但人们普遍认为，在两种语言之间来回切换能让大脑保持灵活。

Perhaps the most counterintuitive finding concerns how we make decisions.

也许最违反直觉的发现，与我们如何做决定有关。

In 2012, a Chicago team gave people a classic decision problem,

2012年，芝加哥的一个团队给受试者出了一道经典的决策题，

framed either in terms of lives saved or lives lost.

表述方式要么着眼于获救的生命，要么着眼于失去的生命。

In their native language, people's choices flipped with the wording,

用母语时，人们的选择会随着措辞而反转，

but in a foreign language, the bias largely disappeared!

但换成外语，这种偏差基本上消失了！

The less emotional a language feels, the more calmly we decide.

一种语言给人的情感冲击越小，我们做决定就越冷静。

It isn't that I'm a nicer person in Portuguese,

并不是说我讲葡萄牙语时人就变好了，

it's that I have to slow down and choose every word.

而是因为我得放慢速度，斟酌每一个词。

Had I never left my comfortable English-only life,

如果我从未离开那种只说英语的舒适生活，

I'd never have met this side of myself.

我永远不会遇见自己的这一面。

So, provided you're willing to feel a little foolish,

所以，只要你们愿意让自己显得有点傻，

start a language, and allow yourself to be bad at it.

就开始学一门语言吧，允许自己学得不好。

What if a new version of you is waiting in another language?

如果在另一种语言里，有一个全新的自己正在等着你们呢？

Thank you — or, as I'd now say, obrigada!

谢谢大家——或者，用我现在的说法：obrigada！