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Hello and welcome to 6 Minute
English from BBC Learning English.
I'm Neil and today I'm here with Hannah
from BBC podcast What in the World.
Hello, Hannah. Hi, Neil.
Hannah and the What in the World team
have been investigating
what it's like
to learn multiple languages,
and she's here
to tell us more about it.
Welcome to 6 Minute English.
Thank you so much for having me.
And it's great to have you here.
Now in this programme
we help you improve your English.
And maybe English is the first language
you have ever tried to learn.
Or maybe you know a lot of languages.
Well, someone who knows multiple
languages is called a polyglot.
Neil, are you a polyglot?
I speak a little bit of a few languages,
but I couldn't say that I'm a polyglot.
How about you?
I am a polyglot.
Wow, I feel really impressed
and a bit intimidated!
And now, Hannah, we always start
our programme off with a question.
So, here it goes.
Which country has the most
official languages recognised by
their government?
So is it a) Zimbabwe,
b) Switzerland, or c) Bolivia?
I would guess Zimbabwe.
Well, we'll find out the answer
at the end of the programme.
Now, Hannah,
you've been finding out about some
of the benefits of being a polyglot.
Yes, Neil,
there's been lots of research
about how knowing more than one
language can change your brain.
And this might have
some health benefits, too.
At What in the World we spoke
to Professor Frederique Liegeois
who's a cognitive neuroscientist
at University College London.
Babies, even before they speak,
have to tune in
to the languages around them to make
sense out of what people say to them.
And then when children start to speak
several languages, they have to focus
on one language and ignore
another one where they're speaking.
They also have to be able to switch
from one language to the other,
depending on who they're speaking
to. Later on in age
when adults have dementia,
they seem to show symptoms
later when they're bilinguals
as opposed to monolinguals.
We think that
juggling several languages has helped
them really boost this brain efficiency,
which is a great advantage.
It's like a brain workout.
Frederique explains
that babies who grow up learning
more than one language have to tune
into the languages around them.
They have to listen to each language.
Over time, they become good
at switching languages
and ignoring the ones they don't need
in a conversation.
Scientists think that juggling
several languages is good for you.
If you juggle several things,
that means you deal with all of them
at the same time.
Frederique describes being a polyglot
as a brain workout.
This means it's exercise for
your brain that can make it stronger.
Now, Hannah, I don't know about you.
When I was younger
and languages just seemed
like another subject at school,
I didn't really care so much. But
when I worked abroad later in life,
I was much more motivated
and found it easier. How about you?
Quite the opposite actually.
I did find it easier to learn
languages at school and university,
but I didn't have to learn
these languages out of necessity.
But my colleague Victoria Uwonkunda,
she's a presenter and a journalist
on the BBC World Service, she did.
She speaks five languages
and she understands eight.
And she learnt those languages
because her family moved from Rwanda
to Kenya and then to Norway
when she was a teenager.
Victoria says she was able
to pick up Norwegian quite easily.
If you pick up a skill, it means
you learn it, usually by being
in the environment where that thing
happens rather than being taught.
But Victoria's parents found
it much harder to learn Norwegian.
Let's hear what Vic said on the What
in the World podcast.
First of all, you're having them
coming into a new culture completely
from everything they've ever known.
The language is new.
These are people in their 50s,
you know, but they soldiered on.
Because if you want to work, if you want
to live there, you have to learn.
And they did.
It wasn't easy.
But I think also with us kids,
we picked it up quite quickly.
So if they were making a mistake, we
were also helping them along the way.
So it's kind of a way of paying back.
You helped us get to this, you know,
to keep our mother tongue and here
we are going to help you.
Victoria's parents found it difficult
to learn Norwegian in their 50s,
but they soldiered on.
They continued doing something
even though it was difficult.
And I love that the family helped
each other with their languages,
Hannah.
Yes.
So Vic's parents helped them keep
their mother tongue Kinyarwanda
when they had to leave Rwanda.
And then years later, the children
helped their parents learn Norwegian.
And Hannah, Victoria picked up
Norwegian quite easily,
even after learning
four other languages.
Did Victoria have any tips
for learning so many languages?
Well, one thing she recommended
is trying to immerse yourself
in the language.
So, she said
go to the market or into the street,
a place where you can listen
to people using the language.
Yes, and some learners
might be learning English online,
and so they don't have the opportunity
to go to a market or street
and hear the language.
But there are other things
that you can do.
For example,
you can listen to 6 Minute English,
or you could try other BBC podcasts
like What in the World too.
What in the World
is the programme that I work on
and we put out a new episode
every weekday.
We look at stories
from around the world covering news
and trending topics to try
to help you make sense of the world.
Time now for the answer
to our quiz question.
I asked you, which country has the
most officially recognised languages?
I said Zimbabwe.
And I'm afraid that was
the wrong answer.
It was in fact Bolivia,
which recognises 37 languages,
though of course
not everyone speaks all of them.
Now let's recap the vocabulary that
we have learned, starting with polyglot,
which is someone who knows lots
of languages, like me.
If you tune in to something,
you listen or pay attention to it.
Juggling several things,
like languages, means doing several
different things at the same time.
A brain workout is exercise
for your brain.
If you pick up a skill,
you learn it, usually through
practice rather than being taught.
And if you soldier on,
you continue doing something
even though it's difficult.
Thanks for listening to 6 Minute
English and listen to the full episode
of What in the World about polyglots
and learning languages.
There's a link in the notes
below this program.
Thank you so much
for having me on 6 Minute English.
Goodbye. Ciao.
Adios. Até logo.
Sayonara.
Bye!
Vocabulary
Word 1 of 15polyglot
word
0:39
"someone who knows and speaks many languages."
More Listening Practice
About this lesson
Discover the benefits and challenges of learning more than one language and how multilingualism affects the brain in this 6 Minute English episode.