Question: hello jen im wondering what the differences are between a multi cultural multi language speaking persons brain between a one cultured sing language speaking persons brain??????

Jen Todd Jones answered on 11 Mar 2013:

Hi pigeonhunter5000!

This is an excellent question that can have a really long answer! But I’ll try and keep it brief here.

First to say that there is a big difference between monolingual V bilingual and single-cultured V multi-cultured, these are two very different dimensions of a human begin and affect us differently. Having more than one language changes the way we read, speak and listen – having more than culture changes our habits, our activities in our daily lives and the way we behave around other people (this is generally better known as ‘Social Psychology’). While I’m not a specialist in social psychology I do know that living in a culture and being surrounded by it, and a language, every day is very different from learning a second language while *not* in that culture. The rule is that if you want to learn a language, generally the best idea is to go to that country and try and survive by learning it quickly there! Of course, in school you learn languages and that’s great, it means you already have some of the language ready for when you arrive.

Otherwise the brain of a bilingual and a monolingual are physically very similar, they can vary as much as between people who are both bilingual for example. What changes is the way the brain operates when reading, speaking, or listening. Having two languages means that you’re constantly on the look-out for words in all the languages you speak, not just the one you’re reading in. For example, if a French-English bilingual person sees the word ‘chat’, do they think of a conversation, a cat (which is what ‘chat’ means in French), or both at the same time and then they decide which one? Additionally, IQ is not affected by language ability, those with more than one language tend to be better at mind puzzles like sudoku because they’re used to thinking about lots of different thoughts at once – but on the flipside they also tend to take on less new words as a young child. BUT by the times you’re an adult it balances out so everyone is roughly the same!

Hope this helps!
Jen