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来源To Stave Off Alzheimer\'s, Learn a Language? Principal Paco Furlan helps kindergarten students at a bilingual school in Eugene, Oregon (file photo).
在俄勒冈州尤金的一个双语学校里，校长帕可?福尔兰正帮助幼儿园的孩子（资料图）。 Talk about the power of words—speaking at least two languages may slow dementia in the aging brain, new research shows. 最新研究显示,语言的力量——至少会说两门语言可以延缓大脑衰老过程中的痴呆。 Scientists already knew that bilingual young adults and children perform better on tasks dictated by the brain's executive control system. 科学家们早就发现，双语年轻成人和孩子们执行大脑执行控制系统下发出的任务时表现更好。 Located at the front of the brain, this system is "the basis for your ability to think in complex ways, control attention, and do everything we think of as uniquely human thought," said Ellen Bialystok, a psychologist at York University in Toronto, Canada. 加拿大多伦约克大学心理学家多爱伦?比亚韦斯托克说，该系统位于大脑前部，是“进行复杂思考、控制注意力并实践我们所认为的人类思想的能力的基础”。 Now studies are revealing that advantages of bilingualism persist into old age, even as the brain's sharpness naturally declines, Bialystok said Friday at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, D.C. 比亚韦斯托克在星期五的华盛顿美国科学促进协会一个会议上说，现在研究显示，双语的优势持续到老年，即使届时大脑的敏捷度已经自然下降。 Bilingual Brains Delay Aging Effects
双语大脑延缓衰老产生的影响 Bialystok and colleagues examined 102 longtime bilingual and 109 monolingual Alzheimer's patients who had the same level of mental acuity. About 24 million people have dementia worldwide, with the majority of them suffering from Alzheimer's, according to Sweden's Karolinska Institutet medical university. 比亚韦斯托克和同事检查了102名常用两种语言和109名仅懂一种语言的老年痴呆症（阿尔茨海默氏症）患者，他们的大脑敏锐程度相当。据瑞典卡罗林斯卡研究所的医学院校称，世界上约2400万人患有老年痴呆症，而且大多数患者正承受着老年痴呆症带来的痛苦。 The bilingual patients had been diagnosed with the Alzheimer's about four years later than the monolingual patients, on average, according to Bialystok's most recent study, published in November in the journal Neurology. 根据比亚韦斯托克的十一月发表在《神经学》上的最新研究，双语者比单语者被诊断出患有老年痴呆症平均约晚四年。 This suggests bilingualism is "protecting older adults, even as Alzheimer's is beginning to affect cognitive function," Bialystok said. (Take a brain quiz.) 比亚韦斯托克说，这表明用两种语言“保护老年人，即使老年痴呆症已经开始影响认知功能”。 Bialystok is also studying physical differences between bilingual and monolingual brains. 比亚韦斯托克也正在研究双语者和单语者大脑之间的肉体差异。 In a new experiment, she used CT scans to examine brains of monolinguals and bilinguals with dementia. All the subjects were the same age and functioned at the same cognitive level. 在一项新实验中，她用CT扫描检查了单语和双语痴呆症患者的大脑，而且所有受试者的年龄和认知水平都相同。 The physical effects of the disease in the brain were found to be more advanced in the bilinguals' brains, even though their mental ability was roughly the same, Bialystok told National Geographic News. 比亚韦斯托克在《国家地理新闻》上说，尽管心智能力大致相同，但是脑部疾病的身体反应在双语者大脑中表现出来得更晚。 Apparently, the bilinguals' brains are somehow compensating, she said. "Even though the 'machine' is more broken, they can function at the same level as a monolingual with less disease," she said. 她说，显然，双语者大脑在某种程度上得到修正。“虽然‘机器’坏得更厉害了，但仍可以像患较少疾病的单语者的大脑一样运转。” Not Too Late to Benefit From a New Language
受益于新的语言为时未晚 Benefits of bilingualism can begin in utero, Janet Werker, a psychologist at the University of British Columbia, Canada, told the news briefing. 加拿大不列颠哥伦比亚大学的心理学家珍妮特?沃克在新闻发布会上说，出生前就可以受益于双语。 For instance, Werker and colleagues' recent studies show that babies exposed to two languages in utero do not confuse their languages from birth. 例如，沃克和同事们最近的研究表明，在子宫时听到两种语言的婴儿出生时不会混淆这两种语言。 The mental workout required to keep the languages separate may create an "enhanced perceptual vigilance" that has lifelong benefits, Werker said. 沃克说，要求单独训练语言的心智训练可能会创建一个终身受用的“增强感性的警惕”。 "What I'd like to suggest is the kind of advantages you've heard about [in aging] can be established from those first days of life, in [babies] having to keep the two languages apart." “关于不让【宝宝】听两种语言，我建议的是一些你可能已经听说过的【在年老时的】优势，而这种优势可以从人生的第一天就可以获得。” Granted, people born into bilingualism have it a bit easier. 诚然，天生就是双语者的人拥有这种优势就更容易。 "One of the things babies have is the luxury of time—they get the opportunity to really focus on task at hand," Werker said. “婴儿们拥有充裕的时间——他们有的是机会去完成即将到来的任务，”沃克说。 "If we want to learn a second language, [we need to] set time aside to allow that to happen"—and evidence suggests the payoff is worth it. “如果我们想学习第二种语言，我们需要预留出时间来学习”，并且证据表明，回报是值得的。 Even if you don’t learn a second language until after middle age, it can still help stave off dementia, York's Bialystok said. 即使中年后才学习第二种语言，它仍然可以帮助延缓老年痴呆症，纽约的比亚韦斯托克说。 Being "bilingual is one way to keep your brain active—it's part of the cognitive-reserve approach to brain fitness," Bialystok said. “使用两种语言是让大脑活动的一种方式——它是保持大脑健康的认知储备方式的一部分，”比亚韦斯托克说。 And when it comes to exercising the brain by learning another language, she added, "the more the better—and every little bit helps." 而且，当谈到到通过学习另一种语言锻炼大脑，她补充说“多多益善，但一点一滴亦有帮助”。 注：我并不是说下面这些说明能让你流利地讲外语，外语的流利要花费时间和精你也可以利用词典很好地阅读。，以下这些步骤将给你的新语言学习打下坚实的基础。 与此同时，你应该阅读你的语法指南介绍。这会对你的语言打下基础，有助你学习讲话是的不同以及和英语的相同点。不要担心记忆的每一条规则，这简直是不可能的，建议是先有一个大概的了解。这是整个过程中最无聊的，但不要放弃，因为它很值得。 现在开始读那些双语书籍。挖掘到一些有趣的材料将会建立你的词汇量。只要有可能总是要大声朗读，这有助于你的口语，记忆，使你开始用新的语言思维。我发现同步的阅读和音频课程的学习能增强这两方面的技能。学习课程时，能够将单词可视化使得它们更容易理解。同样，在阅读时，发音技能提高了你的内心独白。 保持一贯性 每天很短时间的学习极为重要。每日重复开拓了语言的第二天性。最好是每天都要读一小会儿，而不是每周一次或两次读几个小时。每当有空余时间，你都要尝试在线寻找新的东西来阅读。你会惊奇地发现自己的理解力是多么的好。 最终，你会学完所有的音频课程和几本双语书，能够借助词典很好的阅读和进行简单的对话。你现在已经准备好展翅飞翔了。用学到的语言开始读更多的书籍，必要时使用词典。找到会讲新语言的人，和他们交谈。浏览一些有关这种语言的论坛，交些电邮朋友。如果可能的话，到讲这种语言的国家去旅行，体验一下当地的文化。如果你对其他语言好奇，那么也开始学习吧！
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