Brittany Luce

She spoke to my producer, Liam.

Just so I can feel really good about myself today, what are those benefits?

Well, Viorica says being bilingual or multilingual can help the brain build cognitive reserve.

I had to look this up, but basically that means your brain's agility.

I also found out that the concept of cognitive reserve came out of the 80s when researchers discovered that some people's brains looked like they had advanced Alzheimer's, but the people they studied had no symptoms.

Whoa.

Right.

So the researchers theorized this was because some people have enough cognitive reserve for their brains to kind of build around damage and just keep going as usual.

It really is like being like buff as hell, but on the inside.

I'm just amazed hearing this.

Because I hadn't thought about the brain health part, you know?

My desire was purely social.

Not only for Mandarin, but any language, right?

Like when you travel...

You know that moment when you're ordering at a restaurant or taking public transit and you can say a little bit and people's eyes light up and they're like, oh, this isn't just an English-speaking American.

This is someone who's trying.

And there's a joy there and a relief that I've chosen to struggle in their language instead of making them struggle in mine.

Yeah, I mean, that actually reminds me of something that Luke Plonsky, professor of applied linguistics at Northern Arizona University, he said something to my producer, Liam, about using translation technology over learning the language yourself.

Like, even typing a single word you don't know into Google Translate, it could keep us from learning the information in other ways and retaining that information.

That's Nicole Ziegler again, associate professor in the Department of Second Language Studies at the University of Hawaii.