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New Year Language Resolutions....

14/1/2020

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In a previous blog we spoke about common New Year’s Resolutions and in the Centres I have heard a few of yours this week.  Here are some ideas that may help you achieve your Resolution so that you become one of the elite 8% of people who will be celebrating success later in the year.  Some of your language goals may be: Complete a certificate; Practice your French/Russian more; Travelling; Speak to your grandparents in Greek/Italian..  All of these are great goals and one of the best ways you can achieve this is to Clearly define your goal – Make it a SMART goal (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound). e.g. I want to go to Thailand in June and talk to the locals about daily events; I want to complete my Certificate III (my goal) by the end of the year; I want to start ‘thinking’ in French by March; I want to speak to my family in Greek by Easter.  Just make sure you are setting a REALISTIC goal.
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1. Track your progress. Measure where you are now and where want to be. A principal of psychology is that if you can measure it, you can change it.
2. Be kind to yourself – have some patience. Progress (especially in languages is never linear). You may see rapid progress and then hit a plateau. You want your language to be natural and subconscious mind and this takes time.
3. Publicise your goal (to family or friends). You have a VLLC family that you can share your goal with. I know this takes courage, but it dramatically increases your odds of success to share your goals.
4. Diarise it. Put it on your schedule.  We all choose to spend our time the way we do.  Make your language goal a priority and schedule lessons and practise time onto your calendar.
5. Start again, when you slip up… As Vince Lomardi said – “It isn’t whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get back up” Don’t turn a bad day or temporary failure into an excuse for giving up…
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I love hearing students’ goals – and am always happy to give you some personal strategies to help you achieve them.  Use the momentum of the New Year to become bi or multi lingual.  It will change your life!!!
Jo
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Learning another language can slow signs of Alzheimer’s by an extra five years. 

8/1/2020

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LEARNING a second language helps stave off dementia by an extra five years, medics claim. And the sooner you pick up foreign speech, the greater the protective effect. 

Experts found being bilingual helps build brain power. These greater “cognitive reserves” mean a person is able to keep dementia at bay for longer. Italian scientists carried out brain scans on 85 patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Half the participants spoke two languages, while the rest only spoke one.

​Scientists found bilingual patients were on average five years older at the same stage of the disease. And scans revealed they had stronger connectivity in the decision making part of their brain. Experts believe this slows the damage caused by disease.
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The team from Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Italy also found the longer a person was bilingual, the stronger the protective effect.

Lead researcher Professor Daniela Perani said: “Overall, these findings strongly suggest that bilingual individuals with Alzheimer’s disease compensate better for the loss of brain structure and function.
“It suggests the earlier you learn another language and the more you use it, the greater the protective effect.”

The research is published in the journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Dementia affects around 850,000 Brits, with Alzheimer’s responsible for the majority of cases.
And the number is forecast to hit one million in under a decade and two million by 2051.
There is no effective treatment, with current medications only helping to slow down the symptoms.

Dr Clare Walton, Research Manager at Alzheimer’s Society, said the study reveals how speaking an extra language protects the brain.
She said: “This elegant study provides new evidence that people who are fluent in more than one language have some protection against dementia.
“Brain scans showed that lifelong bilinguals have stronger connections between certain brain areas compared to those who only speak one language – this appears to allow their brains to cope better with damage before they start to show outward signs of dementia.”

​And Dr David Reynolds, Chief Scientific Officer at Alzheimer’s Research UK, said bilingual adults have more “resilient” brains.
He said: “There is increasing evidence that being bilingual throughout life could increase our cognitive reserve.
“This study shows there are differences in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s who are fully bilingual that could explain why they are resilient to damage.
“The findings lend weight to the theory that keeping the brain active may provide a form of cognitive reserve, helping to delay the onset of symptoms as diseases like Alzheimer’s develop.”
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    These blogs are about learning a foreign language and how utilising that skill can help to keep your mind active and assist with your cognitive function.

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