French? You Can Learn It!

Chatting in a French café makes for a good day even in the rain. Chatting in a French café in French is worth even more—knowing the language, just some or being bilingual, deepens how you experience the life and culture.

Benefits of Being Bilingual

A brain lifting weights to signify the brain power of being bilingual (Image courtesy of Thinkstock)

Flex your brain with a second language and build bilingual brain power

Connecting across cultures is one benefit of being bilingual, but there are many more.

Across the last decade, numerous research studies, beginning with those from York University and Northwestern University, have shown that people who speak more than one language have an increased ability to concentrate, to multi-task, and to set priorities. They may also be building strong defenses against dementia.

So . . . if you’re someone who would love to build bilingual brain power, get started—it may be easier than you think!

The Power of Cognates

Take French, for example, which has many words in common with English. Such words are called cognates, and you can use them to learn a second language.

Try it! Here’s a paragraph from France-Amérique about Julia Child (1912–2004) who had many careers but found her love of cooking in Rouen, France. As you read about Julia Child, see how many French words look familiar to you:

Julia Child a eu plusieurs vies : rédactrice, volontaire pour la croix-rouge, agent secret… Mariée à Paul Child, un représentant des affaires étrangères américaines, elle part pour Paris à l’âge de 37 ans. Pour la petite histoire, c’est au cours d’une promenade à Rouen qu’elle a sa révélation culinaire, en goûtant une sole meunière accompagnée de vin. Ce repas sera comme « une ouverture de son âme et de son esprit » pour elle.

Does this list of cognates help?

volontaire / volunteer

agent secret / secret agent

mariée / married

représentant / representative

affaires étrangères américaines / American foreign (stranger) affairs

âge / age

histoire / history, story

au cours d’une promenade / in the course of a promenade

révélation / revelation

sole meunière accompagnée de vin / sole meunière accompanied by wine

esprit / spirit

Oh I know, there are still gaps to fill in, but in an “Oh, I see” moment, did you realize that you already know about 25% of the French in this article? That’s a pretty good start! Maybe it’s time for a ticket to Paris.

Comment on this post below.

Brain image courtesy of Thinkstock

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<\/iframe><\/p>\n<h5 style=\"text-align: center;\">“Rainy Day in Paris” \u00a9 Sheron Long<\/h5>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>If video does not display, watch it\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/vimeo.com\/48403034\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #888888;\">French? You Can Learn It!<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Chatting in a French caf\u00e9 makes for a good day even in the rain. Chatting in a French caf\u00e9 in French is worth even more\u2014knowing the language, just some or being bilingual, deepens how you experience the life and culture.<\/p>\n<h4>Benefits of Being Bilingual<\/h4>\n<div id=\"attachment_3241\" style=\"width: 240px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3241\" class=\"wp-image-3241\" src=\"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/120705488sized.jpg\" alt=\"A brain lifting weights to signify the brain power of being bilingual (Image courtesy of Thinkstock)\" width=\"230\" height=\"195\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/120705488sized.jpg 250w, https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/120705488sized-207x175.jpg 207w, https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/120705488sized-90x76.jpg 90w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 230px) 100vw, 230px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-3241\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Flex your brain with a second language and build bilingual brain power<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Connecting across cultures is one benefit of being bilingual, but there are many more.<\/p>\n<p>Across the last decade, numerous research studies, beginning with those from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC3322418\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">York University<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/news.northwestern.edu\/stories\/2012\/04\/kraus-bilingualism-music\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Northwestern University,<\/a> \u00a0have\u00a0shown that people who speak more than one language have an increased ability to concentrate, to multi-task, and to set priorities. They may also be building strong defenses against dementia.<\/p>\n<p>So . . . if you\u2019re someone who would love to build bilingual brain power, get started\u2014it may be easier than you think!<\/p>\n<h4>The Power of Cognates<\/h4>\n<p>Take French, for example, which has many words in common with English. Such words are called\u00a0<strong>cognates<\/strong>, and you can use them to learn a second language.<\/p>\n<p>Try it! Here\u2019s a paragraph from France-Am\u00e9rique about Julia Child (1912\u20132004) who had many careers but found her love of cooking in Rouen, France. As you read about Julia Child, see how many French words look familiar to you:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Julia Child a eu plusieurs vies : r\u00e9dactrice, volontaire pour la croix-rouge, agent secret\u2026 Mari\u00e9e \u00e0 Paul Child, un repr\u00e9sentant des affaires \u00e9trang\u00e8res am\u00e9ricaines, elle part pour Paris \u00e0 l\u2019\u00e2ge de 37 ans. Pour la petite histoire, c\u2019est au cours d\u2019une promenade \u00e0 Rouen qu\u2019elle a sa\u00a0r\u00e9v\u00e9lation culinaire, en\u00a0go\u00fbtant une sole meuni\u00e8re accompagn\u00e9e de vin. Ce repas sera comme \u00ab\u00a0une ouverture de son \u00e2me et de son esprit\u00a0\u00bb pour elle.<\/p>\n<p>Does this list of cognates help?<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">volontaire \/ volunteer<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">agent secret \/ secret agent<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">mari\u00e9e \/ married<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">repr\u00e9sentant \/ representative<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">affaires \u00e9trang\u00e8res am\u00e9ricaines \/ American foreign (stranger) affairs<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\u00e2ge \/ age<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">histoire \/ history, story<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">au cours d\u2019une promenade \/ in the course of a promenade<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">r\u00e9v\u00e9lation \/ revelation<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">sole meuni\u00e8re accompagn\u00e9e de vin \/ sole meuni\u00e8re accompanied by wine<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">esprit\u00a0\/ spirit<\/p>\n<p>Oh I know, there are still gaps to fill in, but in an <strong>“Oh, I see” moment<\/strong>, did you realize that you already know about 25% of the French in this article? That\u2019s a pretty good start! Maybe it’s time for a ticket to Paris.<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"#comment\">Comment<\/a>\u00a0on this post below.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<h5><em>Brain image courtesy of Thinkstock<\/em><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":null,"protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3241,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[189,98,200,102],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bilingual-language","category-crossing-culture","category-france-mappoints","category-culture-language"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40881,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296\/revisions\/40881"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}